Tarun Nagar 
Cloud computing has seen a significant increase in healthcare. The entire healthcare system was dependent on cloud computing during the pandemic. Along with physicians and nurses, every medical facility has observed how IT infrastructures have improved patient care.
Cloud computing in healthcare departments has many benefits. These include better privacy, lower expenses, and better patient care via remote operation and collaboration. Cloud computing has opened up opportunities to enhance the functionality of IT systems.
According to the report, cloud technology in healthcare has become a global phenomenon. The market for cloud computing is expected to reach $ 71,730.64 million by 2027 with a CAGR of 14.12 percent between 2022-2027. Healthcare firms are more receptive to new technologies, and they will invest more in technology development, as is shown.
In this blog, we will discuss the benefits of cloud computing in the healthcare department. Along with use cases, challenges, and more.
So let’s begin.
Table of Contents
What is Cloud Computing in Healthcare?
Cloud computing is the use of remote servers over the internet to provide healthcare. It allows you to store, process, and handle medical data. Cloud storage allows healthcare professionals and institutions to securely store large amounts of data online. These servers are usually maintained by IT experts.
Medical companies are now using cloud-based solutions to store their patient records. Cloud-based solutions were also adopted by healthcare organizations who did not intend to move their data centers to the cloud.
What are the Different Models of Healthcare Cloud Computing?
There are many models of cloud computing application development that can be used in healthcare.
1. Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS):
A medical institution might seek access to a third-party technology provider’s physical premises, such servers, data centers, memory clusters, and other crucial IT infrastructure. This is a great option for large and medium-sized businesses and projects that need to use third-party data centers in order to reduce IT infrastructure costs and maintenance.
2. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS):
Healthcare software and services may be developed, tested, deployed, and migrated using cloud infrastructure with the help of a cloud provider in a virtual web-based environment. This is possible for medical organizations and/or IT contractors. Software developers can save money by renting tools and hardware rather than purchasing expensive server equipment and running their applications locally.
3. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS):
According to this concept, access to pre-built cloud-based apps and services is available for purchase by medical practitioners. SaaS usually comes with a monthly or annual subscription. This allows organizations and healthcare professionals to save money on full licenses or building products from scratch.
Importance of Cloud Computing in Healthcare
Cloud computing is a hot topic in healthcare tech. Cloud computing has many benefits for healthcare providers, including patient-centered care and lower operational costs, as well as enhanced accessibility and interoperability.
It is recognized by healthcare officials as a valuable tool and they are determined to use it to their advantage. The market for cloud computing in healthcare is expected to grow from 39.4 billion dollars in 2022 to $89.4 billion in 2027. McKinsey estimates that the cloud will have a tremendous impact on healthcare organizations, with a value of $100-170 billion by 2030.
Cloud computing is a disruptive technology that digitalizes healthcare organizations from within and out. It improves collaboration between doctors and drives efficiency, convenience and patient satisfaction.
Numerous technologies, including AI, ML, and big data analytics, are built on the cloud. Its adoption fosters innovation in healthcare companies. It allows for better service, better outcomes and data-driven decision making.
Cloud computing can be used to combat administrative inefficiency, unnecessary treatment, and save significant costs. The US health system spends nearly $500 billion each year on such issues.
It is hard to ignore the essentiality of cloud computing in healthcare. Let’s now explore the applications of cloud computing in healthcare found in this sector.
Cloud Computing Use Cases in Healthcare
Cloud computing in healthcare has many uses, thanks to its numerous benefits. How can cloud computing be used for healthcare? Let’s examine three of the more encouraging cases.
1. Data Storage
The healthcare industry handles a lot of data, representing 30% of all the world’s data. Because of this, it is essential to make sure it is maintained and preserved properly. Cloud computing is increasingly being used by healthcare organizations to take advantage of its enormous storage capacity.
The cloud is able to store and process more healthcare data than traditional hardware.
Cloud environment connects to and processes data from different resources. It makes it easy to access, allows real-time sharing and can easily be backed up with all the data.
