In 2020, the global market for cloud services – all industries combined – was worth US$371.4 billion, and is expected to reach US$832.1 billion by 2025 [1]. With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.5%, cloud computing has established itself as a reliable solution for optimizing operations and safeguarding data.
The healthcare industry is no exception to this trend, with an estimated market size of US$49.14 billion in 2024, rising to US$83.93 billion by 2029 [2]. Before looking at how this solution can help healthcare establishments better manage their data, let’s take a look at the definition of cloud computing.
What is cloud computing?
The Office québécois de la langue française describes cloud computing as a computing model in which data storage and processing are outsourced to remote servers accessible on demand from any device with an Internet connection.
There are 4 types of cloud environment:
1. Public cloud: the infrastructure is managed by a service provider, and servers are shared between different customers;
2. Private cloud: the infrastructure is hosted in a customer-owned data center, or in a portion of a service provider’s public cloud. It is exclusive to one customer and completely isolated from others;
3. Hybrid cloud: This model combines elements of both public and private clouds, enabling organizations to benefit from the advantages of both approaches, as required;
4. Multinuage: a cloud security solution providing comprehensive data protection across multiple cloud platforms, including private and public clouds. Multinuage involves several providers.
With this definition in mind, how can cloud computing help healthcare establishments?
The healthcare sector in Quebec, and around the world, has recently experienced a veritable upheaval with the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the challenges this essential sector has had to face is its lag in technological solutions. For example, according to an article in CScience, in 2020, CIUSSS were still using pencils for medical records, and patient data were not being digitized [3]. According to the same article, some testimonies even cite that when 5 former establishments merged to create a CIUSS, they found themselves with 700 different IT systems. It is therefore more than necessary for a sector of such vital importance to the population to keep up to date technologically. By adopting cloud computing solutions, healthcare establishments, whether private or public, acquire a secure, scalable solution that can include:
- Hosting, enabling access to data at any time and from any location via a secure connection;
- Back-up service, so that in the event of a disaster, your business can continue to operate;
- A data storage service, highly secure, compliant with current legal standards and flexible in terms of capacity;
- A backup service, ensuring that you always have a copy of your critical data.
What does this mean in practical terms for healthcare facility employees?
Relying on cloud computing gives employees better access to patient information, with up-to-date data, reducing the number of errors and time wasted searching for the right information. Medical staff can seamlessly access the data they need at any time. With a patient’s history recorded in his or her file and easily shared via the cloud between medical staff, patients benefit too. In fact, it prevents patients from being over-prescribed or having to repeat certain tests because the results were not communicated between doctors.
In the healthcare sector, research is one of the most important activities enabling innovation. Access to different data sources via the cloud makes cloud solutions particularly attractive to researchers. Massive data stored in the cloud can be more easily exploited and analyzed, fostering innovation in medical research and, potentially, improving healthcare.
Finally, cloud computing also means lower hardware and maintenance costs, and greater flexibility. There’s no longer any need to manage costly infrastructures yourself, and the flexibility acquired means you can adapt to the growing needs of any healthcare establishment, large or small.
In short, cloud computing means better data accessibility, operational flexibility and lower costs.
Yes, but what about data security?
By choosing to migrate to a cloud-based solution, you entrust the responsibility for protecting your data to specialized experts who have the knowledge, know-how and adhere to strict confidentiality requirements. In cloud computing, we speak of a shared responsibility between the service provider and the healthcare organization’s IT teams. Your choice of supplier is therefore crucial. You need a quality cloud service provider with expertise and experience, who guarantees the security and control of your data, and is able to offer you a customized solution following a rigorous audit of your current systems. More than just an IT consultant, you need a true IT partner who can accompany you from the choice of technology right through to the deployment of your customized solution, and even afterwards to answer any questions you may have.
In Quebec, government and business alike have clearly understood the importance of digital transformation, and we’re seeing the emergence of new initiatives such as the digital health record and telemedicine, enabling patients to access care remotely. With high-performance systems, healthcare professionals could gain in productivity and concentrate fully on their tasks.
However, there’s still a long way to go, and companies like GTI can help modernize the healthcare sector as providers of tailored cloud solutions.
Are you interested in migrating to a customized cloud solution? Let’s talk about your project and see how we can offer you a turnkey, customized and secure service to give you a real and sustainable competitive advantage.
