Microsoft and digital health: AI, IoT and cloud computing point the way to personalized care

Think tech and health and you might think of Apple's work on chronic disease, Amazon's plans to create a Prime for healthcare, or even Google-affiliated Calico Labs' attempts to defeat death itself. But Microsoft? Microsoft might not be front of mind. But while the other tech giants have been grabbing the headlines around digital health, Microsoft hasn't been neglecting the sector: in fact, health is now a multi-billion-dollar business for Redmond. And there are signs that there is plenty more to come. Let's start with the hardware. Like many of its competitors, Microsoft used to have its own fitness tracker and accompanying health service. Launched in 2014, the Band came with the usual functionality: activity tracking, heart rate monitoring, GPS sport watch. It debuted alongside Microsoft Health, a cloud-based service that acted as a locker for all your health data, be it gathered by Microsoft tech or that of other companies. A second-generation Band was released in 2015, and its health apps took the same name a year later. Microsoft went as far as creating a third Band, but the line was canned before that hit the shelves.