Virtual Medicine and EHRs Are Vital Yet Vulnerable: Be Prepared for the Connected Future of Healthcare

Virtual Medicine and EHRs Are Vital Yet Vulnerable: Be Prepared for the Connected Future of Healthcare unknown

Today's healthcare landscape is more complex than ever.

Providers and organizations are looking for the most efficient, cost-effective and secure ways to leverage groundbreaking technology while maintaining compliance and addressing cybersecurity challenges. Ultimately, organizations have the urgent need to stay ahead of an ever-changing healthcare IT landscape where every second counts.

While healthcare’s digital transformation efforts began some time ago, the pandemic thrust them forward. However, while digital acceleration brought much-needed changes, that same acceleration revealed weaknesses, prompting organizations to seek ways to deliver more secure and seamless patient care and experiences.

Virtual Medicine is Here to Stay: Providing Value-Based Patient Care

Global life expectancy is increasing, leading to a rise in demand for the treatment of chronic diseases, and the pressure on healthcare systems is only expected to mount as the need for more long-term care grows. Telemedicine offers an effective solution, connecting patients and health professionals. As telehealth visits continue to soar, data centers, clouds and managed technology service providers will play a vital role in ensuring that health records and information remain secure and enabling lightning-fast connections along with the backup and storage required.

The healthcare industry is also increasingly adopting connected devices powered by AI and 5G-enabled ambulances to support patient care. Subsequently, the number of connected devices is expected to exceed 50 million in the next decade. A hospital bed alone can have 10-15 connected devices. Consumer wearables can send critical data to clinicians, and first responders are helping to stabilize trauma victims via 5G and advanced augmented/virtual reality support. These IoHT or IoMT devices and smart ambulances are a vital part of the future of healthcare. Yet, they are vulnerable to various cyber attacks and require end-to-end protection to ensure borderless security.

As healthcare providers embrace telemedicine and connected devices, they must address the continued threat of a data breach or cyberattack. That’s where the critical need for managed healthcare IT comes into play. Today's healthcare systems must be secure and future-proof at every turn, without exception. From telehealth and the technology that supports it to patient monitoring and more, keeping data secure, compliant and seamlessly integrated is essential to a healthcare organization’s future.

Taking Healthcare to the Next Level With the Edge

Edge computing already plays an essential role in improved patient care and experiences. Enterprise Edge use cases for healthcare will only continue to grow. Future-forward healthcare organizations have already integrated Edge strategies to address the sheer increase in digital data volume, as well as to remediate challenges caused by cloud and on-premises environments’ limitations across data transmission speeds, bandwidth, privacy, security and cost-effectiveness. By putting the data, analytics and processing power at the Edge, organizations can keep them close to where they are needed the most—whether that’s the OR, ER, or in an ambulance. The Edge solves many digitally driven healthcare challenges. Here are a few use cases:

• Improved computing power supports telemetry and image processing, as well as storage.
• Remote patient monitoring can help alleviate some of the strain on healthcare providers and improve patient access.
• The Edge provides clinicians immediate access to sensitive patient data, avoiding the safety concerns of running personal information through the cloud entirely.

Simplifying common tasks with Enterprise Edge technology can expedite healthcare solutions that improve outcomes. In addition, companies have traditionally shied away from adopting patient monitoring solutions such as wearable devices due to the security risks of running them through the cloud and the bandwidth that it would require. With Edge solutions, it is possible to prioritize the data that needs to be accessed immediately—such as data that indicates a stroke  — and identify what gets stored in local data centers.

Regional data centers can also help integrated health systems that have their data hosted at an on-premises facility that is either aging, at capacity or both. Rather than investing in a costly, risky and complex retrofit project, a health system can partner with a regional-based Edge data center provider to minimize data center-related capital requirements allowing for investment in core patient care needs. This geographically diverse scenario also provides flexibility for growth and change.

Taking Your Health into Your Own Hands: The Patient Experience

It’s no secret that Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have revolutionized healthcare, empowering both patients and practitioners. Enabling patients to access their medical records allows them to take a more active role in their healthcare. For practitioners, EHRs streamline workflows, reduce paperwork and provide access to comprehensive patient information, ultimately improving patient care. However, HIPAA-imposed privacy and security requirements must remain prioritized.

At the beginning of 2023, the ONC’s Cures Act Final Rule was enacted. This law is designed to give patients access to secure health information at no cost. For the experience to be seamless, successful and accessible, the healthcare industry must adopt standard Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) to help individuals securely and easily access structured electronic health information using smartphone applications. To enable this secure access and exchange of critical data, healthcare organizations need to leverage the most advanced security solutions—and that’s where the right IT partner comes to play.

Partnering with the Right Provider to Optimize Patient Outcomes

Healthcare IT partnerships have become paramount in delivering better patient outcomes. Collaboration between healthcare providers and IT service providers fosters internal innovation while providing the advanced solutions needed to meet the evolving healthcare landscape, improving patient care, reducing costs, and streamlining operations. By working together, healthcare providers can access cutting-edge technologies that they may not have the expertise or resources to develop in-house.

As a Best in KLAS-recognized provider, Involta has the expertise to navigate these complexities and provide services to improve patient care. Involta’s suite of healthcare IT encompasses innovative data center services that support healthcare platforms for precision medicine, EMR hosting, PACs/imaging, data analytics, telemedicine and multiple electronic health records applications.

Healthcare’s Connected Future Relies on the Balance Between Security and Accessibility

Healthcare IT is an ever-evolving landscape that requires careful attention to data security alongside patient and provider needs. From device-connected hospital beds to AI-powered insulin delivery and first responders leveraging technology to help stabilize trauma victims, digital healthcare goes beyond a telehealth visit. With that in mind, healthcare organizations are turning to managed service providers to not only streamline and manage operations and costs but to foster innovation and improve overall patient care. The Edge is a critical component of any healthcare IT strategy. Organizations that actively integrate a comprehensive IT roadmap encompassing Edge are best positioned to deliver the healthcare the future requires.