Latin America. Cloud technology emerged in the healthcare industry bringing with it great benefits. Not only has it allowed CIOs to save vast amounts of money by diminishing the infrastructure required by businesses, but it has also established itself as a low-cost solution for clinicians to deliver better care to patients at the same time as simplified.
Today 83% of healthcare organizations use cloud services, while adoption rates are also increasing, the global market for cloud services for the healthcare sector is estimated to reach $9.48 billion in the next 5 years.
Despite the benefits offered by cloud technology for health professionals, the transition to this tool will not occur without a period of adaptation or challenges to face. Some of the challenges that healthcare organizations could face and how they can be overcome are mentioned below:
Compliance: According to HIPAA Omnibus Rule, it is important now more than ever for clinical staff to ensure the protection of their patients' information. This means that physicians only work with cloud providers and solutions that have auditing functions and are HIPAA compliant. If solutions do not include a comprehensive layer of security and encrypted information, sensitive customer information may be at risk of being hacked.
Privacy and Security: These days, health data is widely seen as more valuable information than credit card information. Despite this, in the last year the records of 96 million patients with high-security profiles were stolen. Clinicians face the challenge of protecting patients' privacy and increasingly rely on their network providers to prevent cyberattacks. If clinical staff are unable to protect their patients' information, they risk losing their clients' trust and, as a consequence, their reputation.
The evolving role of IT professionals: With the explosion of devices and technology in healthcare there has been an increase in patient information. As a consequence, this has led to an increase in demand for IT professionals to provide better performing cloud solutions in an increasingly dynamic environment. IT professionals in healthcare organizations are fully aware of the shift from their responsibility from "infrastructure gatekeepers" to "application service delivery managers."
While there are certainly challenges in cloud-based technology, it also presents a great opportunity for hospitals to save money, reduce their infrastructure, and provide a better patient experience. However, this requires organizations to have complete visibility and a clear understanding of what is going on in their networks.
With applications from network application analysis solutions such as ExtremeAnalytics, clinical staff are able to create policies based on network information. More importantly, ExtremeAnalytics gives them clear network visibility, ensuring they have maximum transparency of all network applications and their activities. This means they can see who is using the network and the information they are accessing, then patient information remains private and can only be shared with authorized profiles.
In addition, with the aim of ensuring privacy and security, solutions such as ExtremeAnalytics are simplifying the role of IT. As IT professionals shift roles to "application service delivery administrators," ExtremeAnalytics allows them to view and manage all network devices and activity from one centralized location.
In conclusion, the benefits of cloud-based technology for healthcare organizations cannot be overlooked if they want to be competitive in the near future. However, unleashing these benefits means overcoming several challenges, with which Extreme Networks can provide the specific and correct help for each organization.
Text written by Bob Zemke, Director of Health Solutions, Extreme Networks
