Effective cloud security allows businesses to take advantage of the benefits of cloud computing while ensuring that data is secure.
Healthcare organizations have many good reasons to use the cloud. Healthcare typically involves masses of data and large amounts of data analysis. The cloud excels at mass storage and at large scale computation. The fit between cloud capabilities and Healthcare needs is striking.
However Healthcare involves very private data. Respect for patient privacy is as old as Hippocrates. Security – and compliance with regulations such as HIPAA/HITECH – have typically delayed usage of the cloud.
With the Rise of AI, What IP Disputes in Healthcare Are Likely to Emerge?
Munck Wilson Mandala Partner Greg Howison shared his perspective on some of the legal ramifications around AI, IP, connected devices and the data they generate, in response to emailed questions.
Sample cloud use cases for healthcare
Many of our customers use the cloud for data analysis. This can involve analysis of hospital data to identify trends. A hospital may want to identify wards where certain diseases may be on the verge of spreading, as early as possible. A testing center may wish to mine masses of clinical data for nuggets.
Such large scale analysis is perfect for the cloud. The customer can bring up a hundred servers, crunch the numbers, and then give the servers ‘back to the cloud’. The savings are huge, and the customer can also easily choose servers that have the right power for the job. Sometimes you need servers with a lot of data storage, other times high performance computation may be required. The cloud provides both cost savings and flexibility.
Or take the use case of Healthcare Revenue Management. Hospitals and Clinics need to process huge amounts of forms in order to get paid. Typically these forms must be accessed by both the health provider and an insurance company (HMO). Form analysis may require both “character recognition” to decipher hand written forms, and lots of financial support for getting paid. Online solutions are perfect for such applications
A Personalized Approach to Medication Nonadherence
At the Abarca Forward conference earlier this year, George Van Antwerp, managing director at Deloitte, discussed how social determinants of health and a personalized member experience can improve medication adherence and health outcomes.
But how to manage health data securely?
The benefits should by now be clear. But privacy and HIPAA/HITECH regulations – are a limitation.
Meeting the regulations in the cloud is achievable. It involves going through the same checklists as in any data center. It can be tedious, yet the prize is large.
However one area does require some getting used to. Clouds don’t have walls – how does that affect patient privacy?
The solution is to make sure data is encrypted in the cloud, and that the owner of the data maintains ownership of the encryption keys. The technology now exists that allows you to use the cloud and scale with it as much as you need – yet maintain ownership of your data through encryption.
Cloud encryption provides Safe Harbor
An added benefit of encryption – with proper key ownership – is Safe Harbor. The HHS has set criteria for Safe Harbor; if you meet them – you may be exempt from the most onerous fines and reporting requirements even if something does go wrong (whether it is data getting lost through an innocent mistake, or more suspect events).
In sum, cloud encryption with proper management of the encryption keys enables new business models for Healthcare. Massive storage and large scale compute now become available for applications ranging from Big Data analysis to Revenue Management.
