In the health care industry, both information technology and cloud solutions are more important now than ever before. Advancements on both fronts have helped health care professionals provide a high level of care to their patients. That said, the health care industry is a unique one when it comes to IT needs. Although it's common for businesses in a wide variety of industries to handle sensitive information, the health care sector is particularly strict due to the rules and regulations surrounding patient information.
As a result, medical facilities of all sizes – from large-scale hospitals to family physician offices – need to be careful when choosing technologies, including cloud-based ones. If you'd like to give patients and providers access to pertinent medical data somewhere other than the medical site, security becomes even more important. Luckily, the team of professionals from Professional Medical Services is available to help you find solutions to IT issues.
Health care and the cloud
There's little doubt among technology professionals: Cloud technologies are here to stay. And as the technology continues to grow, so too will the number of uses for it. In addition to the convenience of accessing information from virtually anywhere, cloud platforms can be used to streamline infrastructure processes and, ultimately, lower costs for both patients and providers.
"Health care organizations spend $7.3 billion on cloud solutions in 2015."
According to research professionals at MarketsandMarkets, the adoption of cloud computing in health care is likely to expand rapidly in coming years. This is to be expected as the cloud market in relation to this field has already increased dramatically of late. In 2015, health care organizations spent roughly $3.73 billion on cloud solutions, according to the source. In the next few years, Market researchers are predicting that number will triple, so that by 2020, cloud technologies in the health care industry will be worth a whopping $9.5 billion.
Providing smaller facilities larger opportunities
Due to budgetary confinements, there can be drastic drop-off in technologies available at medical facilities of different sizes. Cloud technologies, however, can help to level the playing field. With the increasing use of electronic medical records to store patient data, smaller facilities are having a tough time saving such information. According to the National Center for Biotechnology Information, the addition of cloud technologies can eliminate additional infrastructure and maintenance costs associated with housing medical data.