2. Telemedicine
Cloud computing has enabled the rise of telemedicine, which allows remote access to medical services.
Cloud-based solutions allow for communication between healthcare professionals regardless of distance. This is especially useful for people living in remote areas that are unable to visit a hospital.
Cloud allows remote medical consultations, diagnosis and virtual surgery. Cloud-based telemedicine apps and platforms allow remote monitoring of medication intakes and health status at all stages. This is particularly useful for patients following surgery. Telemedicine allows doctors to monitor patients’ vitals via IoT wearables, and can respond to alerts that could save lives.
3. Accurate Diagnostics
According to Medical News Today today, diagnosing errors are the leading cause of medical errors in the United States. Misdiagnosis can lead to up to 80,000 deaths each year, and is often due to poor data management or a lack thereof.
AI-based cloud solutions, such as clinical decision support systems (CDSS), collect all relevant data from one place. This helps healthcare professionals improve their diagnosis accuracy and make data-driven decisions. AI also allows for predictive analytics, which helps identify trends and risks before they become serious problems.
AI-driven predictive analytics, for example, allowed researchers to create deep neural networks that forecast the risk of patient deaths based on ECG results. Before they exhibit any clinical symptoms, our model can recognize people who are at high risk.
4. Hospital Management
Cloud computing improves hospital management at many levels. Healthcare organizations can use centralized cloud data storage to monitor patients and simplify staff and supply chain management. Healthcare organizations can quickly access and share medical information, track equipment location and track inventory. They can also manage doctor’s schedules easily without having to overlap.
Cloud computing in healthcare is a powerful tool for machine learning and AI that can automate routine tasks and optimize them. Technology does the heavy lifting in areas like document filling, billing, and reporting.
It is difficult to ignore the importance of cloud computing for healthcare. Cloud computing is used by some companies to simplify data management while others use it to build new technologies. Let’s look into the reasons why cloud computing is so popular.
Key Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare
Below are the benefits of cloud computing in the healthcare that you must check out:
● Efficient electronic medical record-keeping
As part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, the federal mandate for electronic health records went into effect January 1, 2014. Hospitals and other healthcare facilities must demonstrate that they use electronic medical records to store information about patient interactions.
Cloud computing in healthcare is used in medicine to improve patient safety, efficiency, quality and safety.
The majority of hospitals and healthcare facilities today have stopped keeping paper records for their health records. Instead, they are using cloud storage to store them. Healthcare workers including doctors, nurses, and others have access to cloud-based electronic health records.
● Streamlined Collaborative Care for Patients
Cloud storage has made it easier to collaborate on patient care in America. Cloud storage allows doctors to view and share patient’s medical records in a more collaborative manner.
It was common for patients to have separate medical records at each specialist, hospital or doctor. It was challenging for doctors to collaborate on patient treatment as a result.
Particularly in connection to electronic medical records, cloud storage is growing in popularity in hospitals. This makes it simpler for physicians and patients to connect with and interact with one another. It also allows them to provide care that fully considers the history of the patient with other doctors.
● Reduced Data Storage Costs
To establish on-site storage, you will need to invest in hardware. You will also need to purchase hard drives and additional IT infrastructure to ensure that your data is always accessible and secure.
The development, upkeep, and management of cloud data storage services are handled by suppliers of cloud-based healthcare solutions. This enables medical professionals to concentrate on what they do best—treat patients.
● Superior Data Security
The risk of data loss or damage was high for physicians who stored patient records in filing cabinets in the past. Paper records can be easily lost or stolen and could be destroyed completely by fire, flood, or other natural disasters. Due to the absence of protection surrounding these records, patient safety was in jeopardy.
Healthcare providers can establish their own data storage infrastructure on site once the EMR mandate has been established.To guarantee that patient data is safeguarded, it would be necessary to maintain IT professionals that are knowledgeable in data security.
