Countdown to Why Healthcare Needs Hybrid Cloud Today

As discussed in the whitepaper Continuity of Care with Cloud, in an industry lagging in digital transformation, healthcare systems and life science enterprises are beginning to shift attitudes to cloud adoption.

But, the immediate and long-term value of using a hybrid cloud is not always clear. Here, we countdown the top ten reasons why healthcare and life science professionals should move their data storage to a hybrid or multi-cloud environment.

REASON #10: CLOUD SPREADS DATA ACROSS MULTIPLE PLATFORMS, LIMITING THE POTENTIAL FOR FAILURE

The cost of a patient data breach in the healthcare sector averages $6.5M ($429 per patient), over 60 percent more than all other industries, according to a 2019 Ponemon Institute Report. However, hybrid cloud environments have proven to be as safe or safer with analytics dashboards, monitoring systems, and regulatory compliance measures, spreading patient data across multiple platforms. While servers can fail, with costly and time-consuming consequences, a hybrid cloud or multi-cloud takes advantage of different systems to prevent total data loss.

REASON #9: ABILITY TO MEET COMPLIANCE AND REGULATION STANDARDS

“Early consideration of security and its subsequent integration into every aspect of the system development life cycle not only ensures the long-term protection of sensitive information, it also prevents costly, duplicative effort after the project’s completion,” according to the CMS.gov website. In addition to HIPAA privacy, CMS and ONC require in-depth testing and compliance to meet standards. Cloud continues to meet and exceed these standards for long-term healthcare ecosystem growth.

REASON #8: ADVANCED SECURITY TO PROTECTED DATA, ESPECIALLY FOR COVERED ENTITIES

As well known by all healthcare professionals and stated on HHS.gov, “the HIPAA Privacy Rule provides federal protections for personal health information held by covered entities and gives patients an array of rights with respect to that information.” Simply stated, protecting patient data is of utmost importance, which hybrid cloud continuously delivers.

REASON #7: REAL INTEROPERABILITY GOES BEYOND DISCUSSION TO ACTUAL USE

From health information exchanges (HIEs) to the internet of medical things (IoMT), interoperability becomes seamless with the cloud. Connected devices and more accessible data exchange provide clinicians and life science professionals more useful insights in real-time for immediate decision-making, otherwise impossible with in-house servers.

REASON #6: EASE OF ACCESS TO PATIENT, MEMBER, AND PARTICIPANT DATA

Long gone are the days of hunting down a patient's chart, especially across different providers and services. Today, advanced clinical practices, enabled payers, and progressive life science companies can immediately access a full chart or record from any protected source. Doctors and researchers can collaborate from remote locations, ensuring that they have the complete story before determining the next steps.

REASON #5: BACK-UP AND REDUNDANCY TO PROTECT AGAINST DATA LOSS

During the summer of 2017, hurricanes battered Puerto Rico, the Gulf Coast, and into the United States, seriously damaging hospitals, clinics, health facilities, and more. Damage to their IT infrastructure was inevitable, resulting in untold patient data loss. Utilize remote hybrid cloud deployments to back up all business and clinical data in the event of an outage or cyberattack, limiting the potential for extreme data loss.

REASON #4: REDUCTION IN RELATED IT AND RESOURCE EXPENSES

An optimized hybrid cloud model allows healthcare and life science companies to scale as needed, utilizing immediate purchases from a subscription-based model by most cloud service providers (CSPs.) While physical servers may take days or weeks for maintenance, a cloud server takes minutes. This time is crucial when it comes to patient care, such as the requirement to move to backup paper charting with a down system.

REASON #3: TELEHEALTH AND TELEMEDICINE, ESPECIALLY CONCERNING THE PANDEMIC, WOULD NOT BE AVAILABLE WITHOUT THE CLOUD

Cloud-based environments are at the heart of telehealth and telemedicine, which have become invaluable options for providing care and research during social distancing requirements. Additionally, advanced technologies like Biofeedback SDK allow researchers and care providers to obtain real-time vital signs from any mobile or PC camera, including HR, O2 sat, and respiration rate. With cloud-based telehealth, patients, members, and participants can schedule visits, meet with clinicians, pay for the service, and receive immediate test results-- seamlessly and securely.

REASON #2: ABILITY TO IMPLEMENT ADVANCED TECHNOLOGY FOR DIAGNOSIS, DRUG DISCOVERY, OR OTHER COMPLICATED TASKS

The use of big data, along with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), unlocks new opportunities for research, diagnosis, and business intelligence. As described in the Forbes article AI in Healthcare: Fact or Fiction?, using advanced applications can streamline workflows and reduce human errors, speeding drug discovery, assisting surgery, provisioning better billing and coding methods, and more. But, yet again, these innovations only become possible with effective data management.

AND THE #1 REASON FOR HEALTHCARE AND LIFE SCIENCE COMPANIES TO MOVE TO A HYBRID CLOUD:

Cloud is the future of technology for what healthcare and life science companies need today.

A hybrid cloud benefits all parties involved, including providers, patients, members, payers, participants, and professionals. Cloud enables the user to control their data by streamlining internal processes and creating new measures and abilities for access. From running essential applications to analyzing mountains of clinical and business data to delivering results outside of the practice, the cloud is the foundation for a complete, thriving healthcare ecosystem.

With over 2,000 successful projects completed, SoftServe has been the trusted product development and design partner to many of the most innovative and respected healthcare and life science companies worldwide. To learn how our team of innovators, certified ethical hackers, and data security experts empower clients to transform their business and improve the healthcare ecosystem, contact SoftServe today.