Cloud computing technology has become integral in healthcare, transforming the industry in many ways. For instance, you’ll be able to safely store, manage, and access data without paying to maintain your own servers. 

Read on to learn more about:

• Overview of how cloud computing benefits healthcare practices 

• Risks and challenges of adopting a cloud-based solution 

• Healthcare cloud security and compliance 

• Real world applications in the healthcare industry and future trends

• How no-code/low-code platforms are ideal for healthcare businesses, and why you should consider Blaze.tech

Let’s now define cloud computing in healthcare.

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What Is Cloud Computing in Healthcare?

Cloud computing in healthcare is similar to that in other industries: Your healthcare application software and data are stored on remote servers that can be located thousands of miles away from your hospital or clinic. 

These servers connect to your practice’s computers via the Internet, and they manage and process your medical data. For instance, you can access patient records, collaborate in real time, and leverage advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and big data analytics.

Cloud computing differs from traditional IT (information technology) storage in a few ways: Practices that leverage traditional methods house their own servers (on-prem) within the confines of their own business. 

While it has benefits, some drawbacks of on-prem hosting include substantial hardware and maintenance investment, difficulty sharing records with other healthcare providers, and more. 

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Cloud Computing Models

Cloud computing applications in healthcare are implemented through different cloud models, each offering unique benefits and levels of control. Here are the four primary cloud models:

1. Public 

This cloud environment is managed by third-party providers such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, or Google Cloud. These are ideal for storing non-sensitive data, running applications, and analyzing large (non-sensitive) datasets.

Most public cloud environments are usually scalable and cost-effective. However, some drawbacks are an inability to store sensitive data due to a lack of compliance features and reliance on your vendor for security, performance, and scalability. 

2. Private 

A private cloud is a dedicated cloud infrastructure used exclusively by a single healthcare organization. It can be hosted on-premises or managed by a third-party provider but remains isolated from other users. Think of this as a vacation home for your data that you own and use. 

Most private healthcare clouds benefit you by meeting regulatory requirements like HIPAA and SOC 2 compliance, allowing for customization, and providing an agile performance. Yet, challenges include complex scalability and high costs. 

3. Hybrid

These combine public and private cloud environments, allowing you to use both for different purposes. Critical patient data and mission-critical applications are safely guarded in the private cloud. At the same time, less sensitive workloads, such as non-identifiable research data or telehealth services, run on the public cloud.

Hybrid clouds can offer the best of both worlds: You’ll get flexibility in security by balancing storage between different locations and optimal pricing. However, integrating these multiple environments can be complex, as you’ll need to be very mindful about differentiating sensitive from non-sensitive data.   

4. Multi-cloud

A multi-cloud approach is similar to a hybrid one but on a larger scale. It involves using multiple public or private cloud providers to distribute workloads. Instead of relying on a single vendor, you’ll leverage different cloud platforms for various tasks.

Some positives include not being locked into a single provider, which mitigates redundancy when one server goes down. But, running a multi-cloud environment can exponentially increase the data-handling complexities of hybrid clouds. 

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Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Cloud computing lets you store, manage, and access vast amounts of patient data securely while ensuring compliance with industry regulations. Here are some of the primary highlights cloud technology can bring:

Highlight #1: Cost Efficiency 

This is one of the main selling points of cloud computing. As we mentioned, traditional IT infrastructure requires you to invest heavily in physical storage space, equipment, and a data management team, all of which you must maintain and pay for the energy bill. 

Cloud computing reduces these costs by offering a pay-as-you-go model, enabling you to scale your IT resources according to your own needs. Your cloud provider will deal with all the required physical maintenance.   

Highlight #2: Scalability and Connectivity

Cloud computing provides a scalable infrastructure to expand your data storage and processing capacity as your company grows. Health cloud-computing providers offer flexible power and storage, ensuring the agility to adjust and adapt to patient demand, seasonal spikes, or emergencies.

This adaptability can elevate patient care by reducing downtime, improving accessibility, and maintaining consistent performance even during high-demand periods. 

Highlight #3: Data Accessibility 

Physicians and healthcare professionals can securely access patient records from any location with an internet connection, enabling telemedicine and remote patient monitoring to be more effective. 

This is made possible by advancements in data security in which cloud platforms implement encryption, access controls, and compliance with regulations such as HIPAA.

Highlight #4: Interoperability

Cloud scalability supports multi-location healthcare networks, allowing everyone to operate under a unified system as a team in real time, no matter how many time zones apart. This ensures consistent data availability, better resource allocation, and an overall productivity improvement.

Cloud platforms can integrate various electronic health records (EHR) systems, ensuring that information flows seamlessly across different providers. Providing a complete patient history at the point of care fosters coordinated care, reduces administrative burdens, and minimizes medical errors.

