How is Cloud Computing in Healthcare Transforming the Medical Sector?

The healthcare industry as a whole is witnessing a rapid revolution worldwide. Gone are the days when you had to wait for days to get healthcare records. With the implementation of state-of-the-art technologies like cloud computing, accessing, managing, and sharing medical information has become easier than ever.

However, when considering advanced solutions, it’s crucial for healthcare providers and medical institutions to have an explicit understanding of both the advantages and risks associated with them. After all, when it’s about patients’ safety and effective medical care, it becomes important to know all the ins and outs.

Healthcare Application Development Services, in particular, play a vital role in this transformation, ensuring that healthcare apps are secure, efficient, and tailored to the specific needs of medical professionals and patients.

Speaking statistically, the overall growth in the healthcare market integrated with cloud computing solutions is rapidly progressing. In 2022, the revenue in this market was projected around $39.4 billion and was further estimated to touch $89.4 billion in the next five years. The present market dynamics suggest that the expansion of cloud computing in healthcare is all set to evolve over the years. But to what extent? Let’s discuss.

A Brief Overview of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Quality and convenience are undoubtedly the most demanded traits from any consumer, irrespective of the industry they belong to. And when it comes to medical care, these traits become more prominent.

In order to provide patients with affordable and convenient healthcare services, businesses in the medical sector started investing in advanced technologies. To be specific, the usage of cloud computing became the new normal, especially after the emergence of electronic medical records (EMRs). The cloud-based solutions provided by this technology made storing and accessing the patients’ records more comprehensible and secure.

How Is Cloud Computing Impacting Different Application Fields in the Healthcare Industry?

The healthcare industry has always dealt with processing, analyzing, accessing, and storing medical records among different participants, including patients, pharmaceutical companies, hospitals, etc.

In order to simplify all these activities, large-scale adoption of cloud computing is observed in multiple sectors, such as telemedicine, health management, bioinformatics, and information management. The following illustration shows the share of these application fields in the healthcare industry.

Telemedicine

The applications of cloud computing in the field of telemedicine are mainly used for providing direct services related to medical care. These include diagnosis of diseases, doctors’ prescriptions, treatments for patients, and monitoring health status. Telemedicine is already making its way into the healthcare sector, and its ever-growing popularity completely justifies why it holds the largest share applications-wise.

Health Management

The quality assessment of Medicare provided to patients based on existing standard guidelines comes under the domain of health management. Besides this, maintaining billing records of patients and managing business operations are other applications of cloud computing studied under this domain.

Information Management

As the name suggests, this area deals with accessing, storing, and transferring digital medical records. Apart from this, information management also includes maintaining multi-disciplinary information depositories.

Bioinformatics

Bioinformatics deals with gathering and evaluating complex biological information, such as digital image processing, molecular modeling, and anatomical research.

What Are Some Different Types of Cloud Computing Models in the Healthcare Industry?

There are primarily two types of cloud computing models in healthcare. The first one is the Distribution model, and the other one is the Deployment model. Here are the further classifications of these different types of cloud computing structures.

Distribution Model

SaaS (Software as a Service)

In this distribution model, the cloud computing provider offers IT infrastructure while the businesses develop and deploy applications and OS. This powerful combination of cloud and SaaS is highly responsible for an accelerated digital transformation growth of several businesses.

IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service)

In the IaaS model, the provider is responsible for providing both IT infrastructure and OS. The businesses need to take care of the app deployment part.

PaaS (Platform as a Service)

Everything from an IT infrastructure to OS and apps is offered by the cloud computing providers. Simply put, businesses get an easy-to-use platform for their applications.

Deployment Model

Private

Only a specific business can leverage cloud technology.

Public

Everyone can leverage cloud technology for business purposes.

Hybrid

It is somewhat a combination of public and private clouds in which multiple clouds with different access options are available.

Community

This type of cloud structure is accessible only to a specific group of people with similar objectives and preferences.

What Are Some Notable Benefits of Cloud Computing in the Healthcare Industry?

Moving towards the cloud for improving healthcare services comes with two-fold advantages – both for healthcare providers and patients per se. For businesses, implementing cloud computing solutions can significantly lower operational costs while delivering faster services. While for patients, it helps them get instant healthcare services from anywhere, anytime, and that even with complete convenience. Below are some benefits of cloud technology in the healthcare industry.

Management of Healthcare Records Becomes Affordable

The amount of healthcare data processed every day is humungous. This data majorly consists of lab tests, medical reports, prescriptions, and insurance documents which are generated when patients get themselves checked. Managing such an enormous amount of data is a cumbersome task, and any errors could impose serious consequences. Therefore, to avoid such situations, efficient solutions like cloud computing are used.

