Cloud computing has emerged as one of the smartest instruments in navigating the Covid-19 crisis. Cloud rapidly enabled us to work, learn, shop, and play remotely, sitting in the safe confines of our homes. Since the global pandemic outbreak, cloud technologies have become the foundation of some of the key transitions and innovations in the healthcare sector.
Here’s a look at how Cloud, in combination with analytics, AI, and digital technologies, has become the catalyst for change in the healthcare industry.
Three Ways How Cloud is Fast-tracking the Healthcare Response to Covid-19
1. Data Analytics And Predictive Models:
Data has emerged as a powerful weapon in the fight against the pandemic. Robust insights driven by massive volumes of data are used across the lifecycle of pandemic management—from diagnosis to treatment to cure and, most importantly, for research and drug discovery. Statistics reveal that 2300 exabytes of healthcare data will be produced in 2020 (according to pre-Covid estimates). The current challenge is the disconnected, siloed nature of these data sets. Cloud-based data lakes are helping to centralize and provide easy access to data for analytics.
Recently, AWS made its COVID-19 data lake—a centralized repository of up-to-date and curated datasets on the pandemic—publicly available for researchers and healthcare providers. The cloud firm has also worked closely with WHO to jointly leverage the power of cloud technologies to develop several services. WHO’s Academy app, its ‘situation dashboard,’ its OpenWHO knowledge transfer platform, and its early warning system are all built with the help of AWS cloud technologies and other tools.
2. Telehealth Through Cloud:
Remote healthcare or virtual healthcare is the biggest change the healthcare sector has embraced. Increasingly, providers are looking at new healthcare delivery and management models—including telemedicine and telehealth services. The Telehealth services market is growing at a staggering 65 percent in 2020.
AI-powered, cloud-based teleconsulting systems can take the load off doctors and hospitals by providing medical information to patients by assessing symptoms and risk factors. Cloud-hosted telemedicine and telemonitoring are becoming increasingly common in treating home-isolated Covid-19 positive patients. Tele-counselling is helping in reducing the risk of infectious exposure and workload on clinicians and providing better patient care.
3. Cloud-powered bots:
Since the outbreak, hospitals and contact centers worldwide have been swamped by inquiries and requests. Public health organizations and healthcare professionals must respond quickly, provide accurate information, triage new patients, and advise further action. Many healthcare organizations are looking at healthcare bots and triage bots to scale these efforts and engagement with citizens.
Most of these tools can be quickly deployed for websites or applications and deliver a self-service and natural conversation experience to people. It does more than provide the right information. Bots can triage patient needs, check symptoms, book appointments, and comes integrated with medical databases and protocols. Some hospitals are using chatbots to address mental health issues due to Covid-19.
Further Reading: The Telemedicine Era Is Upon Us And Cloud Is Powering It
About the Author:
Amit Gupta, Co-Founder & CEO – Amit Gupta has over 20 years of experience delivering strategic projects in big data and highly responsive systems. He has headed a hospitality automation tool business unit and touched 4000+ customers, successfully selling it before founding Intelligentia.
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