In the past decade, we have observed a huge shift in the way healthcare handles its data. Traditionally, piles of files and documents were physically stored by every healthcare provider as well as patients. However, now, there’s digitization which helps in storing data in systems digitally. Better still, we have cloud technology which allows us to store data remotely on the cloud. The healthcare organization can extract this data anytime, from anywhere. All you require is a stable internet connection.
The journey from paper-based storage to cloud storage has offered multiple benefits to the healthcare industry. Let’s analyze these benefits.
Learning Of Blog
- How Cloud Computing is Impacting Healthcare?
o Cost-Effectiveness
o Easy Interoperability
o Enhanced Analytics
o Data Ownership
o Telemedicine Advantage
- Barriers in Adoption
- Conclusion
Cloud technology is in every sector and it is definitely making it easier for organizations to store and access data. Let’s see how it is achieved.
How Cloud Computing is Impacting Healthcare?
The use of cloud technology in healthcare is beyond storing and accessing data. The healthcare sector is using cloud technology to improve efficiency, lower costs, and optimize workflows. Here’s how it is achieved:
1. Cost-Effectiveness
The most basic and most useful benefit of cloud technology in healthcare is improved cost-effectiveness.
Think about it, when storing every data on the in-house servers, you need to purchase servers and set up multiple floors to achieve a robust storage unit. You additionally need multiple employees to manage these servers and take care of data when a server goes down. Further, you need additional infrastructure for the security of data to ensure that no information is stolen from the organization under any circumstances.
The outsourcing of this storage ensures that the healthcare provider is free from making all these costs. The provider only needs to pay for the storage and services used.
2. Easy Interoperability
Easy interoperability is necessary for the healthcare department. Why?
Imagine that a patient has had an emergency situation while traveling to city A. However, the patient is a resident of city B. The patient’s history is necessary, hence, the medical practitioner needs to talk to the existing consultant of the patient to proceed with the right treatment.
How is this possible?
Through interoperability.
The cloud allows the healthcare system to interoperate and share data without thinking about the location. The organization can easily store data collated from a number of resources. This allows access to data even from remote locations in a secure manner.
This feature of the cloud is extremely beneficial for insurance, pharmaceuticals, and payments department of the healthcare sector.
3. Enhanced Analytics
Data analytics is an asset for every organization. Especially healthcare, where data of multiple users are collected on a daily basis. This huge amounts of data collated by the healthcare organization on a daily basis can be put to use for two things:
- The analytics observed from user data can help one healthcare organization to understand its users better.
- These analytics can also allow the healthcare organization to conduct research based on various factors such as gender, age, and health conditions of the patients. This information can be used for medical research.
Both things help the healthcare industry to grow and lead towards successful outcomes. This information also helps in improving patient care because doctors have accurate data.
4. Data Ownership
Data security has always been an issue for patients. This is because when locally or traditionally stored, the chances of data breaches are high. Hence, the patient is always under the constant worry of losing important health data.
With cloud storage, the patient has full ownership of data. Other than that, the data is also secure on the cloud as the vendor consistently improves security structure. Even when a server crashes, a duplicate copy of the data is instantly uploaded to the cloud for ease of use. Hence, there’s reliability in this case.
5. Telemedicine Advantage
As the data pertaining to individual patients move online, it is easier for healthcare providers to offer telemedicine advantage to patients. From pre-hospitalization care to virtual medication, everything can be offered online without any hassle. All this is possible due to remote, reliable access to data stored on the cloud.
Barriers in Adoption
There are multiple barriers to the adoption of this technology:
- Security, which can be ensured when the right, reliable provider is selected.
- Compliance, which can be ensured by checking the security and compliance structure of the vendor beforehand.
- System downtimes, which can be mitigated by selecting a vendor that offers the required bandwidth.
Conclusion
While cloud computing adoption is still in the initial phases in the healthcare industry, the benefits are worth trying. With this adoption, healthcare providers can improve efficiency, productivity, and revenue.
If you also wish to improve the cloud structure, read the above details, and implement cloud technology accordingly.
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