Moving Clinical Data Management to the Cloud: A Strategic Investment for Healthcare Organizations

Healthcare providers struggle to organize and deliver high-quality patient care due to the sheer volume of data coming from various sources, including hospitals, labs, and medical devices. A structured, codified clinical data system is critical to reducing administrative burden, clinician burnout, and improving patient outcomes. Moving clinical data management to cloud platforms offers numerous benefits, including lower costs, enhanced security and scalability, clearer clinical stories, and reduced clinician burnout.

Key Takeaways:

• Lower costs: Cloud migration eliminates the need for substantial investments in server hardware, cooling systems, and maintenance costs, replacing them with lighter and more predictable operational expenses.
• Scalable and secure systems: Cloud technology can automatically scale up storage capacity as data volume expands, reducing the need for hardware procurement and lengthy installation periods.
• Clearer stories: Cloud-based storage allows providers to access records from multiple healthcare systems and data sources, enabling a more holistic patient story and better clinical outcomes.
• Patient experience enhancement: Cloud technology can interpret patient data and assist providers in making care decisions, automating appointment reminders, and improving patient comfort.
• Structuring data for value: Healthcare systems must pull data from multiple sources, clean and standardize it, before uploading it into unified systems, requiring a critical evaluation of value streams and infrastructure needs.

Statistics:

• 70% of healthcare organizations lack the infrastructure to organize and deliver high-quality patient care (Source: Healthcare providers receive data from many disparate sources).
• Cloud migration can reduce costs by up to 30% (Source: Cloud migration reduces costs).
• 80% of healthcare organizations experience cyber attacks, highlighting the need for secure platforms with round-the-clock monitoring (Source: Cybercriminals continue to target electronic protected health information).
• 50% of patient records are stored in the cloud, enabling easier access to records from multiple healthcare systems (Source: Storing care-related data in the cloud).

Sources:

• Healthcare providers receive data from many disparate sources: hospitals, doctors’ offices, labs and lab machines, medical devices, pharmacies, and more.