Healthcare has a connectivity problem. Health data is often siloed and difficult to access, leaving clinicians struggling to obtain the information they need when they need it most. The data exists—it's just out of reach. This is especially true in radiology, where images and exam data can sit on legacy servers, available only to clinicians using that system.
Cloud healthcare technology breaks down those silos, allowing radiologists and other clinicians to access useful, actionable information when and where it's needed. This has wholly transformed the way the industry interacts with data both clinically and operationally.1 Clinicians can share documents, images, and exam data easily and securely, helping them collaborate more efficiently and improve patient care.
Here are four ways cloud healthcare technologies—including ultrasound IT—are advancing the industry.
1. Ultrasound Without Walls
Cloud healthcare technology has been decades in the making, but with a few exceptions, it was always "just around the corner"—until COVID-19. The pandemic accelerated its inevitable adoption. It's been transformative for healthcare in general, but the transition from on-premises storage to the cloud represents one of the biggest shifts in radiology since the move from film to digital.
For example, cloud-based systems support distributed models such as teleradiology, including point-of-care ultrasound. Today, that point of care can be anywhere—even in the patient's home. In this way, remote devices and patient management can help reduce on-site visits and ensure patient safety.
2. Increased Collaboration
The move to value-based care and precision medicine makes collaboration essential—not just among clinicians but across departments and entire healthcare systems. Cloud technologies support such collaboration. Prior to the pandemic, support for adopting cloud computing in healthcare organizations wasn't universal, due to concerns over governance of privacy, data integrity, and service reliability.8 COVID-19 provided strong incentive for these organizations to adopt cloud computing technology for improved collaboration; the cloud became a way to better manage the significant uptick in patient visits, as providers could more easily manage the tremendous amount of patient information and share that information efficiently. Clinical care teams running similar software can now come together and have a complete picture of a patient based on data drawn from various tools, systems, diagnostics, etc.—including ultrasound—via their cloud-based server.
In this way, cloud computing supports seamless collaboration and improved productivity, which in turn increases efficiency, lowers costs, and enhances patient and provider satisfaction. Further, cloud-based clinical surveillance systems give providers real-time insights into patient outcomes, allowing them to assess the impact of clinical decisions and pivot as needed.
3. Managing the Data Explosion
The healthcare industry generates about 30 percent of the world's data volume—and that's expected to reach 36 percent by 2025.2 Healthcare data is growing exponentially, and it can come from an array of sources, including imaging or diagnostic tools, patient monitors within the hospital, or at-home monitoring.
This explosion of data, the increasing use of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, and the dramatic uptick in telemedicine require a health IT infrastructure far more sophisticated than a legacy on-premises server.3 Unlike an on-site server, the cloud offers unlimited storage and is completely scalable.
4. Improved ROI
Cloud-based storage can be less costly in the long run compared to legacy on-premises systems, which can be expensive to deploy, upgrade, and maintain. The savings can be especially significant for organizations that need large data center upgrades; cloud systems are easily scalable, without the huge capital outlay.4 Moreover, cloud-based systems provide automatic backups and data recovery, dramatically reducing the risk of lost data due to equipment failure or an unforeseen disaster. This reduces downtime and eliminates the need for a disaster-recovery plan.5
Cloud computing supports seamless collaboration and improved productivity across a healthcare organization. Savings come from increases in efficiency and productivity in-house and from the ability to easily share images with those outside the system. For example, by one calculation, using a cloud-based system to deliver image studies to patients can cut costs by more than 50 percent.6
The Future Is All About Data
Cloud healthcare technology is transforming the way healthcare organizations store, access, and consume medical data. Advances in AI, teleradiology, and other innovations—along with the exponential increase in patient data—make it more critical than ever for radiologists and other clinicians to access data from disparate locations and systems. Moreover, radiologists may interpret hundreds of images a day—a sometimes-crushing workload as roughly half report being burned out.7 The ability to access and share this data streamlines workflows, improving the experience for radiologists, their teams, and the referring physicians. Easing the burden allows everyone to do their best work.
As healthcare expands and shifts, data needs to be "seamlessly integrated, aggregated, and visualized in applications and services across modalities and within existing workflows," explains Amit Phadnis, former chief digital officer at GE HealthCare.
The cloud is how we get there.
References
1 Nelson P. How the cloud can break down silos within hospitals. Health Data Management. October 2017. https://www.healthdatamanagement.com/articles/how-the-cloud-can-break-down-silos-within-hospitals. Accessed March 2, 2023.
2 RBC Capital Markets. The healthcare data explosion. https://www.rbccm.com/en/gib/healthcare/episode/the_healthcare_data_explosion#content-panel. Accessed March 2, 2023.
3 Burgener E, Goodwin P, Piai S, et al. Establishing Uncompromising Data Availability for Healthcare Organizations. IDC. February 2021. https://thepathologist.com/fileadmin/pdf/idc-establishing-uncompromising-data-availability-for-healthcare-organizations.pdf. Accessed March 2, 2023.
4 Debunking seven common myths about the cloud. McKinsey Digital. Published October 5, 2020. https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/mckinsey-digital/our-insights/debunking-seven-common-myths-about-clou. Accessed March 2, 2023.
5 Al Nuaimi N. Cloud-based picture archiving and communication system (PACS). Proceedings of the Fifth European Conference on Industrial Engineering and Operations Management, Rome. July 2022. https://ieomsociety.org/proceedings/2022rome/206.pdf.
6 Cabrer M. Medical image exchange in the cloud: A more efficient way. HealthManagement. 2019;19(6). https://healthmanagement.org/c/hospital/issuearticle/medical-image-exchange-in-the-cloud-a-more-efficient-way.
7 Medscape radiologist lifestyle, happiness and burnout report 2022. https://www.medscape.com/slideshow/2022-lifestyle-radiologist-6014784.
