The telehealth industry has already been impacted by the development of cloud computing. Already, there are medical professionals who have begun to use cloud computing functionality in its basic form. There are more and more advanced versions of telehealth applications materialising and there are sure to be further developments to come.

Cloud Computing – What Is It?

Cloud computing is basically the process of storing and managing data in a variety of remote locations over the internet. This is in place of the more traditional method of storing data on a PC or local server. An example to demonstrate how this works is to consider when one family member contacts another via the medium of a webcam. To perform this action, the computer accesses software that has been stored on a remote server. This software is able to connect video and audio and present it to your family member through the PC monitor and vice versa. This allows you to communicate in real-time. Imagine now, that one of these communicators is a patient and the other is their psychiatrist; this is telehealth.

Telephsychiatry was one of the first areas of the medical industry to benefit from telehealth technology. This is because for the psychiatrist, the patient does not need to be in the same room as he might if he required a physical assessment, therefore, any treatment needed can be performed via video conferencing with as much efficiency as being face to face. Additional benefits of this method are the time and money saved by not needing to make an appointment and then travel to and from that appointment. It is all round a much more simplified method for all involved.

Cloud computing has started to be used more extensively by primary care physicians for viewing medical records or contacting physicians, monitoring prescriptions and scheduling new appointments. The patient can then simply log in to their own account and view the data that has been accessed.

With the use of video conferencing functions, the emergency room in hospitals have also begun taking advantage of cloud computing. For the physicians to see the medical emergency before the patient arrives at hospital can help the medical team be pre-prepared for each specific emergency. When the medical staff arrive at the scene, they can also be helped by the doctor with the best action required on location or even en route to the hospital.

Tele-EEG, a real-time device, is able to transmit data remotely to a cloud based location in readiness for immediate analysis. This data is able to be stored or forwarded to multiple locations at once, or collected for further future analysis. For example, a home-based dialysis would be able to be controlled at home by the hospital, improving the patients’ quality of life by reducing the number of hospital visits.

Surgeons can also find benefits in using cloud computing. Robotic surgery could be controlled this way and with the advancements in cloud-computing technology, this is becoming an increasingly likely option and will become a more popular method across the world. All of a sudden, world class surgeons will be able to offer their expertise to anyone around the globe.

The less hands-on but equally vital roles such as administration are also ideal to be used via cloud computing. The monitoring of all functions and scheduling can all be performed remotely. Time between patient visits can be controlled and maintained far more efficiently by the cloud computing system of the hospital.

Both as a combined feature and independently, cloud computing and telehealth have grown in a considerable manner and with continued developments and advancements these two excellent technological products will continue to work hand in hand.