Maximizing Patient Care: The Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Cloud computing can help providers deliver more effective care with less bureaucratic busywork.

In our age of digitally-powered healthcare, providers need a reliable and secure way to record their efforts with patients. Details such as diagnoses, treatment history, and personal health information must be documented and recorded for future reference.

Over the years, the method for storing these records has changed significantly. In the 20th century, the only option was paper records, which take up large amounts of physical space, are impractical for sharing with other healthcare providers, and are vulnerable to being destroyed. With the advent of computers, electronic medical records could be saved on-site. However, these still require space for IT servers, come with power requirements, and are still vulnerable to damage if the hospital experiences a fire, flood, or other kind of disaster.

The creation and development of the Internet has brought a new option: cloud-based storage. By purchasing space on remote servers rather than storing data on-site, providers can access medical files over the Internet on their computers with greater flexibility and reliability.

Meets Federal Regulations

Under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, healthcare groups are required by federal law to store information on their patients. The purpose of this law is to improve the quality and efficiency of medical services by making information more readily available and easier to access. Implementing cloud computing makes it easier to meet this requirement without investing heavily into their IT infrastructure.

Cheaper and Safer Data Storage

Hospitals generate roughly 50 petabytes of data per year, or 137 terabytes of data every day. This is a nightmarish amount of data to store on-site, requiring a massive investment in hardware, infrastructure, and power usage. These are things that most hospitals simply cannot afford.

Data safety is another major concern; if the hospital experiences a fire, flood, or other natural disaster, any data stored on-site is vulnerable to destruction. Cloud-based storage, on the other hand, is located off-site and comes with multiple backups in case an accident occurs.

Finally there is the question of cybersecurity. For most hospitals, the in-house IT staff have to protect data, but they also have to deal with device maintenance and technical support. However, cloud providers can focus completely on protecting their client's data from intrusion and remain up to date on the latest regulations and best practices.

Easier Collaboration

In the past, each clinic or hospital a patient visited would keep a separate set of records for them. This made collaborating extremely difficult, as information would have to be faxed, mailed, or verbally shared, and then have any discrepancies corrected by hand.

A cloud-based solution, on the other hand, dodges all of these issues. As a single shared platform that can be accessed by anyone with the proper authorization, EMRs can be easily shared, making it easier to get consultations and second opinions, leading to better results for patients.

Enables Big Data Applications

Cloud-based solutions collect large amounts of data in a single spot, making it easier to process and analyze it all at once. Advanced computer and AI algorithms can search through thousands of EMRs in a second, versus the weeks or months it would take for a human.

This data can be used to examine health factors that affect an entire population, such as the spread of a pandemic or detect if environmental factors like pollution are at play. Providers can also use big data to improve their processes, such as searching for patterns of readmissions. Given how expensive a readmission is, preventing them is a key concern for hospitals.

Supports Interoperability Between Devices

Interoperability in healthcare is the new hot-button topic in the sector. At its most basic, interoperability is the design paradigm that devices shouldn’t just work, but they should be able to work together, sharing data to better manage a patient’s condition.

For example, a patient’s wearable health device can feed information directly to their EMR, reporting on conditions like heart rate while exercising. Providers can then access this information to draw conclusions about their patient’s progress.

However, sharing data requires an efficient and reliable medium to exchange data. Cloud-based computing serves as this medium, creating a shared repository for devices to access as needed.

Easier Scaling

Because cloud storage for healthcare is not committed to physical infrastructure, it is much easier to scale up or down as needed. Most cloud service providers offer a range of storage options and subscriptions, letting healthcare groups get as much data storage as they need. If their operations expand and they need more capacity, they can simply have their cloud-based provider increase their server space.

Final Thoughts

Given all its advantages, it’s no wonder that most groups are switching over to cloud computing in healthcare. Cloud-based solutions can make communication between providers easier, help them find insights into broader social health issues, and protect the data of their patients while they’re at it.