Is Cloud Computing the Cure for the Healthcare Industry?

Conventionally a risk-averse industry, healthcare has been understandably cautious adopting emerging technologies due to the sensitive nature of personal health data. Strict industry regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability & Accountability Act (HIPAA) mandate that all healthcare organizations – and their business associates – must follow specific privacy and security protocols when handling electronic protected health information (PHI). Any improper handling of PHI can not only damage an organization’s reputation, but also result in heavy fines of up to $1.5 million per HIPAA violation.

At the same time, consumers have come to expect more accessible, efficient and convenient services. The overwhelming demand for healthcare reform is now forcing providers to take a serious look at new and innovative approaches to streamline their operation and improve patient services.

Why the Cloud is the Cure

Industry research and real-world successes suggest that cloud computing is the remedy. According to IDC’s latest CloudTrack Survey, more than 50% of healthcare organizations report that they will be piloting, using or managing some form of cloud in their IT infrastructure in 2014. As IDC research director July Hanover puts it: “The use of cloud computing as an increasingly business-critical technology is quickly changing how healthcare providers evaluate, procure, and deploy IT assets.”

When it comes to cloud technology, it’s just hard to beat its cost savings, operational efficiencies, and scalability benefits.

Introducing Caspio HIPAA Enterprise

As a cloud pioneer since 2000, Caspio offers a unique rapid application development platform for non-technical professionals to create custom cloud applications to streamline processes and increase productivity. Seeing a surge in the demand from our existing healthcare customers over the last year, we have released a new HIPAA-compliant version of our platform.

Caspio HIPAA Enterprise provides all the required HIPAA safeguards to build cloud applications in a secure and compliant environment. Business professionals, developers and consultants working across the healthcare industry can rapidly build customized applications to improve existing their practices and eliminate most manual and paper-based processes. Popular examples include online patient portals, health insurance exchanges, clinical research databases, knowledge sharing, and so on.

And in many cases, healthcare organizations can build web based databases and applications themselves using Caspio, rather than hiring third-party developers and consultants which requires additional legal agreements and potentially opens up more compliance risks.

Additionally, our healthcare customers appreciate the fact that Caspio HIPAA Enterprise is an all-in-one solution that provides everything they need to launch compliant applications fast – the compliant infrastructure, rapid application development framework, database security, ongoing maintenance, and all the operational policies and procedures that protect PHI data.

Read about the new features in this edition and contact us to request more information.