Microsoft Office 365 for Healthcare

Healthcare has become the most important vertical in this decade. The pandemic has only accelerated the focus on healthcare even more. Technology is playing an increasingly important role in healthcare, and cloud solutions are one of the most important components. In the area of cloud computing, Microsoft is one of the leading providers. There are several solutions, and Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare is one of the most comprehensive solutions. The solutions include data models, cross-cloud connectors, workflows, APIs, and built-in healthcare-specific components that have several horizontal cloud apps and services. In terms of healthcare, Microsoft’s solutions empower providers, payors, pharmaceuticals, and medical technology organizations. In this blog, let us examine how Office 365 cloud migration and other services can help the healthcare industry.

What is Stopping Cloud Adoption in the Healthcare Industry?

Although healthcare is adopting technologies, it is at a relatively slower pace. Here are some important reasons.

Data Security and Privacy

Healthcare is one of the most regulated verticals, not just in the US, but across the globe. With strict standards such as HIPAA, it is becoming difficult for healthcare companies to adopt new technologies. Thankfully, with solutions such as Microsoft Access Online Database, these challenges can be overcome as the company fully adheres to industry-accepted standards.

Data location and ownership

As a consequence of the above point, data location and ownership are some of the most important aspects of security and privacy. In some countries, such as the United States, there are rules on where and how data can be stored. Reputed DaaS providers, such as Apps4Rent can provide cloud services that can ensure that the data is protected in the appropriate locations, as per specifications.

Funding models

Even at this stage, there are several impediments that healthcare organizations, such as hospitals have to overcome in terms of funding. There are ongoing debates on aspects such as VAT vs no VAT and Capex vs Opex that delay cloud adoption.

How to Migrate Hospital Data to The Cloud?

There are 4 strategic steps for migrating healthcare data to the cloud.

Move data first, not application

Many individuals and organizations think that their applications are their strategic assets as they contain the data. This mindset has to be overcome, and the data has to be migrated first.

Start with low-hanging fruits

Pick the legacy applications with the least business impact, and most prone to cyber-attack for migration. Move them to the cloud and decommission them as soon as possible. This will save time, costs, and manpower.

Deploy an Independent Clinical Cloud Archive

This is typically a cloud-native software that offers full information lifecycle management capabilities including, clinical workflows and pathways, such as secure image capture (e.g. for patient-generated data), diagnostic-grade medical image viewing (including on mobile devices), and a timeline of patient encounters.

Consider a reputed cloud vendor

Several vendors can offer different types of services on Microsoft Azure for healthcare. A reputed CSP, such as Apps4Rent offers managed Azure services for IT provisioning, such as compute, storage, database, networking, apart from other niche cloud-related services such as Microsoft Teams tenant to tenant migration. Contact Apps4Rent experts available 24/7 via phone, chat, and email for cloud solutions for the healthcare industry.