Ohio State partners with Microsoft on five-year hospital AI and cloud overhaul

Ohio State’s Wexner Medical Center is tying its next phase of AI adoption to a larger rebuild of its technology systems. A five-year partnership with Microsoft, announced November 10, 2026, combines cloud migration, connected hospital data and AI tools intended to reduce paperwork while leaving clinical decisions and oversight with care teams.

The cloud move includes a backup for patient records

The largest infrastructure target is moving approximately 70% to 80% of Ohio State’s storage and computing capacity to Microsoft Azure. That ambition includes digital pathology and imaging workloads. It is a migration goal, not a completed transfer, and the partners describe it as a way to simplify systems and strengthen their reliability.

The medical center is also moving its electronic health record to Azure as a backup for business continuity. That part of the work addresses a basic requirement of hospital operations: keeping critical information available when the main technology system is interrupted.

Speaking to The Lantern, Chief Health Informatics Officer Ravi Tripathi described the intended result as a quick switch to Microsoft’s backup during downtime, without clinicians noticing the transition. That is the operational aim of the backup work, rather than a measured result of the new agreement.

A separate data project uses Microsoft Fabric and OneLake to connect clinical, operational and research information across the medical center, colleges and regional campuses. Its high-level design is complete. The proposed uses include forecasting surgical demand, staffing needs and operating-room use so teams can better match capacity with patient needs.

Drafting notes now, exploring cancer-care coordination next

For clinicians, one application is already in use. Dragon Copilot drafts clinical notes from patient visits, using what Microsoft calls its ambient capabilities. Clinicians review and finalize those drafts. The partners say the tool is intended to reduce administrative work and give care teams more time to listen to patients.

More complex clinical work remains exploratory. The organizations are considering AI-supported tumor boards—the multidisciplinary teams that discuss cancer cases. The proposed workflow would bring pathology, imaging, genomic information and clinical history into a coordinated view, helping specialists in different locations discuss cases and move toward care plans.

Research access is another proposed use of the Azure infrastructure. The partners describe a secure environment that could give investigators controlled access to appropriate data with identifying details removed. That access would sit alongside the wider effort to connect institutional information, with privacy protection specified as a requirement.

However, AI is not the care provider

Dianne Kennedy, general manager of customer success at Microsoft Health and Life Sciences, speaking to The Lantern

The hospital buildings are part of the work

The partnership also reaches beyond software used at the bedside. Its smart-hospital model connects facility, operational and clinical-support systems using Azure and connected-device technology. The platform is already operating at Richard M. Ross Heart Hospital and the James Outpatient Care facility, where the partners say initial work is improving energy efficiency and resource use.

Ohio State plans to extend those capabilities to more facilities. The work will also inform how its new University Hospital operates, creating a common technology foundation that the health system can reuse rather than treating each building as a separate project.

Training is part of the same agreement. Microsoft and Ohio State will broaden AI learning resources and certification opportunities for caregivers, researchers, faculty, staff and students. Ohio State is becoming a Microsoft Training Services Provider, which will also give it opportunities to offer Microsoft training and certifications to community members.

Wexner CEO John J. Warner said Ohio State hopes the collaboration can eventually help smaller and rural communities that lack access to the same technology. He framed that as an opportunity to develop solutions together, not as an announced rollout to those communities.