This is the second post in a series on Google healthcare capabilities. To read the first post, click here.
With the healthcare industry having to quickly jump on the cloud bandwagon with telehealth recently, it is becoming apparent that a new norm is (in my millennial opinion, finally) emerging. This begs the question – how is cloud affecting healthcare?
It might be more appropriate to state how healthcare is catching up to cloud. With the number of tech-savvy patients increasing, it is becoming a requirement to provide easy accessibility while maintaining top security.
Cloud providers such as Google Cloud Platform (GCP) have put an industry focus on healthcare, to ease some of the common pain points that have arisen like cultural acceptance (especially for providers), concern around disrupting patient care, data integrity, and compliance – all while trying to maintain a top focus on increasing patient care and reducing costs.
Cloud Adoption and Collaboration
Ease provider adoption with cloud platforms that increase collaboration between both colleagues and patients. Google technologies allow you to focus on patient care by seamlessly and securely guiding patients through the process of relevant information gathering and connecting virtually. Patients are also able to optimize provider’s time by utilizing Contact Center UI or Rapid Response Virtual Agent for general knowledge or information they may need.
Enabling a cloud platform ensures large amounts of data are stored and retrieved accurately when needed across devices, cutting down on time spent navigating a system and providing more time with patients. With a higher focus on care and less on inefficiencies, an already-overwhelmed staff is better able to adapt, whether on the front lines or remotely. Customizable applications also increase the experience while delivering the ability to scale up or down as needed to maintain costs.
Data Integration and Compliance
The cloud has a myriad of solutions around how to organize, store, and retrieve data. For the healthcare industry, legacy applications are of major consideration prior to adoption. For example, with Cloud Healthcare API, you can collect data from disparate systems, massage it, and gather insight to provide a more meaningful employee and patient experience. Providers and app developers are able to work together to build FHIR API-based services, gain a 360-degree view of population health with insight-driven analytics, and utilize highly scalable cloud data.
GCP enables you to stay compliant with HIPAA and FedRAMP regulations with their built-in standards. On-premise only applications may not provide ample security or receive timely updates. Automatic maintenance updates, streamlined data privacy, patch and vulnerability management are all examples of the package with cloud.
Choosing an Implementation Partner
An industry and solution expert can ease major concerns around resources, budget, and timeline. University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus found that partnering with Perficient helped them find the right resolution to scale and save on costs. Google Cloud Storage was their solution of choice to evaluate large amounts of complex data in a self-service platform, which moved them away from analysis paralysis to the end goal of timely decisions made for patients. Ultimately, they reduced data query times by 97% and cost by 50%.
You can learn more about our Google healthcare capabilities here.
