Here’s how the cloud is revolutionizing healthcare and fintech
During the first phase of the pandemic, many companies were forced to drastically rethink the way they worked. Rapid digital transformation became necessary to survive economically, support evolving consumer needs and help keep workers connected.
Overcoming the model of office and laboratory work with cloud computing
Cloud computing systems have enabled businesses, schools and public organizations to overcome pandemic-induced challenges and meaningfully accelerate innovation and market agility.
The cloud computing industry is expected to grow to nearly $500 billion by 2022 (from $243 billion in 2019). Amazon Web Services alone is growing 33% per year. This constitutes 75% of the company’s operating income in the last year.
Instead of going back to the way things once were, business leaders must continue to disrupt industry stagnation with emerging technology. Here’s how the cloud is revolutionizing the healthcare and fintech industries.
Cloud-based services are ripe for disruption
In healthcare and dental services, business leaders have historically faced issues with “on-premise” storage – internal systems that can limit scalability and storage. As diagnostic systems become more sophisticated, local servers and aging infrastructure limit providers’ ability to implement new tools and leverage the data they already have.
The restrictions also create challenges on the patient side. These challenges include difficulty accessing health records, scheduling online appointments, and connecting different health care providers for health care needs across multiple systems.
Although these problems have existed for years, pandemic-induced health care overwhelms exacerbated problems, making it even more difficult for many patients to access needed care.
Upgrade of EPR to Better Cloud Systems
Solving these problems means upgrading to better systems that can work faster, save costs and evolve with consumer and patient needs. In a recent case study, MIT Sloan examined how Intermountain Medical Center in Utah modernized its aging internal EHR system to address common challenges.
Intermountain significantly improved patient outcomes by upgrading the technology powering its 22 hospitals and 185 clinics, while saving millions in procurement and internal IT costs. The MIT analysis confirms what we know to be true: Streamlining patient care with cloud-based systems can reduce attrition rates, recover lost revenue, and build stronger, lasting relationships with patients.
How does the updated EHR work for the dental industry?
In the dental industry alone, the average practice loses 20% of its patients, one of the highest attrition rates in healthcare. Even a minor 3% reduction in wear and tear can result in $72,000 in additional production per year. Cloud-based services streamline communication, replace archaic booking systems and help patients remember appointments. When outdated systems are replaced, it prevents long wait times that are already helping dental providers see tangible improvements in retention rates.
Finance and the cloud
In the financial sector, banks that scale through cloud-based technologies are better able to track fraudulent activity, expedite loan applications and respond to waves of customer activity based on market fluctuations. Cloud-based tools also allow banks to implement new mobile banking features, detect money laundering patterns and automate analysis of underwriting decisions with AI.
Unfortunately, many banks lag behind in cloud adoption, relying on internal servers with inherent limitations. Currently, only 12% of North American banking tasks are handled in the cloud. 90 percent of US banks have digital transformation initiatives in place but have not converted to them. While titans like Wells Fargo and Capital One are either using cloud technologies or in the midst of migrating over – Bank of America built its own cloud. The updated and improved cloud-based technology has saved Bank of America billions of dollars.
Highly regulated systems are slow to adapt
Organizations in heavily regulated industries are often slow-moving sectors and are historically hesitant to move data out of local servers and data centers.
The pandemic revealed how effective such a move can be. Migration to cloud-based software provides better service for the components. The benefits of cloud reveal a reduction in costs and IT problems and high flexibility to respond to unexpected challenges.
Updating and retiring legacy systems also provides the foundation needed to support long-term growth and scalability. Cloud-based solutions are set to change how these previously stagnant industries tackled their long-standing challenges at a fundamental level.
Featured Image Credit: Provided by the author; Unsplash; Thank you!
