Cloud technology has made giant leaps especially in the pandemic across industries right from retail to e-commerce to manufacturing. However, in the healthcare sector, the interference of technology has always remained less and has made people blind to overlook the existing pitfalls in the system. Here, the outbreak of Covid-19 has been a great lesson to the mission-critical sector such as healthcare that demands investment in cloud-based technologies to provide quality, accessible and coordinated care to the patients.
Cloud technology will do wonders in healthcare
India’s healthcare system is riddled with archaic processes where multiple departments are having their independent IT systems and databases. Not having a uniform system across departments creates communication challenges amongst the hospital staff causing absolute chaos in the treatment of patients.
No such system exists in the hospitals that can consolidate all the healthcare modules together on a single platform, which calls for the need for a SaaS-based solution. With an integrated solution like SaaS, it eliminates the need for implementing different IT solutions for serving different needs of HIM ( Health Information Management), EMR ( Electronic Medical Records), LIMS, PACS, Pharmacy and e-claim, etc. Implementing SaaS or cloud-based technology induces seamless collaboration that aids healthcare professionals to store, view, and share patient data that comprises past medical history, medications given, lab tests, etc which helps in accurate treatment and prevents the repetition of lab tests.
Narayan Health- one of the largest hospital chains in the country has announced its collaboration with NetApp- a cloud-led data-centric company to modernise its IT systems that will help to optimise storage and bring efficiency in data management across locations.
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India’s healthcare system is riddled with archaic processes where multiple departments are having their independent IT systems and databases.
Data protection and privacy – a must need for the healthcare sector
It was a nightmare for a large multi-speciality private hospital in Kerala which found its 5-year-old patient records comprising thousands of test results, scans, prescriptions, etc leaked on the internet all searchable by unique patient ID.
Healthcare data in India is highly vulnerable to data theft since this information is of high monetary and intelligence value that holds 10 times more value than stolen credit card numbers in the dark web market. Cyberattackers are aware that data security norms are not followed in many Indian hospitals as the healthcare professionals lack the know-how of cybersecurity and even forget to implement and maintain network firewalls which make the healthcare sector the most preferred sector to carry out attacks.
Implementing cloud or SaaS-based IT infrastructure plays a pivotal role in data integrity and confidentiality that ensures that the cloud solutions are monitored effectively by their highly trained professionals providing data security and privacy.
What future do cloud technology startups hold for the Indian healthcare space?
New cloud technology healthtech startups will have a promising future as they provide cost-effective SaaS solutions and seamless SaaS solutions to hospitals. Their subscription-based pricing models are democratising access to cloud technologies without requiring the hospitals to invest a lump sum amount, thereby empowering hospitals to address pain points and deliver quality healthcare that is accessible to all.
