InnovateEOE
InnovateEOE
You read about the latest developments in artificial intelligence, meanwhile back to reality, our old IT systems require you to perform repetitive and time-consuming tasks. You wonder whether it is possible to automate these mundane IT processes? Well, Microsoft Power Automate may be your answer.
In this article, I explore Microsoft Power Automate and finish with a simple walkthrough that you can follow in less than 5 minutes.
Power Automate is a cloud-based service/platform provided by Microsoft that allows you to automate repetitive and time-consuming tasks, and streamline IT processes WITHOUT the need for coding or complex programming.
- Automate repetitive tasks: automate tasks that you conduct on a regular basis, such as sending out email reminders, updating spreadsheets, or creating new documents.
- Connect apps and external services: connect your favourite apps and services, such as Microsoft Office 365, SharePoint, and Google Drive. This means that you can automate tasks that span multiple applications, without having to switch between them or transfer data manually.
- Create custom solutions and integrations: possible with services such as Microsoft Azure Cognitive Services.
- Workflow Automation: Power Automate enables healthcare professionals to automate routine tasks, such as sending appointment reminders to patients, composing patient letters from medical records, or generating administrative/accounting reports, especially useful in GP settings. By creating workflows, healthcare professionals can define a series of steps that are executed automatically, saving time and reducing the chances of human error.
- Integration with various applications: Power Automate integrates with a wide range of applications and services commonly used in the healthcare industry. For example, it can connect with electronic health record (EHR) systems, patient management software, email services, and messaging platforms. This integration allows healthcare professionals to automate data transfer and collaboration across different systems.
- Data Processing and Analysis: Combined with other Microsoft services, such as Power BI or Excel, Power Automate can analyse and visualise data. Healthcare professionals can create automated workflows that collect and process patient data, generate analytical reports, and gain insights into trends or patterns. This capability can aid in decision-making and potentially improve patient care.
What to know more? Read how a US healthcare company utilised Microsoft Power Automate to automatically import 20 million medical records each year from a wide variety of providers and process them into a coherent medical history for each patient that can be used for both care history and billing purposes – you can read about it here.
Alternatively, you can always build your own custom solutions with Power Automate. The sky is the limit!
What do I need to use Power Automate?
All you need is a up-to-date web browser and an email address, preferably a Trust email. Most NHS trusts already possess a subscription plan – so you can use Power Automate for FREE.
What programming skills do I need to use Power Automate?
None, Power Automate is a no-code solution that uses a drag and drop interface. There are strong Power Automate community with thousands of templates available. Probably understanding the concept of “Workflows” and “Connectors” are helpful. These are easy to grasp with the walkthroughs available.
What are Power Automate Workflows?
Power Automate allows you to create what we call “workflows.” A workflow is a series of steps that you define to automate a specific process or task.
Power Automate Workflows are represented as diagrams, which use rectangles and arrows to show triggers and actions
What are Power Automate connectors?
Power Automate connectors are like bridges that allow different apps and services to talk to each other. Connectors act as translators between different applications.
In this walkthrough, we will create a Power Automate workflow to send an automatic email. We will set it up so that whenever we receive a new entry in a particular form, Power Automate will automatically send an email the responder with a pre-written message using data pulled from the form. This way, we don’t have to manually compose and send the email each time!