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Dragon Copilot, Stryker SmartHospital, and Google Partnership Powwow
March 19, 2026
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Together with
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“We do not let pilots fly without instrument support simply because they technically could. Why should medicine be different?”
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American College of Cardiology CIO Ami Bhatt on making clinical AI mandatory.
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Microsoft might have had the biggest presence at the biggest health IT conference, and it made sure all the lights in Las Vegas were on Dragon Copilot.
Unify. Simplify. Scale. Microsoft’s theme at HIMSS was all about making Dragon Copilot a one-stop-shop for information within clinical workflows. It debuted several new capabilities at the show:
- Integrated medical content from trusted sources
- Partner-powered AI apps and agents
- Proactive ICD‑10 specificity suggestions
- Expanded role-based experiences for physicians, nurses, and radiologists
Partnering is quicker than building. Rather than developing every Dragon Copilot capability in-house, Microsoft has been leaning on outside partners to round out the platform.
- Dragon Copilot’s clinical evidence feature is a prime example. It brings medical content and other relevant contextual information in-workflow, all curated through new partnerships with Wolters Kluwer, Elsevier, and other vetted sources.
Microsoft Marketplace fills the gaps. It allows users to add AI partner apps directly into their Dragon Copilot workflows. Picture a modular side panel with insights from folks like:
- Regard – surfaces comorbidities and relevant diagnoses
- Canary Speech – analyzes voice biomarkers for mental health conditions
- Humata Health – automates prior authorization processes for clinicians
- Atropos – generates personalized real-world evidence
- Optum – identifies potential coverage issues and supports claims processing
All roads lead to scribes. When Microsoft first acquired Nuance for $20M back in 2022, it was its second largest acquisition ever behind LinkedIn, and the core offerings were radiology report automation, dictation, and transcription (with humans still pulling a ton of weight).
- The product formerly known as Dragon Ambient eXperience is now the backbone of Dragon Copilot, and it’s been adding features at a breakneck pace.
- Microsoft is looking to make Dragon Copilot everything, everywhere, all at once, and so far new partnerships have been the key to making that happen.
The Takeaway
As every digital health company rushes to add scribing to their platform, the OG scribe is rushing to add everything else. Now it just needs to maintain a unified user eXperience.
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State of Payer Enrollment and Credentialing
Over half of provider orgs are losing revenue due to credentialing delays – with many missing out on over $1M annually. Medallion’s new report unpacks the forces quietly undermining operational and financial performance, and how leaders across the industry are addressing them. Check out the full report to get insights tailored to your role and org type.
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The Virtual-First Difference at MetroHealth
When the MetroHealth System needed a scalable solution to help its patients access care, it turned to Ovatient’s virtual-first care platform. Ovatient allows its partners to offer fully coordinated telehealth - including urgent care, primary care, and integrated behavioral health – all built on Epic. Discover how MetroHealth’s virtual-first approach is keeping its patients connected to high-quality care whether they’re at home, at work, or on the go.
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- Stryker Unveils SmartHospital: Stryker made waves with the unveiling of its new SmartHospital Platform through a newly formed business unit called Smart Care. The platform is positioned as a complete operating system for smart hospitals, serving as the connective tissue between all of the hardware, software, and staff. It combines ambient sensors, the Engage alarm-filtering engine, Sync Badge devices, and virtual nursing workflows – the culmination of its recent M&A streak that included AI virtual care company Care.ai and communication platform Vocera.
- Google Partnership Powwow: Google Cloud kicked off a string of partnerships with CVS Health, Highmark Health, Humana, Quest Diagnostics, and Waystar. The collaborations embed Gemini-powered agentic AI across a wide range of operations, with Waystar announcing that it’s already helped prevent 15B denials and CVS launching an entirely new Health100 subsidiary built from the ground up on the foundation. Health100 is CVS’ latest effort to prove that it can succeed in the health tech arena, which we’ll find out when it rolls out its AI-native consumer engagement platform to deliver proactive experiences across any pharmacy, provider, or health plan that patients are already using.
- Modifying LLMs for Mental Health: A study in Nature Medicine was making the rounds on socials after showing that Limbic’s “cognitive layer architecture” can improve off-the-shelf foundation models for mental health use cases. Researchers randomized 227 participants to have “therapy-like” conversations with text agents that were powered behind-the-scenes by either human therapists, standalone foundation models, or foundation models with Limbic on top. A panel of clinicians grading the chats found that the LLMs using Limbic’s cognitive layer significantly outperformed both the human clinicians and the standalone LLMs, although it’s worth noting that real patients aren’t told that they’re evaluating therapy agents and should talk about made up scenarios.
