Cloud Computing and Healthcare

8/4/2019 Cloud Computing and Healthcare

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Tchnology MattsBy Of Shimat

ClodCompting

andHalthcaBad Weather or Sunny Forecast?


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5946 Priestly Drive, Ste. 200Carlsbad, CA 92008

Personal:

Income Tax Planning

Wealth Management Financial Planning

Local: Employee Benefit Plans

Profitability Reviews Outsourced professional services

(CFO, Controller)

Global:

Organizational Structure

Succession Planning Internal Control Review and

Risk Assessment

Ron Mitchell, CPADirector of Health Services

[email protected]

CPAs and Consultants

What Is Cloud Computing?In current IT circles, the Internet is oftenreferred to as The Cloud. Think of mul-tiple computers in a giant mesh all inter-working together. Now think of many suchmeshes and step back see The Cloud?

Although you may not physically seeit, The Cloud is there for all sorts of sig-

nals: data, telephony, digital, etc. The termCloud Computing denotes the use ofcloud- or Internet-based computers for avariety of services. In its historically shortlife span, its usage is still evolving as wespeak.

The expression The Cloud has itsroots in telephony applications in the early1990s. Telephone utilities were leveragingThe Cloud for their switching and routingin order to deliver the proper connectionsfor phone calls, faxes, live feeds, signals,etc.

The Internet, in its infancy right aroundthat same time, leveraged those connec-tions to allow users to dial up and reachtheir intended Internet forum or techsupport area. We now fondly look back atthose times and wonder how business wasconducted at dial-up speeds.

By the turn of the millennium, the In-ternet was moving at much faster speeds referred to as broadband and all thecomputing equipment to make that hap-

pen was up there somewhere, and theterm in the cloud became all the rage.

Then, around the middle of the decade,Cloud Computing was rmly in the lexi-con as a way to dene what the user wasdoing: accessing computing services in thecloud.

As denitions evolved and got rened,Cloud Computing now implies the userexperience moving away from personalcomputers and into a cloud of comput-ers. Users of The Cloud are not concerned

with the inner workings of the remoteapplication and only see and use theservices being requested, without controlof the technology infrastructure to makeit happen.

Keep that in mind when we traversehealthcare.

Who Uses Cloud Computing?Almost everyone in this day and age withan electronic communications device uses

one form or another of Cloud Computing it is everywhere.

Whether you are banking online withyour computer, viewing GPS-aware res-taurant reviews on your mobile device, orsending live digital media through yourwebcam, you are using services in TheCloud, i.e., not installed or contained with-

in your local device.A case can be made that anytime you

used dial-up in the early days of the Inter-

As defnitionsevolved and gotrefned, Cloud

Computing now

implies the userexperience movingaway rom

personal computersand into a cloud

o computers.


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net, you were leveraging The Cloud, butwere you?

Your computer was local, your softwareapplication was local, your data was lo-cal, and you were viewing it on your CRTmonitor locally. Back then, all you were us-ing the Internet for was to transmit and re-ceive data that, once the transmission was

complete, ended up locally.In the early part of the decade, compa-

nies like Amazon began architecting theirwebsites in such a way that you could uti-lize their services simply through the useof a browser like Netscape or Internet Ex-plorer.

Soon after, other companies got into thefray, and, through the use of more robusttechnologies, in the cloud applicationsbecame more and more commonplace. Bythe middle of the decade, most major cor-porations with a large Web presence hadworking and mature renditions of theirservices completely in the cloud.

Fast forward to now when companieslike Google and Microsoft offer in thecloud services that require hardly any ad-ditional software on your local computer,beyond the operating system of the com-puter or device and a browser. Some ser-vices are offered for free by merely signingup, while others are offered as a recurring,monthly, per-seat subscription; schemesinclude Software as a Service (SaaS) andApplication Service Providers (ASP).

It is a trend and a pattern that is quickly

gathering steam.

What Is Cloud ComputingAs It Applies to Healthcare?The trend appears to be irreversible. Manysoftware applications, services, and dataonce in the realm of a local computer orlocal server safely secure in your buildingare now in the domain of the public Inter-net. Private health information once con-

ned to these local networks is migrating,wholesale, onto the Internet.

