The Cloud in Healthcare – Top 10 Takeaways from iHT2 San Francisco

Last week, our media partners, the Institute of Healthcare Technology Transformation hosted their 2 day conference in San Francisco. An emerging leader in the HIT cloud market, Cloud Prime alongside AthenaHealth sponsored the panel, “The Cloud in Healthcare” that discussed the following:

• Benefits and potential risks
• Success stories and best practices
• Challenges and obstacles for implementation
• Integration strategies

The following is CloudPrime’s top 10 takeaways from 2012 iHT2 San Francisco:

1. IHPs (large integrated health providers, like university systems, etc), are by and large going with EPIC for EHR solutions, thereby automatically forgoing a degree of flexibility and any chance of real near-term interoperability.

2. The historical problems of security, reliability, and control with Cloud-based solutions are being rapidly overcome, and the cost savings from hosting data and applications in the Cloud are becoming so compelling that increasingly complex medical organizations and systems will require the Cloud in order to be effective and efficient…..or risk becoming extinct.

3. The HealthCare system, as usual, is the last great industrial complex to accept collaboration and efficiencies based on advances in information technology.

4. There has been a dramatic shift in the last two years toward the use of mobile and portable devices in all aspects of care, and this will only increase.

5. Nobody can really define the phrase ”HIPAA compliance,” it is best approached and understood as a process, it is not just about security.

6. 30% of the vendors sponsoring were cloud-oriented.

7. Edge, last-mile connectivity in a HIPAA compliant fashion was a common pain point from small patient practices to large integrated health providers.

8. Cloud-based or service platforms having the ability to be more nimble and in turn handle the growing complexity of connectivity, interfacing, and interoperability are available and should be considered.

9. The cloud mitigates the need for traditional software upgrades and release cycles.

10. CIO’s and CMIO’s are opting to outsource for best-of-breed services and applications. Driven by skilled resources in healthcare IT becoming increasingly scarce and more robust SaaS/cloud-based options being available.

About CloudPrime:

CloudPrime HealthDirect is an easy to deploy integration solution that meets the needs of Healthcare providers who need to achieve interoperability. A connection to the CloudPrime network can be established within minutes/hours as opposed to the months of waiting required for VAN’s or other file management services. The additional benefit of CloudPrime’s HealthDirect integration solution is that the Connector can be used to reach all Electronic Health Record destinations on the network. This all means faster time to HIPAA compliance at a fraction of the cost of VPN and VAN alternatives.