CHICAGO – Microsoft and the Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society (HIMSS) have partnered to launch a Microsoft Health Users Group (MS-HUG) in the Asia-Pacific region, providing regional healthcare organizations and technology partners with access to an online forum to facilitate the development of healthcare solutions.

Officials say the MS-HUG forum is a venue for users and developers of healthcare technology solutions to collaborate and contribute to aspects of solutions built on Microsoft software platforms. It allows the healthcare technology community to discover new uses for existing technology, provide development support, network with peers and discuss needs and desires arising from the use of healthcare IT.

"MS-HUG enables us to further promote our mission to lead change in the healthcare information and management systems field through knowledge sharing, advocacy, collaboration, innovation and community affiliation. Our goal is to drive better patient care, and this is another step in that direction," said Steven Yeo, vice president and executive director for HIMSS Asia Pacific.

The forum is accessible to healthcare organizations and technology partners in North America, Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). It lists more than 5,000 members and 31 corporate supporters.

"Extending Microsoft HUG to the APAC healthcare community provides an expanded forum for collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and experience across a growing ecosystem of health organizations and technology partners," said Gabe Rijpma, health industry director at Microsoft Asia Pacific. "Collaboration enables the ecosystem to better demonstrate how technology can help solve healthcare challenges in the region and improve health costs, quality, and access for citizens."

The forum is designed to allow technology partners to gain insight into healthcare specific requirements, improve their ability to target technology innovation, help health organizations improve service delivery and achieve a stronger return on technology investments.

"One of our most prominent projects for healthcare globally is the Microsoft Common User Interface (CUI), a set of components that developers can use to create healthcare applications," said Werner van Huffel, an industry technology strategist for healthcare for Microsoft Asia Pacific. "Recently we have released several new components including a terminology component incorporating 'Standardised Nomenclature of Medicine' (SNOMED) services. This project serves as an example of how Microsoft's philosophy of knowledge-driven health can combine with the expertise of our partner, in this case Health Language, to produce positive outcomes."

The Microsoft HUG APAC community will be hosted in the existing Microsoft HUG site.