Don t Call me Carnac: the Future of Cloud and Healcare Delivery by Michl Leonard

It's 2008 and a well known industry visionary and thought leader called cloud computing gibberish . Strong words from an industry guru who is often emulated. Fast forward to early 2014 as we celebrate #NHITweek, Oh Dearie, you just pull it down from the cloud . That statement, made by a petite little old lady to my wife when she was buying an iPad recently, discussing how many movies she could store on her new device, stands out in my mind as a sign that the cloud is pervasive and still means different things to so many people.

That woman had no idea what the Cloud really is, but she knows you can get movies from it. It is interesting to think about the true definition of the cloud, what you can do with it and what it might become in the future.

Some people say the cloud is nothing new and it is a marketing effort to change how people think about information technology and the delivery of applications to customers. There certainly has been some effort toward branding that term, but I think the cloud is much more than new polish on an old term, that it really is changing how organizations and individuals do business and interact.

With the healthcare system in particular, there have been bumps in the road as it relates to the use of the cloud. Security remains a top concern within healthcare IT, although there are signs that security improvements by vendors are progressing enough that providers are not dismissing cloud based services solely on the security issue anymore.

If we think about what the goals should be, the adoption of cloud based technologies is more about changing business models and improving patient care. Progress is real, and many organizations are embracing cloud based services to help deliver patient care, schedule employee work shifts, change procurement processes and save money by utilizing services that may be cost prohibitive for a single organization to stand up themselves.

Now let's talk about 2 of my favorite words, big data . I sometimes get an ice cream headache when I hear those words. There are so many meanings to big data and the possibilities for what it means go on and on. There are population health management opportunities, individualized medical programs, and social media opportunities where users could share their experiences both to help build larger research projects but also just to share experiences with other people facing similar challenges.

Delivery models for healthcare are starting to shift and we will start to see more home-based healthcare; that trend should accelerate especially for the treatment of chronic conditions where hospital-based care is not required. The ability to place monitoring and diagnostic devices in patients' homes and connect them to cloud-based platforms offers great promise to help care for America's aging population.

It's fun to think about what the future holds for healthcare IT. While I can't predict the coming years, I think it is safe to say we will be using the term cloud for the foreseeable future and the technology behind the curtains will continue to mature with the promise of better healthcare related services and improved patient outcomes to come.

Follow the conversation during this important National Health IT Week at #NHITweek.

LINK:	http://blogs.ironmountain.com/2014/industry/healthcare-information-man...
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