If US healthcare costs are holding cities back, cloud services might save the day.
Consider how healthcare costs affect the urban ecosystem: As the cost of in-patient care rises, premiums go up. Citizens spend more on healthcare and less in the local economy. Hospitals reduce staff, which likewise inflates unemployment. It all adds up to a situation that pressures the health of citizens, which in turn can lead to out-migration and urban decay.
Cloud services can alleviate this domino effect by helping hospitals reduce costs associated with the technology and the expertise needed to handle clinical and non-clinical data.
In a newsletter last year, for instance, cloud provider Agfa Healthcare summed up its case for using clouds instead of expensive IT storage to host medical image files:
Clinical imaging ... accounts for the bulk of hospitals' digital information and will become an even more significant portion of hospital data, growing from 43% of data in 2010 to 52% [in] 2015.
Although the cost of storage hardware actually drops between 15-30% per year, the Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) of storage continues to rise, with Operational Expenditures (OPEX) accounting for as much as 80% of the cost. The explosive data growth makes managing and reducing OPEX the parameter that healthcare organizations really need to focus on the immediate future.
Cloud services could also provide more efficient and faster launching pads for healthcare applications, both clinical and non-clinical. And in terms of security, the additional digital safeguards built into a service can only help the miserable record most healthcare organizations are showing. In 2013 alone, the Privacy Rights Clearinghouse made public 30 data breaches involving 320,592 patient records.
The Department of Health and Human Services in Austin, Texas, was among 30 US healthcare facilities reporting data breaches so far this year. An unknown number of records were compromised when a dishonest employee was suspected of having used patient records for credit card applications.
All these benefits could also help recoup some of the money the government has invested in city healthcare networks. Our latest information graphic "Cities Get On Board With Health Information IT," describes how government funding is helping to digitize medical data in a range of selected cities nationwide. Cloud services, specifically infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) offerings, could help connect these kinds of networks to a broader range of systems and applications, which in turn could help bring about some of the promised savings.
Click the image below to view the "Cities Get On Board With Health Information IT" infographic:
There's some indication that healthcare providers are catching on to cloud advantages. In a recent report, "Cloud Computing Market In Healthcare Industry," Transparency Market Research estimates that healthcare cloud computing will grow at a CAGR of 21.3 percent from 2012 through 2018. In 2011, the report states, the market for healthcare cloud services was $1.82 billion; by 2018, it could reach $6.79 billion.
Hopefully, a lot of this money will be headed to the cities where it's needed most.
Having a e-record helps keeps track The cloud services has a huge potential in Healthcare sector.
The place where I work, has small medical setups, wherein I can go check my weight, BMI, Cholestrol index, Blood Pressure regularly. It all gets stored under my name/account. It displays the curves wonderfully and helps keep track my all the vital reports. Having such a system for everybody and that too accessible from every corner of the country can be helpful.
Here in Mexico, we tend to just look out for ourselves and forget about everything else, in corporate world is a "must". I think it's wrong, but it's just the way it is.
Going on the same line of the post, many Hospitals have their own medical records, and the insurance companies have got their own as well. So if you need to visit any hospital it is truly a disaster to have the latest version and studies you've got. Many patients complain about how this bureaucracy may endanger them (specially in the E.R.).
This is where the Coopetence should take place. If every clinic, insurance and hospital share their medical records (of course we should see some security issues and such, but that's for another day) then there shouldn't be any trouble filling endless papers for each doctor. Yes, they may be direct competence business, but for the "clients" and what's more important their life, you could always ease up a bit their worries. And then as a business you should focus on having a better service and many other things, instead of hoarding information that might be vital.
I think there are a few insurance companies and clinic laboratories that are doing this, they send the lab results to anyone that the patient requests, and sometimes they even do that automatically because of the history of the patient.
Re: healthcare Clearly, Kaiser is setting an example here. I think it is worth doing a bit more research to see how the other big healthcare corporations stack up to this standard. Stand by for more on this topic.
Re: healthcare Hi James, Its aweseome isnt it? I mean i was seeing a specialist but every time i would go it would cot me $30 just to see him and another $6 for parking, and if he put me on meds it would cost an additional $5 or $30 extra. but all he would do is go over my labs and feel my arms and legs. nothing more nothing less. So i now email him after my labs and ask him if I need to go on any meds or go into see him. Saves me at least $36 that I can use on my son or household.
I have the droid app as well. Aweseome time saver.
Re: healthcare Hi Dave, I also have Kaiser Permanete through my work and their web interface is ideal. Lab results, x-rays, medical visits, perscriptions are all availabe without going to the Dr.'s office. This is a great time saver and even to make an appointment. I have the Kaiser app on my android and what a handy little time saver it is.
Re: healthcare I really see this all starting with Hospitals then going to the clinics. if a small clinic has the resources to get all there records online thats just one step. But the systems should be compatible with one another (hospital and clinics). Everyone within the system can have an email address set up with it, everyone who has access can use the system to contact their providers and get results and advice and the like. Everyone wins and it brings down the cost of care.
Re: healthcare @Mary, thats the great thing about Kaiser, I think that other Hospital Chains are going the same route. But small independant health care providers (small clinics) probably dont have the resources to get all of there records on line, much less in the cloud. Look for all the big hospital chains to get these health records and other services out before the small clinics and lesser funded hospitals do.
Mary it just saves me time and money when it comes to getting my results and or waiting for a call back that may not come. its really great.
Re: healthcare Wow, Davedgreat2000. I am totally envious. My doctor has electronic records but none of this is offered. I wonder whether a lot of other physicians are only going so far with automating records, then stopping before they get to some of these great features, like mobile-accessible test results.
Given that my doctor's office must use live humans (ie highly paid nurse practitioners) to return calls about tests, I think money would be saved by taking the extra steps toward apps like the ones you mention.
healthcare My healthcare provider through work is Kaiser, they have online medical records. however, i'm not sure if they are using the cloud. All i can say is that i love the way i can now communicate with my doctors, the lab etc. via email and the web. i love how easy it is to make an appointment, see my lab results and to just ask questions. its amazing. i can also do this from my smart phone using an app. Its great and i'm sure saving money on doctors visits because now i just ask my doctor to tell me what to do based on my lab tests.
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