As we come to a close on 2012, everyone’s making their predictions for next year. This year I have had the opportunity to write about Cloud computing and its impact on so many areas.
But where do I think it will have the biggest impact in 2013? Only in an industry that is expected to be a $5.4 billion market by 2017, Healthcare.
Typically slow to adapt new technologies due to very legitimate reasons such as data security and privacy, the Health Care industry is perfectly poised to reap the benefits cloud has to offer.
How?
Picture this, it’s March of 2013, you’re currently living in New York and have been getting really bad headaches. So you make an appointment and go to the doctor to get blood work, an MRI, and a physical. The doctor finds out what’s wrong, writes you a prescription and sends you on your way.
Six months later, with the medicine working just fine, your company sends you to San Diego on a long term assignment. Two weeks into your new adventure your head starts hurting again and the pill originally prescribed are ineffective. You don’t have time to go back to NYC to your doctor so you go to another one in San Diego.
Enter Cloud Computing
If both your doctors utilized cloud computing, there would be no need to wait for the MRI Image to be shipped from one coast to the next. There would be no need for your doctors to get on the phone because all their notes with all your records were quickly transferred, in turn providing you with the actual treatment you need in real time.
Disruptive Innovation
So my prediction? The healthcare industry will experience a disruptive innovation around Cloud computing being implemented in more and more hospitals and doctor’s offices. It won’t be long before both doctors and patients alike recognize the benefits of time saving (waiting rooms, duplicate tests), the delivery of images (which are actually very large, taking up gigabytes of information on on-premise databases), and of course, cost savings on the locally maintained hardware.
