The healthcare industry has experienced a technological revolution over the last few years, with new developments changing how care is provided. Cloud computing and artificial intelligence (AI) are the two technologies that can potentially transform healthcare significantly. AI and cloud computing can improve patient outcomes, streamline administrative tasks, and revolutionize how healthcare providers store, share, and analyze patient data.

Fasten your belt and prepare to commence a world of technological innovation and cutting-edge advancements in the healthcare industry. 

The future of healthcare lies in the effective fusion of cloud computing and AI technology. It improves collaboration and communication between healthcare providers, personalizes healthcare, and enhances diagnostics and treatment. This blog will bring to light all you need to know about the healthcare industry upgrading with cloud computing and Artificial Intelligence.

Healthcare Innovations: Leading the Way to a Better Future

India is developing a national digital framework for a national digital health ecosystem. A CAGR of 27.41% is expected by 2024 for India's digital healthcare market to reach INR 485.43 billion. In 2018, there were 116.61 billion rupees of digital healthcare revenue in India. A key initiative in that direction is adopting electronic health records for everyone in the community. 

Nowadays, health organizations use innovative technologies to transform care delivery in the country and stimulate a positive impact on the healthcare ecosystem to cope with the challenges afflicting the country's health system.

The following are some of the emerging technologies that can make a real difference:

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

With AI and Machine Learning (ML), we can simulate the physiology of the human body to predict chronic disease progression based on today's choices. As a result of these simulations, healthcare providers can better understand the preferences and therapeutics available to them, as well as their effects on the outcomes of patients and the associated costs. 

In addition, AI assists healthcare providers in managing diseases holistically, coordinating care plans, and helping patients adhere to their healthcare treatment plans. According to reports, administrative costs account for 30 percent of healthcare costs. Maintaining records and paying bills can be automated with the help of artificial intelligence.

Cloud Computing

The importance of coordinating doctors, nurses, and divisions has increased as healthcare organizations across the country move toward value-based care. Thanks to cloud computing, obtaining patient records, which once required much time and effort, has become much more efficient. With cloud computing, businesses can store data centrally and access it wherever they are. In addition, cloud infrastructure offers the flexibility of reducing or increasing health data storage based on patient demand.

In the present day, many healthcare providers are offering IoT-enabled gadgets to patients. Via the cloud, the data generated by these devices can be sent directly from the device to the physician. In this way, better care and faster diagnosis are possible.

Importance of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Now, let’s explore the importance of cloud computing in the healthcare industry:

#1 Efficient Electronic Medical Record-Keeping

The aims of cloud computing in healthcare are to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of medical services, to involve patients and families better, to improve care coordination, and to protect patient privacy and security.

When it comes to health records, most hospitals, and healthcare institutions have abandoned the practice of paper record-keeping in favor of cloud storage in healthcare. 

The electronic health record is stored in the cloud and is updated electronically by doctors, nurses, and other healthcare professionals to maintain the patient's health record.

#2 Streamlined Collaborative Patient Care

Cloud storage of electronic medical information has simplified the process of collaborative patient care because it simplifies the sharing of knowledge and documents. Cloud storage makes it easy for clinicians to collectively see or share a patient's medical records.

Historically, medical places likely kept patients' medical records in separate files at each doctor, specialist, or hospital they visited. It made it impossible for doctors to work together on the patient's care.

The widespread use of cloud storage in hospitals, particularly concerning electronic health records, makes it easier for doctors to share information, see the outcomes of interactions between other physicians and the patient, and provide care that considers what the patient has previously experienced with other doctors.

#3 Reduced Data Storage Costs

Setting up on-site storage necessitates an initial investment in hardware, including purchasing hard drives to store data and extra IT infrastructure to keep that data secure and available at all times.

Cloud-based healthcare solution providers manage the administration, development, and maintenance of cloud data storage services, allowing them to save initial expenses and focus on what they do best: care for patients.

#4 Robust Data Security

Formerly, physicians who stored reams of patient records in file cabinets ran the great danger of data loss or harm. Paper documents are readily misplaced or stolen and can be destroyed during a flood, fire, or natural disaster. The papers' lack of protection posed a substantial risk to patient safety.

Once the EMR mandate is in place, healthcare providers may set up their on-site data storage infrastructure; however, this would necessitate the retention of IT employees competent in data security to guarantee that patient data is secure.

As an alternative, healthcare cloud service providers have been able to outsource data storage and security. These providers offer patient EMR data storage that conforms with legally mandated data security and privacy criteria. Cloud has ensured that every healthcare practitioner can access a data storage solution that protects sensitive patient information.

#5 Scalability and flexibility are key benefits of cloud-based solutions.

Beyond the initial cost savings of using the cloud over in-house data storage, organizations profited from quicker upgrades and lower scaling costs in the long run. Cloud storage solution providers for healthcare employ economies of scale to reduce data management expenses for their customers, which include hospitals and healthcare institutions.

Healthcare cloud computing also provides extra flexibility due to the traditional pay-as-you-go data storage pricing structure. When healthcare institutions develop their own data storage systems, they must determine their required capacity and invest money to extend it when storage space runs out. With cloud-based solutions, all it takes is a phone call to your service provider to increase your data storage capacity to the levels you require. Cloud-based healthcare solutions are fully scalable and can expand in unison with your business.

#6 Enhanced Patient Safety

Cloud-based EMRs have the potential to improve patient safety significantly. 

For example, a mentally ill patient in California visited hundreds of hospital emergency departments and walk-in clinics for a year, each time submitting to testing and hoping for medical prescriptions. Because of cloud EMR technologies, healthcare practitioners at each institution visited by the patient had direct visibility into interactions between the patient and physicians at other locations.

It prevented the patient from getting over-prescribed pharmaceuticals that may have caused her significant injury. It saved the hospital a lot of money by avoiding tests she had previously undergone at other institutions.

#7 Drives Medical Research

Future medical researchers will gain considerably from digitalizing healthcare information through cloud-based data storage in the same way that cloud computing will enable healthcare providers to harness big data and analytics in managing their facilities.

Aside from the collection of vast data sets, the cloud enables medical researchers to access hitherto unattainable levels of computational power. Medical researchers who wanted to analyze massive data sets had to wait weeks for a time at one of the nation's supercomputing centers, even as late as 2005. The cloud allows researchers to access supercomputer-like analytical capacity at a fraction of the cost.

#8 Drives Data Interoperability

We will enter the next decade of digital health growth with an increasingly important interoperability issue between connected medical devices, medical technology, and different systems and apps that store patient information.

Because there is no established standard for communication and data transmission between devices, many of the benefits of a connected healthcare environment are being missed by product developers that create IoT-enabled devices for the healthcare industry.

For wearable connected devices, mobile health applications, and electronic health records to interact freely, enabling rapid data transfer and analysis, cloud computing will shortly be the primary platform for storing and maintaining all that data. With the advent of the cloud, healthcare organizations can enhance their cloud capabilities in the coming years, avoiding the need to change with the changing landscape.

Final Say

Healthcare service cannot be excluded from the transformative power of technology. Even though it requires highly skilled individuals with many years of study, it also involves a lot of infrastructure and tools. Globally, healthcare practitioners are better equipped to manage in-hospital and post-hospitalized patients thanks to big data, wearable medical devices, virtual reality, blockchains, Telehealth, and more.

Through cloud computing, the healthcare sector has reduced huge IT-related expenditures to offer consumers state-of-the-art healthcare services at affordable prices. With cloud computing, you can quickly implement PaaS, SaaS, and other service models without in-house technical staff.

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