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From improved diagnosing to enhanced treatment methodologies for a multitude of illnesses and diseases, the healthcare industry has benefited tremendously over the past decade thanks to advancements in technology. One of the most notable improvements has come about as the result of cloud technology – an increased ability to provide healthcare to remote populations.
In India, approximately 70% of the population lives in villages, many of which have limited access to healthcare providers, if any. Thankfully though, health technology specialists are tapping into the $125bn healthcare market and creating cloud-based equipment, such as all-flash storage arrays, and solutions that provide point of care diagnostic abilities along with telemedicine antidotes. These digital health breakthroughs are empowering more than 8,000 healthcare technicians to serve as proctors for physicians in rural areas.
When data is shared through cloud-based health programs, it enables health workers, including physicians, nurses, and health technician specialists, to link their data through shared networks located at central medical facilities. The data can be integrated into today’s most accurate diagnostic systems, allowing extremely effective medical objectives and treatment methods to be developed and implemented.
A cloud-based healthcare program proves to be of benefit because it operates within a large pool of unique, easily accessible useable resources that are virtualised. The resources have the ability to be dynamically reconfigured so that they are able to adjust to a variable scale, or load, which then provides users of the program to perform optimum utilisation of the resources stored in the cloud pool.
As with any type of healthcare solution, there are challenges that must be appropriately addressed. Cloud-based computing, especially within the healthcare field, requires lots of maintenance and training. Physicians and healthcare technicians must not only know how to utilise cloud-based software programs and equipment, but owners of healthcare clinics and medical centres must also address all legal issues that coincide with using cloud-based technology.
One program which is cloud-based and increasing healthcare to remote populations is ReMeDi. This program provides a unique form of video and audio capabilities between physicians and patients located in rural areas. The video and audio features allow real-time consultations to take place, which can be critical and even life-saving in some situations.
Take, for example, a patient who arrives at a village centre. A health technician takes vitals and performs basic diagnostic testing, followed then by adding the data and information to an electronic health record. The information is then shared via the appropriate cloud-based healthcare program and viewed by an offsite physician; this physician can quickly create a treatment plan, as well as prescribe any medications that may be needed to fight off a deadly infection.
Systematic innovation has always been a major factor in the development of advanced healthcare. Innovation drives cost-effectiveness as well as efficiency and high quality resolutions to today’s healthcare concerns. Cloud-based technology is proving to be a breakthrough in modern healthcare tactics, allowing research outcomes to be greatly improved, thus changing the face of IT. Data handling problems, coupled with complex and even sometimes unavailable or expensive computational methods have always resulted in research complications, especially within the biomedical research field. Cloud-based programs, though, are showing a lot of potential in being able to overcome these hurdles.
Read more: Why the healthcare industry’s move to cloud computing is accelerating