The Evolution of Cloud-Based Data Storage in Healthcare
Finding important details from previous medical records is the key to a proper medical investigation. For a long time, doctors were informed about these.
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Key takeaways
- Finding important details from previous medical records is the key to a proper medical investigation.
- Moreover, this industry has way too many stakeholders - doctors, patients, nurses, administrators, government, etc.
- Many countries already have such policies in place, and many other countries are framing policies in this regard.
Finding important details from previous medical records is the key to a proper medical investigation. For a long time, doctors were informed about these records either verbally by patients or through handwritten records in medical books. Both these methods are flawed. In the former case, the concerned patient might not know what details are important. In the latter case, it is not humanely possible to go through years of written documents. This is where digital records play a crucial role in the healthcare industry. Digitally stored data can be easily accessible to patients as well as doctors using keywords and links. Moreover, integration with modern technologies like AI and IoT can improve user experience.
A prime example is monitoring blood sugar or blood pressure at home and linking it with health-tracking apes. An update to digital storage is cloud storage, which increases interoperability and offers more freedom. In this article, we will explore the evolution of cloud-based data storage in the healthcare industry.
The Evolution #
According to a report, the market for cloud technology in the healthcare industry is supposed to increase by 25.54 billion USD in two years. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought a paradigm shift regarding how service is delivered. Social distancing norms have prompted patients to opt for more online consultations. People, during the pandemic, were afraid to visit clinics or hospitals. Home-delivered diagnostic services have become more popular. E-commerce sites have reported more than a double increase in sales of at-home health monitoring kits.
Consequently, a lot of health-tracking apes have popped up to integrate these data into one place for users. Thus, the pandemic has boosted the adoption of cloud-based health technologies, IoT devices and AI. However, for a long time, this was different. These technologies’ major advancements and public adoption started around 2016-17. This is quite late when compared to other industries. It is essential to understand why there has been a late adoption of cloud technology in healthcare.
The government highly regulates the healthcare sector. The cost of risky errors is much higher than in any other sector. Moreover, this industry has way too many stakeholders - doctors, patients, nurses, administrators, government, etc. So many moving parts and gears in the industry make it tough to adapt to new technologies. A huge factor to consider in this is privacy. Amidst increasing incidents of data leaks and cybercrimes, it is important to keep healthcare data safe. After all, peoples’ lives depend on it. Thus, any hasty adaption of such technology wouldn’t have been the right decision. As mentioned earlier, how a doctor treats a patient depends on these data. Any discrepancies can cost lives.
The evolution of cloud computing in this field can be divided into phases. These are:
- Phase 1(2007-09): Cloud computing was mainly used for back-end processes to streamline administration. They contributed to reducing costs incurred by physical labor.
- Phase 2(2010-12): Scholars started studying security systems to perfect them.
- Phase 3(2013-15): Bioinformatics enabled big data for health services to start evolving.
- Phase 4(2016-17): This was when machine learning-enabled mobile health technologies came to light, and people started adopting them. There has been a rapid increase in the market of cloud technologies ever since.
Thus, a long time was spent studying and exploring these technologies before deploying them to the public.
Conclusion #
Cloud computing has made healthcare more accessible and efficient. A host of new services have started, which no one could imagine before. We can have all our medical information in one place. A whole ecosystem is being created, which benefits everyone. Cloud computing addresses the issues of storage, bandwidth and cost optimization through data-driven resource allocation. However, the cooperation of government and private players is necessary to implement it as an umbrella scheme. One example can be India’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Health mission which plans to provide a health card to every eligible citizen. This health card will be a one-stop solution for all medical health-related data. The benefits of such a scale should be inclusive and accessible to even the lower sections of society. The digital divide can be detrimental to this. Many countries already have such policies in place, and many other countries are framing policies in this regard.
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