Ohio State and Microsoft team up on five-year 'smart hospital' plan for Wexner Medical Center
File photo: Modern HealthcareThe Ohio State University and Microsoft announced a five-year partnership on Tuesday to build a "smart hospital" model at the university's Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, pairing the academic medical center's clinical expertise with Microsoft's cloud and artificial intelligence technology.
The partnership will modernize how the medical center runs — connecting building, operational and clinical-support systems so care environments can adapt more quickly, and moving key clinical and research workloads to Microsoft's Azure cloud. The goal, the two organizations said, is to strengthen patient care, speed up scientific discovery and give clinicians more time with patients.
Work is already underway. A smart hospital platform is in use at the Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital and the James Outpatient Care facility, where early efforts are improving energy efficiency and resource use while laying a common technology foundation powered by Azure and Internet of Things capabilities. Ohio State plans to extend those capabilities to more facilities across the health system, and the work will help shape how its new University Hospital operates.
As part of the deal, Ohio State aims to move roughly 70% to 80% of its storage and computing to Azure, including digital pathology and imaging workloads, and to move its electronic health record to Azure as a backup so care teams can keep access to critical systems if something goes wrong. The medical center is also building a unified data foundation using Microsoft Fabric and OneLake to connect clinical, operational and research data — with early uses including forecasting surgical demand, staffing needs and operating room use.
On the clinical side, doctors are already using Dragon Copilot, Microsoft's ambient AI tool, to securely draft notes from patient visits for clinician review. The partners are also exploring AI-supported tumor-board workflows that would bring pathology, imaging, genomics and clinical history into a single coordinated view, helping teams across locations discuss complex cases and reach care plans faster.
"Artificial intelligence represents one of the most significant opportunities to transform and improve how hospitals care for patients," said Dr. John J. Warner, chief executive officer of the Wexner Medical Center and executive vice president at Ohio State. "Through this collaboration, we have an opportunity to help reimagine the future of healthcare."
The partnership also covers training. Microsoft and Ohio State will expand AI learning, Microsoft Learn resources and certification opportunities for caregivers, researchers, faculty, staff and students, and Ohio State will become a Microsoft Training Services Provider, broadening access to Microsoft training and certifications for students, employees and community members.
"Ohio State is demonstrating what it means to modernize healthcare with purpose — connecting cloud, data and AI to empower the people who care for patients and advance discovery," said Hether Danforth, Microsoft's vice president for U.S. state, local and education. "Together we're building a trusted foundation ... that can give clinicians more time with patients, help researchers accelerate discovery, and turn promising ideas into meaningful advances in care."
The Wexner Medical Center is one of the country's leading academic medical centers, with 24,000 physicians, scientists and staff, according to the university.
Sources: Microsoft, "The Ohio State University and Microsoft announce five-year strategic partnership to accelerate innovation across clinical care, education and research" (Nov. 10, 2026); Dow Jones Newswires via Morningstar, "Microsoft, Ohio State University Partner to Develop 'Smart' Hospital Model" (Nov. 10, 2026).
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