Cloud technology in healthcare attracts vendors for many reasons. It boosts organizational agility, enables interoperability, and cuts expenses. According to Deloitte , one of the leading healthcare providers saved $50 million by migrating its applications to the cloud. It is 20% of the company's total operating budget for annual IT spending.
The growing demand for cloud computing in the healthcare industry propels market growth. With the help of technology companies, providers implement cloud solutions and upgrade their legacy systems. By 2026, the cloud-based healthcare computing segment will reach 76.8 billion with an 18.7% CARG .
Learn how to use cloud computing in healthcare, what for, and why to cooperate with Binariks for custom cloud software development here.
Cloud computing in healthcare: a brief introduction
About 83% of the healthcare sector is currently using the cloud for their core operations.
Cloud computing in the healthcare industry signifies the use of remote cloud servers to store, manage, and handle healthcare records within software solutions. These technologies are the most popular for EHR systems, but software developers also frequently use them for telemedicine software , IoT wearables, clinical decision support systems, data analytics services, healthcare data migration , EHR data migrations , etc.
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How to use cloud computing in healthcare: best practices for CIOs
To feel the benefits of cloud computing in healthcare, providers must go through a multiple-step process. Besides software development and integration, it also requires holistic changes in some business processes. While the implementation can sometimes take months, the comprehensive automation for the full ROI may require three to five years.
McKinsey offers best practices in cloud computing for the healthcare industry model, including three work streams for cloud transformation. They can guide you on how to complete cloud transformation:
- Define the strategy to understand what are your targets and expectations. You need to know what you want to achieve using the cloud for healthcare to map the implementation and bring transparency to the process.
- Execute cloud migration, and set up continuous delivery and optimization.
- Protect cloud security and risk management practices to protect personal patient data.
The listed streams provide instructions for holistic digital transformation. Yet you can implement a pack of updates at a time. Cloud implementation is a gradual process that slowly changes different aspects of a healthcare organization. You will feel the benefits of cloud computing in healthcare as you go.
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6 Reasons to use cloud technology in healthcare
93% of medical groups that plan to replace their EHRs seek cloud-based functionality over server solutions.
The best thing about cloud computing in the healthcare industry is that this technology is advantageous both to healthcare organizations and patients. While providers get business and operational benefits, patients enjoy smoother services through innovative healthcare software.
Given the benefits of cloud computing in healthcare, organizations leverage cloud technology for the following reasons.
1. Cloud makes healthcare software less expensive
Cloud technology enables on-demand computing resources, including computing power and data storage. Healthcare institutions don't have to invest in the hardware and servers necessary to run complex healthcare systems. It saves lots of money you would otherwise spend on equipment. There are also multiple ways of increasing ROI for the EHR system and generating income in the long-term perspective.
Cloud also helps start digital transformation when the budget is limited. The thing is, cloud data storage doesn't require any up-front charges. You pay for what you need to optimize unnecessary capabilities. As a result, your budget planning becomes more flexible, and you get more control over finances. Besides, cloud solutions minimise maintenance costs. There is no need to keep on-premise servers or hire internal tech specialists to configure and monitor them.
These factors ensure significant cost savings for anyone who uses cloud computing in the healthcare industry. It's a good reason to choose solutions that reside in the cloud.
2. It's easier to achieve interoperability
Interoperability in healthcare is about a seamless exchange of structured health information through data integration between systems. It allows for building a single platform for all teams and gives patients better access to their medical records. Interoperability is essential to meet the latest regulations, including ONC and CMS provisions .
How does cloud technology facilitate interoperability? Cloud adoption makes patient data instantly available for distribution and sharing. Information from multiple sources goes to the same place so that all teams can access patients' data and other critical details.
Thanks to this, healthcare providers can instantly give out prescriptions, share treatment protocols, join efforts on complex cases, and more. The collaboration between various stakeholders in the healthcare industry also improves. Hospitals, insurance agencies, pharmaceuticals, and financial services get a single source of data to rely on.