Interoperability provided by healthcare clouds also opens the door for telemedicine by fostering secure client/provider communication. This can save both patients’ and professionals' time while providing highly effective care.  

Highlight #5: AI and Analytics Integration

Although artificial intelligence (AI) is a relatively new technology, healthcare cloud computing companies have heavily invested in it. These AI-powered systems can analyze vast amounts of medical data and detect patterns that can aid in early disease detection, suggest personalized treatment plans, and expediently allocate resources.

Diagnostic capabilities are further amplified by integrating wearables with historical health data to provide patients with actionable and sometimes life-saving advice. 

Beyond diagnostics, AI in cloud computing can bolster your operations by predicting patient flow, optimizing staffing levels, and managing inventory. By integrating AI and cloud computing, healthcare organizations can solidify their operations, leading to better patient care and cost savings.

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Risks and Challenges of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

While cloud computing in healthcare offers an array of benefits, it also brings some drawbacks and caveats. Here are some of the unique challenges that adopting cloud technology in healthcare presents:  

Challenge #1: Compliance and Regulatory Requirements 

As a healthcare provider, your databases contain vast amounts of sensitive patient information that must always be locked down. You must adopt a HIPAA-compliant cloud computing platform that follows SOC 2 standards. These mandate stringent data protection and privacy measures. 

Compliance involves ensuring that cloud providers adhere to these regulations through contractual agreements and regular audits. 

Challenge #2: Data Security Concerns 

While compliance with HIPAA and SOC 2 is part of the arsenal against nefarious actors, you’ll always need to be vigilant. This includes taking measures against cyberattacks, such as ransomware, phishing, and other data breaches. 

Ensure that your cloud computing providers implement robust security protocols, continuous monitoring, and other strict security standards to mitigate the risks of data exposure and loss.

Challenge #3: Downtime and reliability

Infrastructure reliability is critical for healthcare providers relying on cloud computing. Outages can hinder access to vital patient information, disrupt healthcare operations, and potentially lead to adverse patient outcomes. 

You’ll need contingency plans that include maintaining backups and the ability to switch to alternative systems just in case outages occur — this is an action plan you’ll need to ensure is always an option.

Challenge #4: Integration with Legacy Systems 

Sometimes, your practice might be running a system that’s not entirely up to date. Integrating an older system with cloud solutions could present significant challenges as it might not be compatible with the modern cloud architecture. 

Overcoming these challenges requires careful planning, investment in cutting-edge healthcare software, and, in some cases, complete system overhauls. Ensure that your cloud providers are aware of your system architecture so they can integrate it smoothly. 

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How Cloud Providers Handle the Risks

In addition to being compliant with HIPAA and SOC 2 standards, cloud providers utilize several mechanisms to ensure that the data stays protected. Here are a few security measures you can expect from cloud computing companies in healthcare: 

• Data encryption: Cloud providers ensure that data is encrypted both at rest and in transit to prevent unauthorized parties from accessing it. This is a fundamental security measure to protect patient information.

• Access controls: Cloud providers implement robust access control mechanisms to ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive data. These mechanisms include role-based access controls where only specific people have access to certain areas and multi-factor and other stringent authentication methods.

• Data segregation: Keep patient data separate from other data to prevent unauthorized access and ensure data integrity. For instance, cloud providers will store patient medical records in a different, more secure area than where they’ll store staff hours worked. 

• Risk assessments: The cloud provider’s tech-savvy team will perform ongoing risk assessments to identify vulnerabilities within the system and implement appropriate mitigations to protect healthcare data. These can include stress tests and mock cyber attacks, with the main goal of fortifying the cloud’s defenses. 

• Secure data backup: Cloud providers often offer automated data backup solutions to ensure data is not lost and can be recovered in an emergency or natural disaster. This helps you rest easy, knowing your data will most likely always be accounted for.  

• Physical security: Yes, thieves sneaking into data centers for nefarious purposes is indeed a real thing, and cloud providers take extra precautions to prevent this by installing robust security systems and hiring guards to keep an eye on things.

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Some Leading Cloud Providers for Healthcare Companies

Shopping around for the perfect healthcare cloud computing provider? We’ve found 4 HIPAA and SOC 2 compliant providers of cloud healthcare services:

Provider #1: Microsoft Azure-Health Cloud

Microsoft Azure provides a highly secure and compliant cloud environment tailored to the healthcare sector. Its strength lies in integrating various healthcare IT needs into one platform and can support multiple healthcare applications and data types, including electronic health records (EHRs), genomics data, and imaging. 

You’ll also get AI and machine learning tools, which healthcare organizations can adopt to predict patient outcomes, improve diagnostics, and personalize patient care. 