Healthcare providers can also outsource data storage to HIPAA-compliant cloud storage companies. These services offer data storage for patient EMRs that meet legally mandated privacy and security requirements. The cloud has made it possible for every healthcare provider to access a data storage solution that adequately protects patient’s sensitive information.
Use of Cloud Computing in Healthcare Paves the Way for Big Data Applications
Widespread use of cloud-based data storage systems for the healthcare industry has opened up new possibilities for big data apps that might enhance patient outcomes.
In the past, paper files were used to store patient data by all physicians in the United States. The patient EMRs contained a lot of data that could be useful. This could be used to predict an outbreak, detect subtle correlations between patient illnesses and determine which treatment options are most effective for that set of symptoms.
Hospitals and doctor’s offices have begun utilizing cloud computing. All data previously stored in filing cabinets can now be searched and analyzed with the most sophisticated computer algorithms. This will allow healthcare providers to respond to public health risks that were previously invisible until much later in their lives.
1. Cloud-based Solutions offer Flexibility and Scale Easily
Organizations will see long-term benefits from cloud storage, including the economic advantages over in-house storage. They also benefit from lower scaling costs and easier upgrades. Healthcare organizations’ expenditures for managing their data can be reduced by using Cloud Storage Service since economies of scale are used by these companies.
Cloud computing in healthcare offers more flexibility than the traditional pay-as you-go cost structure. Healthcare facilities must determine how much storage space they require and then invest their own money to expand it as they run out. Cloud-based services are simple to utilize. Increasing your information’s storage capacity only requires a phone call to your service provider. Cloud-based healthcare solutions can grow with your business and are fully scalable.
2. Enhanced Patient Safety
EMRs that are hosted in the cloud may be crucial for patient safety. A California patient with a mental illness visited multiple hospitals and walk-in clinics over the course of one year. Each time, they submitted to tests and hoped to receive prescriptions for medication.
Cloud Computing Solutions have allowed healthcare providers to gain direct insight into the interactions between patients and doctors at other facilities.
This prevented the patient from being prescribed medications that could cause her severe harm. It also saves hospitals money by not having to perform any testing on the patient that she had previously done at another facility.
3. Drives Medical Research
Cloud computing will allow healthcare providers to use big data and analytics to manage their facilities. Cloud-based data storage will also be advantageous for future medical researchers.
The cloud allows researchers in medicine to access huge amounts of computing power previously unavailable, which is in addition to the ability to accumulate large data sets.
In 2005, a medical researcher wishing to analyze large data sets would need to request time at one of the nation’s supercomputing centers. They would then have to wait weeks on a waiting list before they could be granted their opportunity. With the cloud, researchers may now have on-demand access to analytical capacity comparable to that of a supercomputer for a small fraction of the price.
4. Drives Data Interoperability
As we enter the next decade in digital health development, interoperability among connected medical devices, medical tech, and various systems and apps that store patient data will be a more prominent issue.
A growing number of IoT-enabled products are being developed by product developers for the healthcare industry. Without a standard for data and communication between devices, we’re missing many of the benefits that a connected healthcare environment can offer.
Developers are working towards a world in which wearable connected devices and mobile health apps can communicate freely. This will make it easier to transfer and analyze data quickly, which will improve patient outcomes.The major platform for storing and maintaining all of that data in the healthcare industry will be cloud computing.
Cloud-based organizations that are able to expand their capabilities now will be better equipped to adapt to the evolving landscape of healthcare over the next few years.
Cloud Computing Implementation in Healthcare: Challenges
The healthcare industry uses a lot of data every day. Custom healthcare app development companies face three main challenges: security, accessibility, cost optimization, and cost optimization.
1. High costs
Information about health is processed and stored using a lot of data points. They require constant maintenance and are expensive to keep on the hardware. Apps for cloud computing healthcare can take that burden off, and allow you to scale up when you need it.
AWS and Azure offer pay-as you-go services for more than 160 cloud services. This allows organizations to be flexible as they only pay for what they use and not the time they spend.