3. Data ownership belongs to patients
Healthcare cloud computing allows managing access to personal health (PHR) and electronic health records (EHR). Patients get convenient means to store, share, and import health data. It translates into the ultimate transparency of the provider's data processing practices and ensures patients' data ownership.
Moreover, patients gain a more active role in decisions related to their health. Since they receive information from medical teams in real-time, they can participate in decision-making.
4. Advanced analytics with cloud technology in healthcare
Big data analytics is the only way to turn disparate data records into valuable insights. Yet, to apply analytics tools, researchers need to collect large volumes of data first. The impact of cloud computing on the healthcare industry covers it. The technology allows for gathering structured and unstructured health data from diverse sources in one place for further processing.
When data is united and easily shareable, it brings several considerable advantages. First, healthcare software can automatically process it to offer more personalized care plans for every patient. Second, it drives medical research. Researchers can estimate the efficiency of different treatment options based on extensive data volumes. Thanks to this, treatment becomes data-driven, and doctors can predict the most likely outcome of the chosen approach.
5. Cloud computing in healthcare enables telemedicine
Cloud for healthcare simplifies the adoption of telemedicine solutions that have increased 38 times since the pre-Covid times. It supports remote accessibility of data, enabling providers and patients to communicate regardless of distance.
As a result, medical care gets more convenient and becomes available even in remote areas. It reduces clinicians' workload as patients with minor issues can receive help remotely. Cloud-based telemedicine also simplifies the provision of preventive and recovery healthcare services. If an individual has a question, they don't need to visit healthcare facilities. A mobile app or web platform is enough to stay in touch with medical staff.
A patient management platform Binariks has developed for a Spanish company is one of multiple telemedicine use cases. It's a web solution incorporating an app for patients and healthcare managers that allows patients to get help remotely while they travel. In this project, we assembled a team of backend and frontend developers, a UI/UX designer, a QA specialist, and a project manager to rewrite the legacy solution of the customer and adapt it to the current user needs.
AWS-based Primary Care Platform
Binariks built and Cloud-based RPM platform
6. Reducing the risk of data loss
Patients, as well as healthcare professionals, place high importance on data security. Organizations may avoid the significant risk associated with non-cloud data storage methods by employing a cloud strategy. By identifying and addressing existing vulnerabilities, cloud computing for healthcare systems may defend against possible threats. Through HIPAA compliance requirements, cloud methods may further guarantee data security. Sangfor's Endpoint Security aims to find weaknesses that might be exploited by possible threats in addition to removing and thwarting malware.
Cloud computing and healthcare enable data democratization and give patients control over their health. It increases patient involvement in health-related choices and serves as a tool for enhanced patient engagement and education.
Medical data may be readily preserved and subsequently accessed when the data is kept in the cloud is another indication of the industry's relevance of cloud computing. Data redundancy is drastically reduced as system uptime increases and data recovery is simpler.
5 Examples of implementation of cloud computing in healthcare
Cloud computing for clinical development and research
Microsoft
Microsoft is renowned for developing a wide range of software programs, many of which are used in the healthcare sector. Azure is a cloud-based platform that may be used with AI and IoT technologies to track patient insights and analytics entirely within the cloud. The HoloLens 2 device from Microsoft can project holographic visuals for the user, including any available data in the cloud. To diagnose, operate, and treat patients, healthcare practitioners now have access to patient data and collaborative resources.
Pfizer
Since 2016, the pharmaceutical and biotechnology firm Pfizer has used cloud services for its initiatives. As a result of its collaboration with BioNTech to create a COVID-19 vaccine, it has lately gained attention. The business recently started collaborating with Amazon Web Services to develop cloud-based solutions to enhance and speed up the production, manufacturing, and distribution procedures for clinical trial testing.
Сloud computing for electronic health record management
Allscripts
A cloud-based platform called Allscripts houses a variety of patient interaction, analytics, and health documentation management tools and services. Microsoft announced a five-year cooperation extension as a cloud provider for Allscripts' Sunrise, an electronic health record platform, in 2020. The partnership with Allscripts aims to be a "transformational force in the healthcare business," according to Patty Obermaier, vice president of Microsoft's U.S. Health and Life Sciences division, who made this statement in a news report.
