Medical enterprises and healthtech companies provide their customers with “phygital” care. It is a combination of physical help and digital assistance. For instance, a patient leaves feedback after an appointment or schedules a new visit with the help of a smartphone. Such hybrid customer journeys are becoming the norm, according to Gartner. Therefore, IT development in healthcare is in demand.
The outbreak of the coronavirus forced medical enterprises to adapt to new realities. The consequences lie in the total digitalization of medical data. Technical solutions for healthcare providers have to scale fast, be accessible from any location, and be easy to operate. Cloud technologies cope with those requirements and offer other benefits for healthtech companies.
In this post, healthtech businesses find out how cloud computing improves medical providers’ technological base and why it is worth investing in.
The future is in distributed cloud computing
As mentioned in the Gartner survey, 92% of respondents are planning to implement distributed cloud technologies by 2025. Those are technologies that allow users to run their cloud infrastructure in multiple locations. Those can be cloud data centers from several providers and on-premises data storages. It is especially relevant for medical institutions, as patients often move from one medical center to another. Therefore, with distributed cloud computing, it is easy for doctors to find related health histories, lab results, and other medical documentation.
Information regarding patient health is usually stored in electronic health record systems (EHRs). They allow medical experts to manage patient data, conduct research, or apply the information to predictive modeling. Healthtech companies develop cross-platform EHR software and decide on the .net framework to .net core migration. IT professionals from the Belitsoft software development company point out the following .net core features:
- It enables end users, i.e., medical experts and organizations, to customize the solution to their unique workflows.
- It is available on various platforms (Windows, macOS), which increases the range of customers.
- Migration to the cloud always includes security measures, so the solution appears to comply with safety regulations.
Such healthcare tendencies as the development of the Internet of Things (IoT), telemedicine, and artificial intelligence (AI) drive the application of distributed clouds further. The reason is the necessity of processing huge datasets in real time. According to McKinsey, cloud software can generate a value of $100 billion to $170 billion in 2030 for healthcare companies. Below are the domains where cloud environments serve the best.
Telemedicine
Remote medicine includes online appointments and medical staff collaborations. In other words, those are doctor-to-patient and doctor-to-doctor interactions. Telemedicine can be synchronous or asynchronous. The first is a two-way connection between a patient and a physician or two colleagues. It is used for consultations and diagnoses. The second type of telemedicine is forwarding medical data, images, or videos to a doctor, who will later review them and suggest an appointment. Asynchronous telemedicine is also called “store-and-forward.” It is used mostly in aftercare.
Online medical assistance has several benefits for medical institutions:
- It allows doctors to handle more patients, increasing productivity.
- It is safer for patients at times of peak seasonal infections.
- It uses HIPAA-compliant cloud services.
- It has the potential to save costs. Medical providers purchase cloud resources for telemedicine on demand, so there is no need for permanent hardware maintenance.
Drug discovery
Drug discovery lasts between 12 and 15 years and costs more than $1 billion. Scientists test chemicals, their interactions, and features. Clinical trials also require significant time. However, with modern computing powers, scientists can accelerate the discovery and reduce the number of tests.
Cloud-based laboratory information management systems (LIMSs) offer the following benefits for drug discovery processes:
- Computer modeling of certain steps of drug experiments, such as protein binding and solubility.
- Compatibility of computational processes with physico-chemical analyses.
- Calculation methods based on quantum mechanics.
- Application of AI to confirm expected trends and identify previously unknown interactions between drugs.
Health information systems (HIS)
Medical providers use cloud storage to save and secure patient data, financial and billing information. Anyone in healthcare, from patients to physicians or medical officials, can access the information in HISs. However, the needs of the stakeholders are different, which is why users get different access rights depending on the type of information. It aids in cloud security. The components of the HISs are the following:
- Electronic medical records (EMR) and electronic health records (EHR). Those are very similar systems that contain patient medical data. EMRs are usually available inside one medical provider, while the data from EHRs can be shared between centers and clinics. The information can be stored in the cloud or partially on-premises.
- Practice management software. These cloud-based programs help administrative staff with billing and scheduling.
- Patient portals and front-door solutions. With the help of those apps, patients find information about their appointments, lab results, and medication. They send requests to refill prescriptions or share videos or images with physicians. Cloud storage allows access to information from any location.
Trusted partnerships
Cloud-based solutions provide healthcare companies with multiple advantages. However, migration to the cloud is a long and challenging process. Therefore, it is vital to choose a reliable partner with relevant expertise. Many medical enterprises have already formed long-lasting partnerships with technological giants like Apple, Google, Microsoft, and Amazon. For example, the Mayo Clinic has chosen Google as a 10-year-old strategic partner in healthcare innovation and cloud computing. The Google Cloud will serve as a cornerstone of the transformation. The clinic officials hope that the partnership will aid in solving complex medical problems and understanding “the needs of the people they serve.”
Final thoughts: cloud security
Cloud security is the main concern of medical companies. According to McKinsey, “Almost all breaches in the cloud stem from misconfiguration rather than from attacks that compromise the underlying cloud infrastructure.” This means that the reasons behind cyber threats lie in the neglect of standard cloud security practices. The solution might be to address the right cloud service provider. Those companies provide a full cycle of cloud migration with integrated security measures, staff training, and required optimization in the long run. Competent IT experts not only ensure a delicate migration to the cloud but also develop a cloud security roadmap for the employees to follow. It will guarantee safe data storage and usage for the stakeholders.