Many different industries are looking toward cloud computing as a way to improve quality of services while also cutting costs. Healthcare in particular is leveraging cloud to integrate technologies such as picture archiving and communication systems (PACS), radiology information systems (RIS), healthcare information systems (HIS) and the clinical information systems (CIS), according to new research from Frost & Sullivan.
Integrating these technologies allows all relevant patient and imaging data to be available in one place and be accessible across various locations. Such enterprise-wide data sharing can help healthcare service providers increase efficiency at nominal expenditure, according to Frost & Sullivan healthcare analyst Raghuraman Madanagopal.
“By using cloud computing, the expenditure on hardware and storage space would be cut down, as cloud storage can cost almost 10 times less than regular storage systems,” Madanagopal said in a statement. “In addition, cloud storage implementation may result in a drastic readjustment of the amount spent on training resources to manage the storage systems.”
Frost & Sullivan said that implementing cloud computing technologies appropriately can help European healthcare providers improve the quality of medical services and the efficiency of operations, share information across geographic locations, and manage expenditures. Data storage and data loss prevention, maintaining patient information records and authorized sharing of information are several areas where the healthcare industry can leverage the cloud.
With a mature PACS market across Europe, healthcare providers are in need of additional storage systems to back their data up, which can make the process of storing data into an expensive endeavor, affecting the operational budget, Frost & Sullivan added. Risk of data loss is also a major concern for most healthcare providers since it has a critical impact on the operational efficiency of hospitals.
That said, cloud computing adoption still remains in the early stages across Europe, with off-putting factors such as security and compliance concerns, shortage of qualified personnel to shift data from hardware to the cloud, and poor broadband penetration or low internet speeds in many parts of Europe.
Still, cloud computing and its services provide hospitals across Europe with viable options to improve treatment quality, which will encourage large-scale implementation in the years ahead, Madanagopal said.
“Cloud service providers are constantly innovating themselves and improving their security standards in order to comply with different regulations and ensure high security,” he added. “The advantages of cloud computing in terms of storage size and storage efficiency, data loss prevention and facilitating synchronized and authorized sharing of data can change the dynamics of the European healthcare informatics industry in the course of time.”
Edited by
Alisen Downey
