Cloud computing in the health care industry
Cloud #computing is one of the most recent revolutionary technologies in world.The applications of Cloud computing is rapidly increasing in day to day life.Today the application of cloud computing is so widespread that it is being used even in the health care industry.As the evolution of cloud computing in health care is occurring at a rapid rate in recent times, we can expect a major part of the healthcare services to move onto the cloud and thereby more focus is laid on providing a cost effective and efficient healthcare service to the people all around the globe. Despite of a common belief that certain boundaries and security issues of the cloud would hinder the shift, the healthcare industry is taking an initiative to move to these cloud based platforms.Today many doctors and hospitals are moving towards these clouds in order to provide better healthcare services to their patients.
Why #healthcare providers are shifting to the cloud
The reason for the shift is simple: a greater need for efficient healthcare systems. Per the study, one of the many fields in which cloud-based healthcare software has crucial presence is cardiology, a branch of medicine that certainly benefits from efficient data storage and retrieval systems, particularly in tasks such as accessing current and historical patient data.
Also contributing to the increased popularity are the facts that much less support is needed for maintenance, and much less investment is needed for medical software licensing and related expenses.
#Data #Security and #Availability
The first issue involves the security of data provided to the cloud. The health care industry—as well as its service providers—must follow the #HIPAA Security Rule, which contains a detailed set of security procedures and protocols, along with specific contractual requirements. At the same time, the implementation of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (#HITECH) security breach notification rule (along with related enforcement and an enormous number of security breaches involving health care data) have placed an intense focus on protecting the security of health care data.Protecting sensitive patient data and medical records is one of the most fundamental responsibilities of healthcare organizations, and one of the most tightly regulated. To safeguard data as it moves in and out of the cloud requires data encryption, which makes data unusable if compromised. It also demands secure communication connections, which locks down browser access and encrypts content as it is transferred over the network and throughout the cloud. However, data encryption based on the Advanced #Encryption Standard (#AES) algorithm is very compute intensive. This type of software-based encryption relies on compute-intensive algorithms that can impact the performance of the computing network, particularly when used pervasively to protect the massive volumes of information that pass to and from the cloud. Traditional encryption solutions can create computing logjams due to high performance overheads, making them less than optimal for protecting cloud data traffic. Intel has worked to mitigate these performance penalties. Intel® Advanced Encryption Standard New Instructions (Intel® AESNI), built into select Intel® Xeon® processors, Intel® Core™ vPro ™ processors, and select Intel® Core™ processors2 , enhances encryption performance by speeding up the execution of encryption algorithms by as much as 10 times.3, 4 By providing this built-in encryption performance enhancement, Intel AES-NI delivers faster, more affordable data protection by encouraging pervasive encryption to be standard in cloud networks where it was not previously feasible. The browser security protocols Transport Layer Security (TLS) and Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) are used to assure safe communications over networks, including the Internet, and are widely used for secure web browsing (HTTPS), electronic mail, instant messaging, and voice over IP. These protocols are also critical for secure cloud computing, preventing undetected content tampering or “eavesdropping” on content as it’s transferred. However, traditional SSL and TLS protocols involve two compute-intensive phases — session initiation and bulk-data transfer. Intel has made two contributions to the widely used, open-source protocol OpenSSL* which greatly improve speed and performance during these phases. One library function accelerates session initiation and the second enables simultaneous execution of data encryption and authentication for bulk data. Any software that incorporates OpenSSL can automatically take advantage of these Intel platform advancements. By accelerating data encryption, secure session initiations, and transfer of bulk data, healthcare organizations can better utilize network resources and implement pervasive data protection to and from the cloud without compromising compute performance.
Conclusion
cloud-based solutions are elastic by nature, meaning that they can grow as practices do. If a practice or hospital hires a dozen new physicians using traditional client-based systems, chances are that they can expect to invest both significant time and money into enhancing the IT infrastructure they have in place. But with cloud-based solutions, since data isn’t stored on a local server, it is far simpler and more efficient to get up and running.
Technology infrastructure and medical devices are expensive to deploy in the healthcare industry. Increased regulations and life-saving outcomes make the cloud a bit more complicated to embrace than it is in other industries. However, outsourcing bits and pieces of healthcare data services can still be cost-effective while improving patient care.
With more timely and relevant data, the healthcare industry would see marked improvement in patient care. The cloud is the key to meaningful information, placed more easily in the hands of healthcare professionals. The results can mean more productive office visits, better diagnosis of ailments based on trend data, and a faster response to catastrophic patient events.
