The medical domain creates and uses large volumes of delicate data crucial for flawless patient care and general population wellness. In the rapidly evolving conditions of healthcare, the coronavirus pandemic brought even new troubles to medical providers. They had to scale fast to assist more patients, adapt to new regulations, and provide more devices to scattered staff.
Striving for better adaptability to emerging demands and technological innovations, medical providers and healthtech companies are migrating their solutions and data storage to the cloud. In this post, healthcare businesses read about the benefits of cloud hosting.
What is cloud hosting for healthcare?
Cloud hosting implies that patients can check their digital folders in the cloud at any time and from any location. The same opportunity is available for doctors. It means that a new physician on the shift, as well as a new provider, can easily access data about a patient’s health history, lab tests, and other relevant information.
According to McKinsey, cloud migration pays off in somewhere between 18 and 36 months. To propel faster, medical providers need sufficient investments and a number of competent IT staff, such as full-stack developers and cloud engineers. However, most medical centers or institutions lack the expertise to hire high-quality developers. That is why partnering with healthtech businesses provides a reasonable way to keep pace with digital trends.
Developing a solution from scratch might take quite some time. Migrating legacy systems to the cloud can become a more affordable option for some companies. As developers from the Belitsoft company mention, healthtech providers often choose .NET to build their solutions and applications. However, the functionality of the .NET Framework is limited in comparison with the .NET Core. That is why it is vital to know how to migrate .NET Framework to .NET Core. Businesses opt for the .NET Core for the following reasons:
- Medical providers can customize the software in accordance with their needs.
- .NET Core allows for the development of cross-platform applications, which widens the target audience.
- Cloud migration complies with security regulations, which is vital for handling patients’ delicate data.
What are the benefits of the cloud?
Data accessibility
Clouds make the information available to physicians, medical experts, as well as patients and business owners in accordance with their access rights. An expert with twenty years of expertise in healthtech, Dmitry Baraishuk, admits that electronic health records (EHRs) are the pillar of any medical provider. However, EHRs should be flexible, for medical providers to benefit from their full potential. Cloud hosting provides EHRs with flexibility. What is meant by that?
- EHRs meet the unique requirements of each medical provider.
- The healthcare ecosystem allows for the sharing of information with other applications.
- The system smoothly integrates with each provider’s internal workflow.
Storing the data in the cloud facilitates the work of the call center and administrative staff. For example, call center agents check the slots in the physicians’ schedules before making appointments. Administrative staff can track patients’ insurance plans to find out the coverage.
Cloud-based healthcare promotes the spread of telemedicine. It brings healthcare to remote areas. Besides that, telemedicine makes it easy for doctors to cooperate and share their expertise in case of contradictory cases. In 2023, 44% of physicians used telemedicine at least once a week. The trend will continue to grow, as telemedicine is a convenient solution for elderly patients to visit their GPs at the time of seasonal infections. It also allows clinicians to handle more consultations.
Accelerated processes
Drug-development programs usually take about twelve years and $2.6 billion. The period is so long and costly because it involves finding the right molecule that demonstrates the required properties and is safe enough to be tested on people. A huge part of the drug discovery is taken by clinical trials. Doctors look for appropriate candidates in the EHRs. Then, candidates pass multiple tests and screens to prove their eligibility. Cloud computing can move part of the testing to digital environments. For example, wet chemical binding and inhibition assays can be performed ‘in silico’ instead of test tubes and microcells.
Migrating electronic laboratory notebooks (ELNs) and laboratory information management systems (LIMSs) to the cloud holds additional benefits for scientists. They can handle complex calculations and predict drug-target interactions more easily. Beyond that, clouds allow for fast results sharing with the stakeholders and applying additional statistical, prototyping, and documentation tools.
Improved performance with artificial intelligence
Cloud-based software can store large volumes of data. Artificial intelligence (AI) requires huge datasets to learn and perform actions. A combination of cloud solutions and AI drives healthtech businesses and medical providers forward in the competition.
One of the modern trends among medical providers is forming partnerships with healthtech companies. It guarantees the digital transformation inside a medical center or hospital will be monitored by professionals. Long-term partnerships mean minimized risks for legacy systems and staff. For instance, Humana, the fourth largest health insurance provider in the US, has recently signed an agreement with Google. The main aim is to modernize the cloud environment and design generative AI tools. As Humana executives expect, such a partnership will bring the business to responsive contact centers and patient-friendly network centers. It will also help to achieve a tailor-made level of primary care.
Security threats and solutions
As every medal has its own reverse, cloud solutions are often criticized for their lack of security. However, according to experts, the reasons behind that fact are quite addressable. Cloud security issues are mostly caused by staff’s negligent attitude toward data security, the absence of data encryption, and insufficient environment monitoring.
Competent healthtech providers are aware of cyber security regulations and know how to protect sensitive data. Among the most common methods are the following:
- Proper data encryption saves the data extracted from the cloud and divides it into segments.
- Strict authentication and validation rules demonstrate zero trust to both internal employees and third-party contractors.
- Access rights are assigned depending on employees’ position and responsibility area.
- Data classification splits the information into groups depending on its sensitivity.
Final thoughts
Cloud hosting gives healthtech firms the possibility to meet the expectations of their end customers. If the product complies with safety norms and is easy to implement and manage, medical providers can use cloud computing to improve administrative processes and contribute to the general healthcare domain.
