Why should healthcare organizations adopt cloud technologies in the post-covid era?

Next-Generation Medical Image Management: Cloud, AI and Beyond

 

How is healthtech shaping the future of the healthcare industry?

 

reimagine nearly every facet of their operations. We analyze the industries poised to thrive in a post-Covid world.

The worst of COVID seems to be behind us soon. Sure, the battle is not over yet, but with almost half the population fully vaccinated in the U.S., it seems unlikely that we’ll have to bear its full brunt again. A lot of groups or entities have played a crucial role in getting us to this stage, the most important of them, of course, being the frontline health workers. But there is one sector that has played a massive part in combating COVID but probably hasn’t got its due credit – healthtech.

 

How has healthtech contributed to the fight against COVID?

From telehealth medicine services to vaccine distribution platforms, technology has played a vital role in battling the pandemic. Here’s how:

Tracking, Testing, Tracing: When infection rates were soaring higher every day, rapid advances in healthTech enabled doctors and labs to keep up with skyrocketing testing demands, track infections accurately, and conduct comprehensive contact tracing efforts to slow down the pace the virus spread.

 

Cutting-edge disease modeling and management tools: Today, in the middle of a successful vaccination drive, testing helps healthcare officials identify where variant strains of the virus are most prevalent, allowing them to nip potential catastrophes in the bud. The modeling tools developed by healthtech companies have also been crucial to zero in on the impact of COVID on the parameters of age, gender, ethnicity, and even the presence and severity of exhibited symptoms.

While these advancements indeed helped contain the spread of COVID, that’s not the whole picture – these analytics will remain even after the pandemic, and we can adapt its use for new paradigms in healthcare!

 

Telehealth: Telehealth has allowed healthcare consumers to digitally connect with their physicians to receive a diagnosis of care in their own homes and avail themselves of a spectrum of services for healthy living. Telehealth has placed treatment in the hands of the consumer.

And as we move to the post-covid era, telehealth will become even more prominent as busy consumers can more easily schedule calls with their providers and continue with their daily routines instead of having to come into an office setting. Consequently, the need for scalable and reliable telehealth technology and supporting infrastructure will also be more imminent than ever before, which is where healthtech companies come into the picture.

 

Facilitating Enterprise Migration to the health cloud solutions

Cloud solutions already had a foot in the door in the healthcare industry pre-covid. But the pandemic pushed healthcare providers to migrate to the cloud faster and with more urgency. Why? Here are a few reasons:

Cloud-based technology was extensively used to scale solutions for testing services throughout the pandemic. Healthcare providers married clinical assays with cloud technology to rapidly deliver test results. They also found that cloud platforms increase capabilities for the more rapid scaling of testing ability. But more importantly, the migration to the cloud was driven more by consumers than providers. 

The pandemic changed the way consumers interact with the health system. In some respects, they are more willing to share personal data for better diagnosis and treatment. Patients are comfortable using at-home diagnostics across the board. With cloud-based service, they can have 24×7 access to their health records leading to improved patient engagement and further realization of patient consumerism. To manage the new systems and influx of data, organizations had to transition to a cloud-based model. 

Arguably the most significant driving force behind cloud migration is that it provides companies with lower healthcare costs. Healthcare companies that shift to the cloud could see substantial savings by eliminating payments towards scaling, maintaining, or developing operation resources for managing patients’ health data. Also, migrating to the cloud allows clinicians and patients to communicate better and be more proactive in health management.

 

Expanding healthcare applications of Cloud Computing

In 2021, healthcare companies have begun to realize the vast capabilities and functionalities of the cloud. They are no longer just storing data on the cloud; they are now using the technology to become more efficient, optimize workflows, and shift more workload to the cloud. They anticipate that shifting to the cloud will help them grow their business sustainably and that the first movers could potentially be among the market leaders of the future. 

The application of cloud technology in the biopharma and healthcare industry will continue to expand and improve on numerous functions that we have come to rely on during the pandemic, including telemedicine and virtual medication adherence. And this is where healthtech companies come into the picture. These companies will play a critical role in developing new cloud-based technologies and devices to diagnose, monitor, and manage treatment, ultimately driving the industry closer to the goal of patient consumerism.

 

Safeguarding health data through enhanced Cloud Security

As more and more data moves from on-site data facilities into the cloud, healthcare companies will have to address some real security questions, most importantly thwarting service attacks and ransomware. Hacking collectives have made multiple attempts to break security measures for pharma companies, hospitals, and even regulatory agencies throughout the pandemic.

So when moving to a cloud-based platform, it has become increasingly important for healthcare providers to ensure that security best practices are in place to protect sensitive patient data. Healthcare companies that don’t have the infrastructure or personnel to guard against such major attacks will partner with healthtech market leaders to solve this problem.

HealthTech companies will indirectly be responsible for protecting the vital health data of millions of consumers. But creating new technology to secure the data that passes through each cloud platform is something that they are well acquainted with.

HealthTech leaders like ixlayer have taken several measures to protect cloud-stored data from external threats. These measures include data encryption, network firewalls, two-factor authentication, and the use of security keys to access information. Another protective measure tech companies can take is session settings with short durations.

This means that unless reset, sessions will expire and require re-entry. Intrusion detection programs are also a key feature for Cloud security measures. These procedures call for the monitoring of every account accessing the system and provide for immediate notifications to be sent in the event of irregular or unauthorized access.

 

Final thoughts

Technology has played an essential role in managing and combating the COVID-19 pandemic. In the future, it is evident that the increased use of advanced technology will continue to play a crucial role in the industry, and as a consequence, so will healthtech companies.