How Healthcare Benefits From Cloud Computing

The fast-paced evolution of technology has empowered humanity with countless tools and solutions that continue to aid us in many endeavors. Amid this ocean of technologies, one name that is quickly climbing the popularity charts is cloud computing. But what is cloud computing really and how does it help us? Well, let’s get the basics out of the way first — cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing services, such as software, servers, analytics, databases, intelligence, etc. via the internet, i.e. the cloud. The definition alone offers an ample hint of the virtually limitless scope of cloud computing applications across the broad spectrum of businesses. None of the industries that have found commendable use of this technology has proven to be quite as impressive as cloud computing’s application in the healthcare sector.

In the context of this particular sector, cloud computing delivers highly agile solutions that enable hospitals and other medical facilities to access and use servers remotely. But to what end? Plenty of them starting from storing extensive amounts of data and that too safely to ensuring mobility and accessibility no matter what happens — there are so many benefits cloud computing offers to the healthcare industry. And that is why it has already found such widespread acceptance as well — researchers believe that the healthcare cloud computing market across the globe will touch $35 billion by 2022, with a CAGR of 11.6 percent. Suffice it to say that cloud computing has plenty to offer to this sector. Some of these benefits have been discussed below in detail for your perusal.

    1. Cut down costs: Despite efforts by everyone in the ecosystem, healthcare costs continue to climb for both patients and hospitals. But with cloud computing, you gain newer opportunities for cost reduction. Take data storage, for example; with cloud computing, not only are hospitals able to store an extensive amount of data and at a fraction of the cost associated with other conventional tools. As a result, hospitals of all scales can easily access all the data and information they need to ensure the delivery of better quality of care without ever needing to fret over the costs.
    2. Better quality of care: Of course, the constant endeavor is to see to it that one can deliver high-quality care to patients. However, such efforts are often thwarted by lack of communication, impediments to fruitful collaboration, etc. But with cloud computing in healthcare and other professionals in the ecosystem gain the ability to access requisite information as and when they need it, communicate with patients and each other, and more. This, consequently, is conducive to better decision making and achievement of improved levels of care.
    3. Easy scalability: There are countless other long-term benefits of using cloud computing in this sector, including an eased scaling cloud-computing-based operations process. And not only that, but cloud computing also brings renewed levels of agility to the table, allowing healthcare companies to use and seamlessly scale their systems as and when needed. It also helps companies rein in costs.
    4. Improved patient safety: There is a world of cloud-based solutions that have proven invaluable to healthcare. Take Electronic Health Records (EHRs), for example; their contribution to the cause of improving patient safety is immense. It enables doctors and care providers to maintain the patients’ medical history, including their treatment plan, medications, tests, etc. Such information allows doctors to make informed decisions, no matter where or which facility a patient may be getting treatment in.

As you can see, cloud computing in healthcare has much to offer from substantially better care levels for patients to enabling significant cost reductions — quite a bit of value to be gleaned from this modern technological marvel.