Cloud computing : A promising platform for healthcare industry !

Healthcare industry is learning about unlocking the benefits of cloud computing without compromising on security. Healthcare is moving to a digital platform and focusing more on patients. While using cloud computing, healthcare consumers must have a clear understanding of unique benefits and risks associated with cloud computing, and set genuine expectations with their cloud provider.

Challenges in using cloud computing in healthcare Industry –

Security, privacy, reliability, integration and data portability are some of the significant challenges faced by healthcare industry while using cloud technology.

Privacy :

Data maintained in a cloud contains personal, private and confidential information such as healthcare related information that requires the proper safeguards to prevent disclosure and misuse.

Use Modern Tools :

The easiest way to bridge the gap between existing integration and the new cloud based interfaces is to use tools that are specifically designed to do that. But many organizations are not open for the change and tend to reuse technology from past.

Security :

In healthcare industry cloud computing security concerns are real, especially considering the entire complex data held by healthcare organizations. That’s why it’s important to choose vendors intelligently and perform a detailed examination of service providers’ Security practices.

Internet connection :

The basic requirement of cloud based healthcare offering is reliable wireless internet connection. Many countries still face the poor internet connection.

How cloud computing with mobility and analytic will change the healthcare industry –

1. Helping ensure seamless personalized care anywhere in the world through secure data sharing.
2. Transforming access to health services in emerging market without lot of investment in hospitals and clinics.
3. Creating the agility for providers and insurers to collaborate at low cost and high speed, meet changing guidelines and deliver improved patient services.

Benefits of cloud computing in Healthcare Industry –

1. Clinical research :

Currently, pharmaceutical firms do not have the capacity to run large datasets as the size of the data can overwhelm their computers. Commercial Cloud Vendors have established pharma-specific clinical research cloud offerings with the goal of lowering the cost and development of new drugs.

2. Electronic medical report :

Hospital and physicians have started looking at cloud based medical records as they want to offload a burden from their IT department.

3. Tele-medicine:

With the increase in availability of mobile technologies and intelligent medical devices, telemedicine has grown to include not only consultation on telephones but also health record exchange, video-conferencing, and home monitoring.

4. Big data :

Healthcare and pharma organizations are adapting cloud computing to save on the cost of storing hardware locally. The cloud holds big data for radiology images for clinical drug trials. They include clinical data, prescription data of patients, laboratory data, data from pharmacy and insurance departments.

5. Availability of healthcare services at remote location :

Healthcare providers can deploy mobile devices that could be linked to the cloud platform, and monitor patients in remote locations, thereby reducing costs incurred by patient visits.

Cloud computing is in the early adoption state in the healthcare industry, but technologies are available and ready to be deployed. The need to minimize the costs in the healthcare industry ecosystem is a key factor for the adoption of cloud computing.