Medsphere systems
For healthcare organisations, Medsphere provides a range of cloud computing solutions in the healthcare sector. The platform's electronic health record offers services to many other industries, including clinical, financial, accounting, nursing, and many more. Using Microsoft's safe Azure cloud platform, the firm also assists providers with scheduling, registration, medical records, invoicing, claims, and other tasks.
Cloud computing for telehealth services
Medable
The medical-grade platform from Medable supports clinical applications, stores patient data for clinicians and researchers, and promotes direct-to-patient healthcare and cooperation. Developers may also utilize the platform to enhance or produce mobile, tablet, and desktop apps.
Risks of cloud computing in healthcare
- Less specialists: It might be challenging to get qualified developers with the specialty needed to include cutting-edge technology in the healthcare software sector. Similarly, finding cloud experts in the healthcare industry can take time and effort.
- Small ecosystem: The efficiency of healthcare and cloud computing cannot be achieved alone by implementing cloud computing in healthcare. Health businesses need to integrate technology with the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and data management technologies to benefit from it fully.
- Adoption: The entire task-handling process must be altered when moving from traditional systems to cloud solutions. Healthcare organizations must inform everyone of how it would affect their day-to-day work.
- Security threats: The main driving force behind the adoption of the technology is cloud storage of medical data. However, doing so exposes it to attack danger. It occurs because, in a normal cloud configuration, one company's data is shared on a server with the data of other healthcare organizations. The isolation methods set up to keep them apart may need to be revised.
How much can you save using cloud computing in healthcare?
According to CDW, 88% of healthcare firms that use cloud computing in reducing costs healthcare have seen an average yearly reduction in IT costs of 20%. There is another survey by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure:
When compared to updating their on-premises infrastructure or using alternative clouds, customers often save 30–50% overall by transferring their apps to our cloud.
Setting up on-site storage necessitates an initial hardware expenditure, including buying hard drives to store data on and additional IT infrastructure to keep that data safe and available constantly.
Healthcare organizations may cut their initial expenditures and concentrate on what they do best: providing patient care. Cloud computing, in reducing costs, healthcare solution providers take care of the administration, development, and maintenance of cloud data storage services.
Cloud computing in healthcare: our case study
At Binariks, we deliver cloud computing services for healthcare, so we are ready to show off one of our projects.
The customer is a medical corporation that offers digitized solutions for advanced healthcare services to Medicare beneficiaries on an AWS-powered platform integrated with several third-party products connecting physicians and patients to streamline communication. Client faced a growing demand for their product, which required them to scale the software up, including storing, processing, and exchanging data within the system.
We helped with the right architecture for the optimized application, using the potential of AWS technologies to deliver a secure and feature-packed platform with Node.js backend and React frontend. Our focus on AWS development and experience delivering highly scalable cloud solutions attracted the client to Binariks. Due to our effort, the customer’s web platform supports different deployment models (SAAS, on-premise, hybrid cloud), which makes it relevant for companies that operate through the Internet.
Final thoughts
The tech trends show that cloud computing in healthcare will persist. It enables providers to cut expenses and make medical services more convenient. All stakeholders, from medical teams to insurers, can share data and cooperate more efficiently, optimizing the core healthcare operations.
Yet the use of cloud computing in implementing cloud-based healthcare remains a challenge. Since every healthcare facility's needs are unique, only a custom solution can meet them. That's why the best way to start the cloud transition is to find a tech partner with the relevant expertise. An external tech team can develop a cloud platform or migrate legacy solutions if you have any.
As a certified AWS Consulting, Google Cloud, and Microsoft partner, Binariks can provide cloud-based healthcare services for your organization's needs. We cooperate with large healthcare providers, small companies, startups, and anyone looking for tech assistance.
Learn more about the AWS-based primary care platform and other cloud solutions we developed in our portfolio . Contact us directly to discuss your project and potential cooperation
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