Cloud computing follows specific algorithms that make data management easy and efficient. Moreover, it offers several analytical tools and services that can easily convert a huge pile of data into valuable information needed by healthcare experts to provide better results.

Providing Healthcare Services Become Easier Than Ever

One of the best things about cloud-hosted services is that one can access them from any location and device. This could be a major benefit to the users, especially in situations similar to the COVID-19 times. Besides this, it also allows field workers in the healthcare industry to easily retrieve information from the EMRs on the go.

Moreover, cloud computing in the healthcare sector helps simplify the communication between medical practitioners and their patients. For instance, popular telemedicine apps like MDLIVE and LiveHealth help their users get quick and hassle-free healthcare solutions. Patients can easily connect with the best doctors over video conferencing and get remote medical consultations at their own convenience. Apart from these, there are many other notable healthcare mobile apps significantly contributing to digitalization in healthcare. Also, with easy interoperability, patients’ data could be easily distributed and accessed in order to get live insights for better healthcare aid delivery.

Informed Decision-Making Processes Using Data Analytics

As already discussed in the earlier section of this blog, a vast amount of data is generated every day in the healthcare industry. In order to unlock valuable insights from that, healthcare providers must leverage the power of data analytics.

With cloud computing, companies can easily access big data analytics – and not just large corporations but small-scale health organizations, too. The unbelievable computing power and practically unlimited storage help them process and manage complex data sets easily. Consequently, this leads to an informed decision-making process immensely crucial for improving the efficacy of healthcare services.

Simplified Security and Compliance Aspects

One of the major concerns for businesses regarding the adoption of cloud computing in the medical industry is the security of data. Since the data is on cloud servers, it becomes easy for intruders to access it and tamper with the information. However, with efficient cloud computing solutions, businesses can stay carefree about this issue.

In addition, professional cloud computing service providers take compliance and security measures quite seriously. They comply with several data protection laws and regulations, such as:

• General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR),
• Food and Drug Administration (FDA),
• Health Level Seven International (HL7),
• Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA)
• Software as a Medical Device (SaMD)
• Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), and
• Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH)

Moreover, security measures like data encryption and multi-factor authentication can also help protect healthcare data protected from unauthorized access.

Patient Experience At Its Best

Besides addressing the concerns of healthcare providers, the impact of cloud computing in the healthcare and medical industry also benefits patients extensively. Reduced costs in medical care and easy accessibility of healthcare guidance improve the patient experience to a large extent.

Moreover, with the development of IoT-enabled healthcare applications and cloud-based record-keeping systems, patients can easily interact with their doctors without visiting them in person. All these solutions offer a consistent and immersive experience to the patients.

How Is the Healthcare Industry Using Cloud Computing to Improve Its Operations?

The availability of healthcare provisions depends largely on processing, accessing, managing, and sharing medical data among different parties. Since this data is passed through several levels and in enormous amounts, it becomes crucial to democratize and secure its accessibility.

With the use of cloud computing in healthcare, the sharing of medical records becomes convenient and safer. Besides this, it can help in automating the backend operations in healthcare organizations and managing telehealth applications.

Moreover, another important application of cloud computing in healthcare is to efficiently manage various digital infrastructures and platforms that record the daily status of patients remotely. Also, by incorporating advanced AI-based solutions like natural language processing (NLP), healthcare practitioners can easily extract information from unstructured data and cloud-analyze them.

What Is the Scope of Cloud Computing in the Healthcare Industry?

The importance of cloud computing in the healthcare industry is beyond words. It has become ubiquitous – offering viable solutions to the entire healthcare domain in fulfilling the ever-growing demands. Besides this, the rising cloud computing trends in healthcare like telemedicine applications, advanced analytics, and cloud hospital management have also contributed to its growth. Some of the popular areas where the scope of cloud computing in the healthcare industry seems wide are:

Connecting Patients with Medical Support

In critical times like the pandemic, one of the most important needs that emerged in the healthcare sector is the connectivity of patients with medical services. To resolve this issue, cloud-based solutions come up as a boon – thanks to digital technologies maintaining business continuity even in situations like COVID-19.

Cloud solutions provide users with a platform to connect with healthcare professionals and medical service providers. The analytical tools integrated into the systems track the patients’ vitals and update the same in real-time to the doctors. Consequently, it creates a seamless connection between the patients and doctors, enhancing the interaction level for better services.

Efficient Management of Population Health

One of the best things about making use of cloud systems in healthcare is that they work in real-time and on a global scale. It means healthcare organizations and hospitals using cloud computing services can easily monitor and map emerging or prevailing diseases. With this, informing the masses regarding the risk factors and the impact of specific diseases becomes convenient. Also, with the development of healthcare mobile apps integrated with advanced digital technologies, it becomes easier for the masses to get consultations right away in pandemic-like situations.

