Cloud Computing – Market Size
Before we dwell on cloud adoption and related considerations in the healthcare industry, let’s first look at some global market data points. The global market size for cloud computing has been constantly increasing with a CAGR of 14.2%.
Cloud adoption varies across industries, with BFSI and IT showing the highest leverage, followed by Retail & Consumer Goods, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and other industries.
One of the primary concerns for organizations across industries is keeping their customers’ and employees’ data secure and confidential. Data plays a double-edged sword for healthcare organizations – on one end, it helps with better diagnosis and predictions; and on the other, it can be exploited for commercial and at times, vested interests. No wonder, healthcare players are increasingly adopting the cloud for storage, computing, performance, and security benefits.
Global Healthcare Cloud Computing Market Report Coverage
Below are the key benefits of cloud computing leveraged by the healthcare industry:
- Cost optimization – Hosting or migrating the solution to the cloud saves infrastructure costs
- Scalability – Depending on the requirements, resources can be automatically scaled up/down
- Data storage – No matter how big the size of the data is, you can always store it on the cloud and pay as you go
- Security – Cloud platforms keep data secured and backed up with an option for disaster recovery
- Collaboration – Patients, doctors, and other players in the ecosystem have access to the medical history of the patient anytime, anywhere.
According to the HIMSS Analytics Cloud Survey report in 2014, 83% of the hospitals adopted cloud services
Traditional V/S Modern Approach
Traditionally a doctor would gather information about the patient before deciding on a course of treatment. However, in the modern ‘Cloud Era’, doctors can readily gather, analyze and decide the best course of action for the patient. In this process, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) also play a pivotal role. Manual processes are getting digitalized, which in turn makes life easier for patients and doctors.
Modern approaches are more accurate & secure, save time, and are much faster than the traditional approaches.
How are hospitals getting benefitted from cloud computing?
Keeping a patient’s data safe and secure is one of the biggest challenges and concerns for hospitals because everything was on paper or on a legacy system, which can get destroyed in a fire or flood, or data can be stolen. In this case, cloud computing comes to the rescue. By choosing the right cloud management partner, a hospital can rest assured that the data and applications provided by them to the partner are safe because a dedicated team will be monitoring the risks and ensuring the security of the data. Additionally, anyone, from anywhere can access the data, which makes it more beneficial to respond quickly and save time.
Here are a few things that are gaining pace in the healthcare industry:
- Fitness Trackers – It provides data about an individual’s blood pressure, heart rate, etc, which gets recorded on the cloud. With the help of this data, a doctor can diagnose a person’s health and prescribe medicines.
- Internet of Things (IoT) – With the help of IoT, hospitals can track the deployment of the equipment, control the temperature in the ICU, and have many more benefits. In a nutshell, it makes a hospital “A SMART HOSPITAL”.
- Robotics – It is used in healthcare for multiple roles – surgeries, patient care, and maintaining the workflow so that the doctors can focus more on patient care.
- Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) – Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is one of the examples where AI and ML can be leveraged. A scan that usually takes 40- 60 minutes can be reduced to a few minutes with increased accuracy, even if the patient is moving.
How are patients getting benefited from hospitals that are using cloud computing?
In the traditional approach, everything used to be on paper. A patient might misplace his test report or prescription, which would require him to spend time either searching for the lost data or ordering a fresh copy. However, a patient can now have access to all of his information including test reports, prescriptions, medicine timing, and appointments, at his fingertips with the help of a user-friendly application. All patient data can also be found in the hospital’s database.
Traditional Approach
Modern Approach
The applications of AI/ML in hospitals are ground-breaking. Based on data, AI can forecast how a disease will spread within the human body.
With this, we can detect the disease at a very early stage and treat it quickly. Currently, cancers can be cured at an early age, so imagine the cure rate when we will be able to predict and analyze how and at what speed the disease is progressing.
According to Sir Francis Bacon, “Knowledge itself is power”. Data is the knowledge that will eventually become powerful, and the cloud is the one wielding that power. We are entering a new era, where healthcare will become more affordable, accessible, and safer overall.
Tech Vedika is “Your Dependable Technology Partner”. We enable healthcare service providers with AI/ML, Cloud Services, IoT, and Application Development.
