Athenahealth provides software-as-a-service (SaaS)-based clinic management and electronic medical record software, which makes it a rapidly developing medical information technology manufacturer. Compared with existing systems, adopting this cloud-based solution can bring at least two obvious advantages:
1. The upfront cost is low, because there is almost no need to deploy technology in medical institutions (that is, "affordable");
2. Have a real-time database containing insurance payment rules, which can be continuously updated according to the customer's refusal to pay. Athenahealth can apply this information to its entire customer base (i.e. "variable") if the requirements for filing claims change.
Many states in the United States are establishing a medical information exchange platform (H I E), which is actually a cloud-based information exchange center, making it easier to share information among hospitals, health systems, doctors and clinics (that is, "open").
At present, dozens of manufacturers and service providers are developing cloud HIE solutions, and several HIEs have been put into operation. Although it is still too early to evaluate the true value of HIE, this concept is expected to make information more timely and effective, thus improving patient care. Many well-known pharmaceutical companies, including Lilly, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer, have begun to use the cloud to improve drug research and development (that is, "scalable" and "affordable"). Commercial cloud computing providers, including Amazon, I B M and Oracle Bone Inscriptions, have developed clinical research cloud solutions specifically for the medical field, aiming at reducing the cost of new drugs and shortening the development cycle.
Many hospitals and doctors are now beginning to see that suppliers such as Hewlett-Packard, General Electric and Tieshan are providing cloud-based medical records and medical image archiving services (that is, "open" and "portable"). The purpose is to relieve the heavy tasks for the I T department of the hospital, so that they can devote themselves to supporting other important work, such as adopting electronic medical records and improving clinical support systems.
Cloud-based doctor collaboration solutions have achieved initial success, such as remote video conferencing doctor visits. With the widespread adoption of wireless broadband and smart phones, it is more feasible to extend such solutions to rural telemedicine or disaster response mobile environment. There will be many intersections (that is, "portability") between adopting m H e a l t h and adopting healthy cloud.
These early examples prove that cloud computing is bringing tangible benefits to the medical industry. The industry is highly concerned about information security, but is unwilling to take risks for fear of destructive it transformation. The successful adoption and implementation of healthy cloud technology will help win the chief information officer of the medical industry, who is more suspicious of cloud computing than their peers in other vertical industries.
Some solutions cannot eliminate the resistance of the medical industry. Only by deeply understanding the medical cloud solutions provided by medical industry manufacturers can they be accepted by users. We are paying close attention to whether the medical cloud will take root in private cloud or hybrid cloud (due to security and other industry characteristics) rather than public cloud infrastructure. In any case, the challenges faced by the medical industry are arduous and require innovative solutions.
We have always insisted that the innovation of the medical industry needs the help of outside forces. Today, Amazon, Dell, Google, I B M, Intuit, Microsoft and other manufacturers have all developed their early cloud computing vision and regarded themselves as medical solution providers. We believe that it will be beneficial for traditional medical information technology vendors to cooperate with these vendors, because their expertise can be combined with cloud computing solutions (including public cloud, private cloud and hybrid cloud), thus completely changing the medical industry.