by deepak sharma
Published Tue, Jul 25th 2017, 12:27 | Technology
Technologies in healthcare are constantly evolving. Cloud Computing is a new Information technology concept, but it’s relevant in health care – because it utilizes economies of scale to provide massive computing power and storage to users who sign up for the service. In 2014, 83% of IT healthcare organizations were using cloud computing, according to 2014 HIMSS Analytics Cloud Survey. The number is growing each year, and, statistics suggest that as much as 67% of organizations use SaaS based applications.
Here are five ways cloud is transforming health care.
Easy access – Anyone can access and edit the code or format – instead of closed formats – only qualified experts can access and edit the code or format -, which makes adopting a cloud system as a replacement for a localized one easy and cheap. This is mainly because most cloud services can support multiple formats, which means you likely won’t have to convert documents, images, files or folders.
Data analytics - The exploitation of data by applying analytical methods such as statistics, predictive and quantitative models will provide better insights and achieve better outcomes. As far back as 2010, there is evidence of this: “93 percent of healthcare providers identified information explosion as the biggest factor anticipated to influence their organizations to a large extent over the next 5 years.”
Privacy – The level of security the cloud offers is much higher than what you see in a local IT department. Security in a hospital’s server room may be as simple as keeping the door locked, usually with a lock that can be picked or hacked with relative ease. Data on many cloud servers is an encrypted blob of bits that most cloud providers don’t have access to.
Innovation – Cloud based services providers can improve their services rapidly, cheaply and with minimal interruption to service. The upside to this is that it frees up local IT staff for value-added tasks.
Mobility – By storing all computing power and data and in the cloud, health-care providers can provide staff access to that information anywhere, anytime – and that’s a boon for mobile applications.
Collaboration among peers - Technology can provide medical assistance to doctors in the field, be it in remote areas or in emergency relief operations through satellite communications