Lots of good information here. I'm not surprised the healthcare industry isn't jumping on the cloud. My impression is the industry has been slow to even adopt paperless charts/records and intake/checkout information. The reason isn't unwillingness, it's IT systems within the organizations aren't compatible. In the US, HIPA requirements probably haven't helped concerns about security. But it's possible the cloud can help overcome some of those system limitations or at least provide a solution. (I'm not as cloud-literate as I should be, but I believe that's one of the cloud's selling points.)
Over the last four years many physicians have adopted electronic health records. Here's a few statistics for you. According to recent numbers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), between 2008 and 2011, the percentage of physicians who adopted basic electronic health records in their practice doubled from 17% to 34%, with adoption among primary care doctors nearly doubling during this period from 20% to 39%. And more than half of office-based physicians (57%) now use electronic health records (EHRs).
That said, the KLAS study suggests there is hesitation to put patient data in the cloud. When you think about the sensitivity of a patient's medical data which often includes personal identifiable information, and when you consider the penalties of violating HIPAA regulations, there is a genuine concern about the security and privacy of patient data.
It will be interesting to see over the next few years if hospitals increase their use of cloud computing, but for now, at least according to this report, health IT managers are taking a wait and see attitude.
Thanks for reading my article, and for sharing your thoughts.
Interesting article on adoption of the cloud in healthcare .Cloud can help healthcare providers and personnel with rapid deployment of services and scalability .Just watched an informative video presentation on cloud computing,Technology benefits , providing insight into cost savings and strategies for adoption@@http://bitly.com/uMMik3
Nicole as of now, cloud is using in health care sector only for data storage. I mean something like online data storage similar to Google Doc and hotmail SkyDrive. That means they are not using the full potential of the technology. So along with that, they have to implement the other software utilization facilities like hospital management, online billing system, fixing appointment or consultation with doctor etc.
I remembered Google did have a project called Google Health for synchronizing patients data to the cloud. This was ambitious. The project has been discontinued sometime ago. Besides security reasons, goverments are ot really interested, aren't they?
Thanks Nicole! It always helps to have data rather than anecdotes. I have several friends in nursing, and of course, my own healthcare network. Only one doctor--my son's--electronically sends prescriptions to the pharmacy. Not a scientific sampling, but we do gripe amongst ourselves sometimes...
But human nature being what it is, people are more moved by anecdotes than data. That the gist of the quote (mis)attributed to Stalin, , "The death of one man is a tragedy, the death of millions is a statistic."
It's corroborated by what works in marketing, which is telling a compelling story rather than merely conveying information.
At best, the doctors I use may call in or fax a prescription. Even though they now use electronic notebooks in place of paper files, much is still done on paper, particularly the insurance forms.
The heathcare sector does not seem interested in changing over to using cloud computing. Perhaps if other sectors start to use cloud computing more, heathcare may eventually follow.
Health sector adopting cloud computing at early stage far too risky. Though, we cant under-estimate its commercial growth, but there is need for more collaborative approach among the providers so as to provide very reliable security. More so, I think tackling security in this area needs more cohesion and common strategic approach especially from public & hybrid cloud providers.
"Health sector adopting cloud computing at early stage far too risky."
Of course there are risks associated with any kind of technology, but cloud computing trend is irrerversible and healthcare providers will benefit a lot if they start their gradual migration to the cloud now instead of waiting for its maturiry before adoption.
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