Industry executives and experts share their predictions for 2021. Read them in this 13th annual VMblog.com series exclusive.
Healthcare's Embrace of Cloud Will Improve Patient Outcomes in 2021
By Dr. Tim Calahan, CTO of Virtustream
Healthcare Cloud
Without a doubt, cloud computing has been a critical
enabler for digital transformation throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. In healthcare,
cloud provided the foundational elements to provide care access to a record
number of patients through the explosive adoption of telehealth
and
the expansion of virtual ICUs to improve continuous care. These virtual
services, which many believe contributed to the improved management of the
COVID-19 virus, quickly progressed from novel to essential. According
to McKinsey, medical staff were seeing 50 to 175
times the number of patients via telehealth than they did before.
When predicting how this trend will evolve in 2021, it's
imperative that healthcare organizations build on this year's digital
transformation projects and continue to leverage the cloud to drive further
enhancements to continuously improve the patient experience. This will be
achieved by integrating disparate systems designed for specific uses in
healthcare, in addition to driving improvements to data integration,
interoperability, and the effective analysis of that pool of data. Organizations
prioritizing cloud as we move into 2021 will benefit from a significant
increase in open communication and information transparency among end-users in three
key groups: patients, medical staff and administrators.
Cloud already supports secure interconnected devices that underpin
efficient health diagnostics. These devices and the patients' electronic health
record provide the backbone to enhance a patient's treatment plan and overall
experience. As healthcare systems and payers continue to accelerate cloud
adoption for healthcare data, providers and payers alike will have greater
access to patient data that can enhance overall care. This digital
transformation in healthcare was already underway, however the pandemic accelerated
the rate of adoption and acceptance of digital solutions. These digital
transformation initiatives affect healthcare providers and payers in different
ways and the methods to deliver these digital solutions vary. Additionally, the
security safeguards that surround patient data and the inevitable data exchange
continues to grow in importance, especially as healthcare applications are
delivered using broad and diverse methods.
As we head deeper into 2021, and healthcare organizations
are determining how best to drive cloud to the point of care, it's critical to
understand in what way different user groups are impacted by cloud adoption and
digital transformation. Primarily, how these changes affect job performance and
the ability to deliver better patient care.
Connecting end user groups
The pandemic underscored the requirement for application
mobility. Overnight, organizations were faced with delivering enterprise
applications in different and unique ways, while patients who needed care were
unable to visit their traditional care facility. These unique requirements created
the digital transformation explosion that will continue to effect healthcare
organization workers and patients alike in 2021 and for decades to come. Below
are a few examples of the different end user groups and how their interaction
with their respective healthcare systems have fundamentally changed:
- Patients:
schedule appointments, attend appointment via telehealth, access test results,
retrieve health care records and pay bills.
- Medical
providers: obtain real-time data and insights to inform diagnostic and
personalized patient care, through innovations like virtual ICUs, remotely
access mission-critical application like EHRs to facilitate remote use of
healthcare applications and work from home initiatives
-
Administrators: streamline administrative
processes such as coding and billing
Each of these examples highlight
how digital healthcare transformation has impacted patient care, access to
care, and the processing of care. Virtual options allow physician groups and
health systems to optimize provider time, such as modifying physician schedules
to utilize open time for virtual visits. Additionally, tele-ICU or vICU will
continue to grow more prominent in 2021, enabling provider end users to treat
larger patient populations by leveraging technology and technology-enabled
facilities to enhance outcomes. Administrators are also able to take advantage of
these digital transformation efforts, by facilitating near real-time
communication between providers and payers to streamline areas such as prior
authorization. In the past, and in some cases even in today's environment,
authorization from an insurance carrier for doctor's visits or medication can
range from days to weeks; even months. As more providers and payers get connected
via the cloud in 2021 and beyond, insurer approval can be granted almost
immediately so patient follow-up can be scheduled or medicine can be quickly dispensed.
As a result, patients get the care they need in a timely manner and have a more
seamless experience with the end-to-end healthcare system.
Providing care without
compromising security and privacy
Entire healthcare ecosystems must be streamlined to ensure
patients receive care
efficiently and the data related to their health has an uncompromised "chain of
custody." Centralizing application access and control by leveraging end-user
computing solutions allows payers and providers to provide access to the
healthcare environment to users that are beyond the organizations four walls in
a secure and safe way.
Importantly, patient records contain
protected health information (PHI) so only the highest security standards are
acceptable for healthcare application delivery and data management. As
organizations develop their cloud strategy for 2021 and the future, a mandatory
consideration point will be selecting a cloud-based architecture that complies
with the U.S. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and
Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH), as
well as similar frameworks for other countries or regions.
By ensuring this standard of excellence when deploying
cloud-based healthcare applications and EHRs, patient data is not only always
available to all end user groups but also protected at the highest level. Infrastructure
availability, business continuity and disaster recovery are essential
considerations when developing your 2021 end user computing strategy that
leverages cloud. If one part of the ecosystem is down, it can negatively impact
communications across the entire system of care and lead to costly
inefficiencies and a poor patient experience.
Making more connections with
cloud
We've made progress, but there is still so much more to do
in 2021. Healthcare organizations that embrace digital transformation and implement
new services will be better positioned in the post-pandemic world. Embracing
cloud platforms to enable those new services will allow healthcare
organizations the agility they need to keep pace with the needs of their
patients and the care ecosystem.
Reliance on cloud in healthcare will only continue after
2020. The next step in getting added benefits from a cloud-based infrastructure
is integrating applications. While the patient, provider and administrator may
not know it's cloud computing improving the way healthcare is delivered, they
will see their needs being met faster and more efficiently. And when technology
can enable better experiences, the entire health ecosystem becomes
stronger.
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About the Author
Dr. Calahan is the CTO for the Virtustream Healthcare Cloud. Throughout his career, Dr. Calahan has demonstrated a passion for building new products, solutions, and teams to support new business initiatives on a global scale. Essentially, Dr. Calahan is focused on building things.
Dr. Calahan has spent the majority of his career in consulting, product development, and sales; providing innovative products and solutions in a variety of industries with a focus on healthcare and financial services.