By Scott Mayo

A relentless pressure to innovate while also cutting costs, improving outcomes, and modernizing outdated infrastructure: it might sound next-to-impossible, but it’s just a typical day in the life of a CIO/CTO/CISO in the HealthCare Industry.

Providers know that quick fixes, silver bullets, and Band-Aids won’t suffice for the many and multifaceted challenges. Hospitals, clinics, and insurance companies need to do more with less and make that model work for the long term. So what’s required is actual transformation.
Many industries' investments in cloud computing have steadily grown as Digital and Information Technology requirements have moved from the back to the front office in this new world of digital transformation. However, healthcare has struggled with the convergence razor razor-thin margins and the pressures of Triple Aim, digital transformation, and now AI.

For many, moving Electronic Health Records (EHRs) to the cloud has been an important step forward in that transformation. Leaders in healthcare say their EHR cloud migration–which involved a fundamental redesign of how their systems, data, and people work together–has helped them transition to data-driven care, reducing inefficiencies, expanding capabilities and improving resiliency.

But it can’t be likened to flipping a switch. Those who have not yet undertaken the journey will learn that it’s far more than a simple technology upgrade. Moving EHRs to the cloud, in fact, requires an organizational re-engineering that affects every part of the enterprise.

Healthcare organizations should not underestimate what it will take.

What the cloud offers

Before diving into the operational challenges, it’s worth remembering why healthcare organizations move EHRs to the cloud. Among the benefits are:

● Real-time collaboration and access: Clinicians working in different facilities can access updated patient records in real time.
● Scalability, flexibility, and speed: Unlike the traditional datacenter facility, a cloud environment scales and grows with the organization without laborious, manual, and tedious processes, not to mention capital outlay. System speed performance improvements are also typically material, getting relevant information to providers faster. Real-time scaling affords deployment lifecycles of months down to weeks for concept to production, and the flexibility of storage and compute provides the ultimate platform for AI.
● Security and compliance: CIS, NIST, HI_TRUST, HIPAA-compliant architectures with built-in encryption and access controls are often embedded in the optimal cloud implementations.

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