Many hospitals and healthcare facilities resort to using outdated computers and software for locating your medical history even today, which firstly, makes it hard to locate and time-consuming, and secondly, the information may not be up to date! While these systems may be one notch up from the almost obsolete paper file systems, they are yet short of the level of efficiency these systems demand.

The solution? The conversion of healthcare facilities to using electronic health records. It was estimated that 2015 was to be the year in which most providers will be using cloud services, but even now the healthcare industry lags behind and has a long way to go.

Where the Healthcare Sector Is Going with the Cloud

It is expected that before long, there will come a day when nurses and doctors will use tablets and apps to easily access databases for medical information. As per the study conducted in 2014 by the Health Information and Management Systems Society, their Analytics Division assessed that around 83% of IT healthcare executives were utilizing cloud services.

Earlier in the year, there was another report that cloud services in the healthcare sector would grow from an estimated $3.73 billion in the year 2015 to a staggering total of around $9.5 billion by the year 2020!

Doctors need to utilize their time in the best way and they need swift access to updated information at all times. That is why having access to a cloud database of patient medical records is the solution to the problem.

A research analyst released a research guide in which he stipulated that by the year 2019, the public cloud service providers will in fact be handling around 20% of the IT workload of healthcare providers. He also estimated that more realistic cloud computing solutions are now available in the market.

Specialized Services in the Sector

Along with the growth in the overall business circle, specialization is an essential component. The sector has seen the introduction of an increasing number of different small cloud providers, who focus on various areas of healthcare to make sure that more consumer-focused technologies are made available.

It is very much possible for a platform to easily integrate the consumer device and medical data, which may be recorded on fitness trackers. This data can then be processed and analyzed by healthcare providers, wellness program providers, and pharmaceutical companies.

Another important aspect is the integration of different tools which can be compatible with different cloud services. This gives doctors a unique leverage to assess patients’ conditions when located in rural and even off-the-grid areas.

One of the biggest hurdles in the adoption of cloud computing systems, however, is security risks. The cloud providers need to be HIPAA compliant and essentially viewed by a third party. It is also important to note that there are certain distinctions between the private and public cloud services in this regard.

Security for public cloud hosting is the responsibility of the cloud service provider, while private cloud security is a matter for healthcare providing organizations to consider.

Even though the cloud integration in healthcare is still somewhat lacking, the pace is picking up and innovation is making headway in the sector. The future success of the healthcare sector is thus closely linked with the complete adoption of cloud computing systems.