Cloud Computing and Health Care

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 07:30:00 EDT

While the whole world is embracing the new religion of IT infrastructure, Cloud Computing, there have been a few apprehensions among industries which deal with hyper-sensitive data. Health Industry, for instance, is continuously looking at innovative ways to reduce healthcare costs and improve customer service but at the same time wants to exhibit compliance with the guidelines set by its administrative bodies, HIPAA and HITECH. With IT always remaining an easy target when it comes to reducing operating costs, this article advocates the adoption of cloud computing in healthcare while maintaining the same level of protection mandated by the administrative bodies. According to 21st Annual HIMSS Leadership Survey, operating budgets are expected to increase in 2011, driven by the overall growth in number of systems and technologies and additional staffing required complying with governmental regulations. In the same survey, approximately 40 percent of respondents reported that IT can have the most impact on patient care by improving clinical and quality outcomes. This clearly suggests that healthcare organizations in US are truly concerned about their existing IT infrastructure and transforming it to streamline and optimize their processes, improve efficiency and gain flexibility. While an array of options are available but with limited IT budget at the disposal and pressure to reduce ever-increasing healthcare costs and staffing costs in US compels the healthcare IT departments to adopt measures that delivers a significantly high ROI. With the advent of cloud-computing, organizations see an opportunity to re-examine their IT ecosystem and tap into the services and advantages offered by different cloud models. This is not easy as they will have to negotiate the flip sides which jeopardize the adoption of cloud computing.

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Cloud Computing and Health Care