A cloud in healthcare?
Jinfo Blog

By Joanna Ptolomey

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Have I been under a "cloud" lately and missing something very important?  The way forward in computing is the "cloud."  I have seen the Microsoft ads on TV and in business it is seen as the next big way forward.

Even with my colleague Tim Buckley Owen’s interesting post on possible cloud usefulness to different user groups I think we are too early on in the game to gather evidence.

The general feeling in one of my specialist areas, the healthcare sector, is that it has been quite slow in adopting the "cloud computing" scenario.

Hey but what is a cloud, apart from the white fluffy cumulus type we see in the sky?  Well apparently I should imagine an end user consuming electricity.  I don’t necessary care where it comes from, how it is made and how it comes out the socket but it is there and I pay for it.  So software, platforms, data access and storage devices without my knowledge of physical location or configuration is what the "cloud" is.  I am still to be convinced by this analogy.

One of the reasons that healthcare is generally slower than other industry sectors is the security that surrounds information and sharing of generally rather personal information about people.  Also, it is generally acknowledged that there is still a heavy reliance on paper-based systems.  Electronic patient health records have been a long road already.

There do seem to be advantages in cloud systems, with cost savings and potentially quicker and more agile systems that can adapt to extra capacity and applications.  With growing volumes of data and finding ways to incorporate legacy systems, the cloud may be the answer.

Finding money, in a budget conscious time, will be a criterion for further cloud growth in healthcare, I believe.   I also think we will see a difference in how different countries approach this.  With a more market and commercial healthcare sector, the US may be the first really to engage in healthcare cloud delivery.  In the UK the National Health Service (NHS) is like an oil tanker in that it takes a long time to change course and direction.

My forecast, with little evidence to go on, at the moment is ...  patchy cloud, in the short term, for healthcare.

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