This facilitates the company’s ability to realize large cost savings. It also reduces the cost of services and improves medical equipment.
A Thomson Reuters report recently revealed that the US healthcare system wastes $600-850 million annually due to inefficiency and unneeded treatments. This is a problem cloud computing can solve.
TechMagic experts can help you understand how AWS can be a benefit to you if you are experiencing these major expenses.
2. Accessibility
Healthcare companies are complex and often have more than one doctor or team working with one patient. It is difficult and time-consuming to communicate up-to-date information about patients without additional communication.
Cloud services allow data to be updated instantly. Each specialist can also access it and make changes if they are granted permission. This makes accessing the data simple for medical professionals and patients. Online access allows patients to view and make changes to their prescriptions or appointments without having to go to the hospital.
3. Security
Data loss and breakdown are possible. There is no way to recover it using hardware resources. The healthcare industry is constantly dealing with data such as diagnostics, lab results, medical history, billing records and other information. The firm can suffer irreversible damage as a result.
Because servers are frequently spread out over several areas, cloud services provide backups. Cloud computing is a great option for healthcare because it offers security. It protects data even during natural disasters and similar events.
Hacker attacks can also be a problem with IoT-connected medical devices. Cloud security is better than traditional on-premises systems. Cloud servers can be loaded with different security metrics such as IDS/IPS and firewalls. They also have end-to-end encryption. These security measures will help keep your healthcare data safe.
Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Examples of Applications
Below are the top trending healthcare applications that make advantage of cloud computing in healthcare are those mentioned above.
1. NetApp
NetApp is a leading provider of hybrid cloud services that delivers data in real time to speed up medical processes. It provides efficiency through features such as a restoration system, faster backup, and easier adoption for patient data growth.
2. Medsphere
Medsphere, another IT company that provides IT services for healthcare departments, offers a variety of services such as multiple medical, accounting and financial, and nursing.
3. ClearData
ClearData, a leading cloud computing company, aims to move all medical data and applications to cloud-based solutions. ClearData allows medical institutions to access all patient records via a secure, private internet connection.
4. Nintex
Nintex is a company that simplifies manual processes, mostly documents. It can improve the patient experience and provide automation services for the medical industry.
5. Carecloud
Carecloud is an EHR/practice management system. It allows healthcare institutions to provide better efficiency and connect directly to patient’s medical and personal data.
6. Pfizer
Pfizer, a biotechnology and pharmaceutical company, uses cloud services to support its business activities. It gained prominence recently when it joined forces with BioNTech in order to develop a vaccine for the COVID-19 virus. AWS has been a partner of the business to develop cloud-based options for clinical trial testing. This collaboration will help to optimize and speed up these processes.
Conclusion
Cloud computing in healthcare can have a notable impact on the future of the healthcare industry. Cloud solutions can help reduce costs and time, as well as provide conveniences, scalability and enhance collaboration among healthcare researchers. To adopt cloud solutions for your company and solve technical problems, you can hire a professional healthcare app development company.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the leading cloud computing trends in the healthcare industry?
- Increased investments in security
- Multi-cloud and hybrid strategies
- A greater number of individuals are using AI and ML
Why is data storage via cloud computing so common?
A single patient can accumulate up to 80 megabytes of EMR and imaging data each year. The hospital’s management can lead to a large amount of healthcare data that is resource-intensive. Many companies are moving to the cloud to store large amounts of data. The cloud offers many benefits, including bandwidth, increased accessibility from any device, backup options, and modest pricing.
What is the essence of cloud computing in healthcare?
Cloud computing allows healthcare organizations to have access to resources on demand, such as data storage or powerful computing capabilities via the internet. This makes it possible for them not only to pay per use but also eliminates the need for expensive equipment.
Why does Healthcare need Cloud Computing?
Despite having existed for many years, cloud computing has just lately become more common in the healthcare industry. Patient information and other critical data are protected thanks to the cloud. The data isn’t stored on any individual computers or devices, and could be stolen or lost.