Patients voluntarily grant access to theirhealth records every time they sign a waiv-er to the health insurer that then decideson the payment disposition to the doctor,pharmacy, or hospital. For the most part,the collection and organization of this datais completely legal.

It then follows that companies want toautomate and accelerate access to these re-cords in order to offer in the cloud prod-ucts and services to patients, doctors, and

institutions.The fact that Google and Microsoft areheavily invested in the cloud extends totheir new offerings for medical record ser-vices, such as Microsofts HealthVault andGoogle Health. While still in beta testing,these software giants have partnered withlarge healthcare providers for their pro-grams: Microsoft with Kaiser Permanenteand Google with The Cleveland Clinic.

Microsoft and Google are two promi-nent examples of many other companyofferings that are following the accelerat-ing trend of placing previously local and

private health records in the cloud. This

coming explosion of information will bestored in massive data centers around theworld and will provide access to healthcarerecords for patients, insurers, doctors,pharmacies, and institutions.

Interesting timing and fascinatingconvergence of events if you consider thenew Obama administration initiatives like

Transforming Healthcare Through ITand Enabling Healthcare Reform UsingInformation Technology recommen-dations by the Healthcare Information andManagement Systems Society (HIMSS) tothe Obama administration and the 111thCongress.

How Will Cloud ComputingAffect Your Practice?In the coming months and years, sev-eral factors are converging into a perfectstorm of opportunity and challenges.

For most solo, small-, and medium-sizepractices, Cloud Computing represents ajuncture of signicance. Do you invest upfront and build your local computing in-

frastructure and keep your data local or doyou amortize your investment over recur-ring monthly charges and keep everythingin the cloud, including your data?

Either choice presents additional chal-lenges: What about backups, disaster re-covery and 99.999 percent uptime to the

Internet? What about HIPAA complianceof these services and applications offeredboth as local and in the cloud? Whatabout hybrid applications that leverageboth local infrastructure and The Cloud?

Carefully analyzing the options and act-ing prudently could mean the differencebetween bad weather and sunny forecastswhen it comes to implementation time.By utilizing the SWOT analysis approach strengths, weaknesses, opportunities,and threats each practice could analyze

The act that Googleand Microsot areheavily investedin the cloud

extends to their newoerings or medical

records services,such as MicrosotsHealthVault andGoogle Health.


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the adoption of a unique computing infra-structure commensurate with their needs.

The convergence of the technologies as-sociated with Cloud Computing and thepronouncements laid out by the newlypassed American Recovery and Reinvest-ment Act of 2009 (ARRA) will propelpractices of all sizes to carefully consider

their approach to their selection of the rightelectronic medical record application.

According to the Certication Commis-sion for Healthcare Information Technol-ogy (CCHIT), more than 300 vendorscurrently offer some variance of electronicmedical records some in the cloud,some locally, and some in both. They in-clude:

Electronic Health Records (EHRs) Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) Personal Health Records (PHRs) Payer-based Health Records (PBHRs) Electronic Prescribing (E-prescribing) Financial/Billing/Administrative System Computerized Practitioner Order En-

try (CPOE) Systems

The Bottom LineAs part of your SWOT analysis, determinerst which path your practice will take:local, in the cloud, or a hybrid of both.Then and only then procure your IT infra-structure to meet the software, hardware,and network requisites for that applica-tion, in that order.

Correctly implementing and utilizing

information technology will offer yourpractice enormous benets local, cloudcomputing, or a hybrid of the two. Yourpractice will have better access to health-care services and information that wouldsubsequently result in improved outcomes,fewer errors, and increased cost savings a sunny forecast to be sure.

ABOuT THe AuTHOr: Mr.Shimrat is founder and CEO of SDCMS-endorsed Soundoff Computing Corpo-

ration, a consultancy specializing in ITproducts and services. Originally an ap-plications developer, he brings databasemethodology approaches to network im-plementations. He combines practical ex-perience as a thrice business owner withbest practices in providing organizationswith needs analysis, business logistics,IT infrastructure, and proactive mainte-nance. Visit SoundoffComputing.com orcall (858) 569-0300.

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Cloud Computing and Healthcare