- Summit Teams Up With Navina: Multi-specialty and primary care provider Summit Health is rolling out Navina’s AI-powered clinical intelligence platform to equip its physicians with a complete clinical picture of their patients at the point of care. Navina’s AI engine draws on data across EHRs, clinical notes, labs, claims, and external records to deliver the evidence-based recommendations needed to succeed in value-based care. Expect to see more partnerships like this one given the 2027 Medicare Advantage Advance Notice’s shift toward encounter-linked, clinically-substantiated documentation.
- Surescripts Highlights Interoperability: Surescripts released its always-excellent Annual Impact Report to unpack the latest trends in e-prescribing and prescription benefits. Key takeaways from this year’s report were that interoperability looks like it finally reached a tipping point, with the Surescripts network clocking 30.5B health data transactions in 2025 – up 12.3% YoY – as well as nearly a billion real-time prescription benefit responses across 973K prescribers. That’s in line with HHS’ recent announcement that 500M records have now been exchanged throughTEFCA.
- Verily + Samsung: Verily is bringing Samsung’s Galaxy Watch 8 onto its Pre precision health platform to provide an integrated solution for generating evidence and monitoring real-world populations. The joint offering is geared toward accelerating research for life sciences and government agencies by combining advanced health analytics with consumer-grade wearable data. Samsung’s been leading in on similar partnerships since it acquired Xealth last June.
- Talkdesk CXA Enhancements: Talkdesk debuted a Complex Scheduling tool to help patients access specialty appointments. The specialized capability within Talkdesk’s CXA platform uses agentic AI to reduce delays and optimize physician capacity in contact centers and clinics. Rather than automating isolated tasks, Complex Scheduling orchestrates workflows across AI agents, human staff, and backend systems to streamline end-to-end processes from inquiry to completed care.
- Cognosis Encounter Sensing: Cognosos upgraded its RTLS portfolio with encounter-sensing tags designed to improve compliance and automate data capture during patient interactions. The disposable patient wristbands generate time-stamped data that feeds directly into the EHR without the need for fixed infrastructure. They can also be used for core real-time location services like monitoring engagement between patients and their beds or hospital staff and medication units.
- Docs Adopt AI, Despite Qualms: A new Doximity survey shows AI making inroads with U.S. physicians. Of the 3.2k physicians surveyed, 54% reported they were currently using AI in their practice, and 37% on a daily basis. They’re also being cautious, with 71% citing concerns about the technology’s accuracy, although only 5% said they aren’t interested in AI at all. Among the 15 specialties in the poll, neurologists had the highest AI adoption rate (64%), followed by gastroenterologists (61%) and internists (60%).
- VSee Robot Heads to Hospitals: VSee introduced “the world’s first autonomous telehealth AI robot” that’s purpose-built for hospitals. The VSee Robot might not be as cute as Moxi from Diligent Robotics, but the chassis allows it to leverage LiDAR to navigate hospital hallways independently for use cases like virtual rounding, supply/medication deliveries, or specialist coverage in the ED. The underlying VSee AI Workflow Engine gives health systems instant access to 100+ clinical AI tools that can tap into their existing IT infrastructure.
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Medical Transcription That Gets Terminology Right
AssemblyAI’s clinical speech-to-text model was purpose-trained on medical terminology, pharmaceutical names, and industry acronyms. That means it performs the best where it counts the most. 66% fewer missed medical terms. BAA + SOC 2 Type II. Real clinical environments. See why AssemblyAI is the trusted Voice AI infrastructure for healthcare solutions.
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Abridge Named #1 Best in KLAS – Again
KLAS just named Abridge #1 Best in KLAS for Ambient AI for the second year in a row. The recognition was based on direct customer feedback from the nation’s largest and most complex health systems, which gave Abridge the highest overall satisfaction score and A+ ratings across Culture, Loyalty, Relationship, and Value. Discover why Abridge is the market-leading AI platform for clinical conversations.
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- 8 Keys to Gain an AI Edge in VBC: As value-based care models evolve and competition intensifies, healthcare leaders are seeking practical strategies to improve performance across risk, quality, and financial outcomes. Head over to Navina’s roundup of eight key insights from VBC leaders to learn how aligning AI-powered tools with organizational priorities and clinician needs can help secure a measurable competitive edge in value-based care.
- BPM Pro 2 Delivers Data When It’s Needed Most: BPM Pro 2’s built-in questionnaires capture patient context alongside each blood pressure reading, reducing manual outreach and follow-ups. See how BPM Pro 2 is equipping care teams with actionable information upfront, and helping streamline workflows and prioritize interventions where it’s needed most.
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