The growing amounts of data require huge computing power,
which in many cases can only be provided by cloud servers. That's why modern
business is increasingly moving its data to the cloud, trying to simplify
management and cut costs.
Where to store data?
In some areas, the transition to the cloud is slower than
expected. According to a survey conducted by the company "Integrated
Medical Information Systems" in the spring of 2017 among 310 commercial
medical organizations in various regions of Russia, only 3% of Russian private
clinics switched to cloud medical information systems.
Any clinic, private or municipal, stores a large amount of
data. First of all, this is patient registration, electronic medical records,
visits statistics, schedules of medical personnel and medical procedures,
accounting of medical drugs and medical equipment in warehouses, bank data,
history of invoices, and much more. This data set requires not only storage,
but also administration. In some cases, these processes are easier to transfer
to cloud services. Nevertheless, medical centers continue to use their own
local servers.
The main reason is that there is no need to use full-fledged
medical information services, but only some of their functionality, for
example, only programs for scheduling or maintaining electronic medical
records. Partial acquisition of the functional reduces the costs of small
private clinics with one or two offices.
At the same time, full-scale cloud services are needed for
large medical networks with disparate clinics in different parts of the
country. The combination of several clinics in one network on a cloud platform
will simplify the administration of data and reduce the cost of the IT
infrastructure.
The main "cloud" problems for medical centers
In the opinion of Stanislav Kisel, the director of the
department for work with key clients of RedSys, one of the main risks for
clinics is the threat of theft of personal data. The transition to the cloud is
fraught with risks of data leakage, blocking and unauthorized modification. To
avoid these risks, it is necessary to provide a reliable secure access channel,
as well as to be confident in the operator providing the cloud service.
"Unfortunately, attacks on medical databases are
becoming more frequent, and medical data need special protection. For example,
during the recent large-scale hacker attack WannaCry also affected the servers
of medical institutions - said Stanislav Kisel. - Risk the database and small
private clinics. For example, over the past months hackers several times
kidnapped data from one of the private clinics of plastic surgery in Lithuania.
These are cases that have become known to the public, but often users will not
know about the leakage of data. "
The transition to the cloud will require the medical institution to make serious expenditures.
Expert RedSys pays attention to another important problem
that prevents the transition of medical institutions to the cloud, the maturity
of the infrastructure of communication channels. "Not all regional telecom
operators can provide dedicated secure channels that provide stable high-speed
access to the cloud. Moreover, there is a problem of the last mile, that is,
providing a stable and guaranteed connection to the clinic, and this becomes
the main and decisive risk for medical organizations. Even if the clinic can be
provided with a high-speed connection, it is not always worth the reasonable
money that the clinic is willing to pay. "
Why prepare for the transition to the cloud
We must understand that the transition to the cloud at the
first stage will require the medical institution to make serious expenditures
for the preparation of infrastructure, including communication channels, the
creation of medical information systems in full functionality, the purchase of
a place in the cloud and the transfer of medical information systems (MIS).
However, medical information systems in themselves become a problem. According to
Stanislav Kisel, in the market, including in public medical institutions, there
is no uniform IIA, and therefore, everyone does it for themselves, which makes
integration with cloud services difficult.
Thus, at present, the transition of medical organizations to
the cloud is associated with a number of problems and risks. They are related
to the lack of a uniform medical information system, the imperfection of the
Internet network to provide high-speed access to cloud services and the risk of
identity theft.
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