Rick Blaisdell| Cloudtweaks
As we discussed in an older article, cloud computing technologies are on the rise in the healthcare industry. From large hospitals to physicians and administrators to small medical services providers, all have seen cost savings from implementing and utilizing cloud-based solutions. Today we will focus more on small medical services providers and on how they can use cloud computing technologies. Here are the cloud-based solutions most used by doctors and physicians.
Cloud storage. Information storage is of major importance for doctors as they need to keep medical records, notes, test results, cardiology and radiology images, available and secure. There are two alternatives when it comes to cloud storage solutions for medical services: the electronic medical record solution (EMR) and the electronic health record solution (EHR). According to the National Alliance for Health Information Technology (NAHIT), EMR is “the electronic record of health-related information on an individual that is created, gathered, managed, and consulted by licensed clinicians and staff from a single organization who are involved in the individual’s health and care.” EHR is the aggregate electronic record of health-related information on an individual that is created and gathered cumulatively across more than one health care organization and is managed and consulted by licensed clinicians and staff involved in the individual’s health and care”.
Cloud collaboration. Doctors and physicians are using cloud-based collaborative tools and mobilized solutions such as email and calendars to improve communication, reduce data breaches and increase productivity.
Cloud-based management systems. These solutions provide billing and scheduling functionalities for doctors, physicians and administrative staff. These tools make scheduling appointments, making cancelations or moving them around as needed much easier than legacy non cloud based solutions.
Some physicians and doctors working in small medical clinics already use cloud-based tools without their employer’s approval, a situation that increases the risk for sensitive data to be disclosed. As a medical services provider, you can’t just throw the IT resources and patient information into the cloud without some considerable prior investigations and assurances that the new cloud environment is compliant. Although cloud computing technologies are on the rise in the healthcare industry, choosing the right solutions that increase the ROI, streamline processes and ensure patient privacy remains an issue as only a few solutions available in the market today meet all of these requirements.
