While it's widely acknowledged that virtualization and managed hosting are critical technologies to keep an eye on for many industries, the reasons for this could be different for every sector.
Fierce Health IT editor Ken Terry recently wrote that, as far as healthcare is concerned, there are several factors working in favor of new technology — as well as several others pushing in the other direction.
Although he asserted that general use of managed hosting, virtualization and cloud computing is an inevitability among medical practitioners, the author said that obstacles like regulatory compliance have given some organizations reason to delay. He cited a study from KLAS Research as saying that large hospitals — which generally have existing, in-house IT Infrastructure solutions — and healthcare providers in rural areas as being particularly likely to be leery of these issues.
Smaller institutions, on the other hand, were found by the researchers to be far more receptive to the idea of contracting for IT Infrastructure services, Terry reported. Their general lack of technological expertise — few small clinics can afford dedicated IT departments — makes managed services more attractive.
"Looking over the changes occurring in the market, it appears likely that cloud computing will become the norm in healthcare once some of the technology and security issues are sorted out. This is already happening in the radiological area, where many institutions have moved to the cloud to lower their storage costs and facilitate the exchange of images," he wrote.
It will be important, though, for companies to work on improved interoperability and the creation of industry standards for the use of managed services in the healthcare sector. In the absence of the ability to move patient files and other information between different systems, the efficiency and flexibility gains promised by new technology will quickly be overshadowed.
Nevertheless, the capabilities possible with the use of modernized computing infrastructure in healthcare are groundbreaking. Rick Blaisdell recently wrote for CloudTweaks that integrating medical records management with mobile technology and video communication opens up a host of new possibilities for the industry, including remote viewing of health data and the ability to securely videoconference with a physician to receive a diagnosis without leaving one's home.