Apart from this, health organizations in association with government authorities can also apprise people of the intensity of a particular disease and which parts are most prone to the risks. The most common example is COVID-19 when a massive amount of data from all over the world was updated in the shortest span of time. In fact, various platforms incorporated AI chatbots to provide information related to the pandemic, such as mortality rates, rate of infection, vaccination efficacy, and much more every day.

Better Assistance to Medical Practitioners

The inclusion of modern technologies like natural language understanding (NLU) and machine learning in cloud-based solutions are increasing lately. Accordingly, it expands the scope of assistance to medical practitioners in analyzing unstructured digital data and developing well-organized treatment plans for patients.

And not just the doctors and caregivers but patients can also leverage these services to comprehend their issues better and figure out the best ways to resolve them. Also, another important use of cloud computing in healthcare could be creating a central repository where patients’ medical records and crucial information are kept.

What Are the Major Challenges Associated with Cloud Computing in Healthcare?

There is no doubt that cloud computing has an immense number of benefits in the healthcare domain. However, one can not ignore the risks associated with it in terms of accessibility, security, and affordability. Below are some major challenges of using cloud computing in the healthcare sector.

High Costs in Operational Management

Processing and managing tons of data do not come affordable. Although cloud computing can help you take the load off, implementing cloud-based solutions for a wider range of applications could be expensive.

In such a case, the best option is to pick a cloud service provider that offers pay-as-you-go services. Such models provide businesses with easy options and flexibility to pay only for those services they need for specific operations.

Risks and Threats to Security

The most critical challenge to cloud computing in healthcare is storing and managing the medical records of patients in a highly secure manner. There are different kinds of sensitive and confidential documents processed in the healthcare industry on a daily basis. In case of a data breach, the entire industry might have to face significant damage and troublesome situations.

For instance, recently, the personal data of millions of patients undergoing treatment in the most reputed hospital in India, AIIMS (Delhi), was compromised. Cyber attackers hacked the cloud servers of the AIIMS and took advantage of the vulnerability through ransomware. Not only it impacted the operational functions of AIIMS in Delhi but also affected other branches all over India since they are all connected to a common cloud server.

Therefore, it is crucial to protect the cloud servers with the help of robust security measures, such as end-to-end encryptions, firewalls, IDS/IPS systems, etc. Incorporating such cloud computing security solutions can help keep your medical records safe and intact.

Issues in Accessibility

Another issue that health organizations often face is the accessibility of medical records. Since a single patient could be under the treatment of several physicians or healthcare experts, transferring up-to-date data without specific interaction could be complex.

For instance, imagine a patient is being treated in a hospital and all the medical records of the same are uploaded to a cloud server accessible to the entire medical department. Now, due to any reason, if a team of new doctors is appointed instantaneously, they might want to access the documents of the patients. But for the sake of the security aspect, the accessibility would be denied initially, which might delay the treatment process.

Therefore, it is crucial to keep all this in mind and prepare a strategic model before incorporating cloud computing solutions into the system. One of the best things in such a situation would be hiring a professional cloud app development services provider who is well-versed in cloud technology.

Complexity in Shifting to Cloud

When you rely on conventional methods for operational purposes, it’s not that easy to shift to the cloud instantaneously. Switching from legacy systems to modernization takes time and changes in the complete system. Besides the technological aspect, aligning each and every individual in the health organizations to understand and embrace the cloud-based models will also be a challenging task.

Therefore, it is crucial to organize training sessions and workshops in hospitals and medical care units to educate employees regarding working in this ecosystem.

Limitations in the Scope of Scalability

No doubt cloud computing is efficient, but it can not take the entire industry by storm alone. In order to bring the best out of it, health organizations must leverage the benefits of other technologies, such as IoT, AI, and ML, as well.

For instance, by using IoT in healthcare, patients can easily connect with their doctors and caregivers virtually over IoT devices. Relying just on cloud computing to revolutionize the healthcare sector will limit the ecosystem and create a roadblock in scaling up business growth.

How Can Appventurez Help You with Cloud Computing Solutions?

If you made it to this point, one thing might be quite clear – the impact of cloud computing on the healthcare market is massive. Be it improving the interaction with patients or lowering the cost of medical care – the importance of cloud computing in the healthcare industry is easily visible and increasing every day.

Based on the latest reports and statistics, cloud computing solutions are in fact, one of the most adopted alternatives present on the table for healthcare organizations. Undoubtedly, the future of cloud computing in healthcare seems bright, especially when it comes to enhancing the operational efficiency of healthcare organizations and hospitals.

The only concern is the security aspect and lack of expertise in handling them. However, with a professional cloud-based application development company like Appventurez, these concerns can be easily taken care of.