Clouds, Analytics and Advanced Patient Care

Recently pointed out to me,  “Turning Healthcare Vision into Reality with the Cloud”  by Scott Megill, CEO of Coriell Life Sciences in the IBM Smarter Planet blog.   Good read.

Lately I have been more involved with cloud data syncing, sharing and analytic services, so the topic is already foremost in my head.    In addition have been in conversations about how better standards for data, both structured and unstructured, can be shared between patients, professionals and devices.  Its an Internet of things, and we are one of those things, and a prime stakeholder. Consider too that embedding analytics into these processes will also allow more efficiency and process outcome improvement in an already very expensive system.

Megill rightly points out that we are living in a changing world of devices and clients,and the need to communicate in a standard way is key:

" ... For healthcare providers, though, this means more medical records to deal with. With more patients potentially entering the system, the number of patient medical and history records will rapidly soar. These records need to be stored, organized, analyzed, and instantly accessible for medical researchers, physicians and healthcare insurance providers — all at minimum administrative costs. This is where open cloud technology – providing the needed interoperability, collaboration, transparency and most importantly, the security – comes to the rescue. ... " 

Very clear.  You need very fast means of communications among disparate and changing devices, syncing at many levels, clear and secure standards.   All linked to increasing use of analytical algorithms.  And the integration of human beings at many levels of sophistication.  Have seen this component as a player in other spaces where humans are key: marketing and behavioral interaction.  It's all that but needs to be faster and deals with more data.

This all tracks with recording results for many purposes, including the changing needs for back office accounting.  Quite a challenge, but the Cloud and Analytics must be there to even make it possible.

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet. I’ve been compensated to contribute to this program, but the opinions expressed in this post are my own and don't necessarily represent IBM's positions, strategies or opinions.