Provider #2: Google Cloud Platform (GCP)-Healthcare & Life Sciences

GCP stands out in healthcare for its advanced analytics and machine learning capabilities. It provides powerful tools that support both medical research and clinical practices. GCP's AI solutions help make sense of vast amounts of health data. 

It also substantially supports healthcare APIs, facilitating better data transfer between systems.

Provider #3: Salesforce Health Cloud

Salesforce Health Cloud is particularly adept at patient engagement and care coordination. It can integrate with many existing healthcare systems, legacy or new, to centralize patient data, providing healthcare providers with a 360-degree view of the patient. 

Additionally, Salesforce provides proprietary advanced analytics to give insights into patient behavior, aiding proactive healthcare management and patient retention strategies. Its compliance with healthcare regulations ensures patient data is handled securely, maintaining confidentiality and integrity.

Provider #4: Oracle Cloud-Healthcare

Oracle offers specialized solutions for data security, integration, and analytics. These enable practices to address specific patient needs through their patient management systems. Its strength lies in its database services, which provide unparalleled performance for transactional healthcare applications. 

These data storage capabilities are ideal for supporting EHR systems and healthcare data warehouses. Oracle also offers real-time analytics and patient data management tools, helping healthcare organizations gain timely insights and improve productivity.   

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Real-World Applications of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Wondering what kinds of programs healthcare providers run on their legacy systems these days? Here are a few software applications that many practices are currently using for their healthcare systems:

• Electronic health records (EHRs): These data-management tools provide centralized, real-time, and secure access to patient records. They allow healthcare providers to make informed decisions by ensuring immediate access to patient histories, including diagnoses, medications, treatment plans, and test results, no matter where the provider is located. 
  
  Most EHRs can be rapidly updated and scaled according to healthcare institutions' needs, ensuring agility and compliance with ever-changing healthcare regulations.

• Telemedicine and remote patient monitoring: Cloud services allow healthcare providers to communicate with patients via phone and computer. This reduces or flat-out eliminates the need for office visits. 
  
  Remote services are particularly beneficial for patients in underserved regions, those with mobility issues, or during pandemics where minimizing physical contact is crucial. Cloud-enabled telemedicine improves patient engagement and adherence to treatment plans by offering convenient access to medical advice.

• Medical imaging storage and retrieval: Cloud services simplify the storage of large files like MRIs, ultrasounds, and more. This results in reduced costs associated with on-premises data storage. Additionally, specialists can easily access the images to improve patient care, like when an orthopedic doctor accesses a patient’s X-ray taken by an emergency room physician. 

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How No-Code/Low-Code Platforms Help Healthcare Providers

No-code and low-code platforms simplify building apps or software that you can deploy on your healthcare cloud without coding expertise. With cloud computing becoming the backbone of modern healthcare, no-code, and low-code app-building platforms make adopting and integrating cloud-based technologies easier.

Here are just a few ways no-code or low-code tools can help:

• Faster development and deployment of healthcare apps: Because no-code platforms don’t require any technical expertise, and low-code requires a tiny bit, you can develop software for your healthcare practice on the fly, allowing you to adjust to rapidly shifting demands. 

• Improved patient engagement: You’ll be able to easily create custom portals and apps tailored to elevate patient interaction and communication. These tools make it simpler for patients to access their health records, schedule appointments, and communicate with healthcare professionals, which can improve overall engagement and satisfaction.

• Automating administrative workflows: Automations you create facilitate the swift execution of administrative tasks, significantly reducing manual errors and increasing productivity. Automating patient data entry, appointment scheduling, and billing lets your staff focus more on patient care and less on routine paperwork.

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Cloud-based, Scalable, and Resilient Healthcare Applications with Blaze

Looking for a no-code platform you can use to create your own enterprise health applications? Check out Blaze.tech. 

Blaze is well-suited for cloud computing in healthcare, letting healthcare professionals design their own HIPAA-compliant apps. 

Here are a few other reasons to go with Blaze:  

• No-code simplicity: Blaze’s easy drag-and-drop interface lets you create healthcare apps that match your needs. It’s  intuitive to pick up so you’ll be pretty functionalit after an onboarding session or two. 

• Tons of integrations for healthcare: You probably already use a few other third-party applications and an EHR system. With Blaze, you’ll be able to integrate them into your new app by just pressing a few buttons, facilitating quick data transfers and automations between programs.  

• Primo support: Blaze’s implementation team has covered you from when you first logged in to long after you published your app. If you have any issues or need assistance, they’ve got you. They’ll even maintain your app to ensure it hums like a well-oiled machine after you deploy it. 

Schedule a demo with Blaze’s team today and see how you can elevate your healthcare practice by building your own apps.