Telehealth platform Teladoc Health is expanding its collaboration with Microsoft to integrate the tech giant's AI solutions into its platform, allowing providers to automate clinical documentation creation during virtual exams. 

The virtual care company will integrate Microsoft Azure OpenAI Service, Azure Cognitive Services, and conversational and ambient clinical documentation solution Nuance Dragon Ambient eXperience (DAX) into Teladoc Health Solo. Solo is an enterprise platform that can be integrated with existing IT systems to offer virtual care. 

Teladoc Health Medical Group will also use Nuance DAX Express for its Teladoc Health care visits. DAX Express is an AI-enabled clinical documentation application that will combine Nuance's capabilities with OpenAI's GPT4 in the Azure OpenAI Service, allowing for coordinated care by transferring documentation to other clinicians. 

The virtual care company's stock rose amidst the news of the extended partnership. 

"Administrative burden and staff shortages are major reasons why clinicians are leaving the profession," Dr. Vidya Raman-Tangella, chief medical officer at Teladoc Health, said in a statement. "We are focused on using AI to reassert and build the doctor-patient relationship at a time when technology frequently does the opposite. We are proud to partner with Microsoft and Nuance to break new ground."

THE LARGER TREND

In 2021, Teladoc and Microsoft announced their partnership to streamline telehealth technology and administrative processes by offering Solo in the Microsoft Teams environment for health systems and hospitals. 

The same year, Microsoft acquired conversational AI and ambient clinical intelligence platform Nuance in an all-cash transaction totaling $19.7 billion. 

In March, Microsoft's Nuance Communications announced its clinical documentation tool, Dragon Ambient eXperience Express, which used the latest version of OpenAI's artificial intelligence language model, GPT-4, launched earlier this year. Nuance's tool builds off the company's DAX documentation product, launched in 2020. 

Last week, a federal judge dismissed a securities class-action lawsuit filed in 2022 against Teladoc Health by shareholder Jeremy Schneider on behalf of parties that purchased Teladoc shares between Feb. 2021 and July 2022. 

The suit pertained to the virtual care company's $18.5 billion merger with chronic care platform Livongo, alleging its representatives misled investors by downplaying the challenges it faced integrating Livongo. It also claimed the company made misleading statements and "artificially inflated the price of Teladoc's stock" during those 17 months.