The Healthcare Cloud
Welcome to week 7 of our blog😊💙! This week, we are going to explore the Healthcare Cloud, what it is, how nurse practitioners can use it with their patients, and how their privacy is protected.
What is a Healthcare Cloud? The 'cloud' or cloud computing is used to run critical applications, cull, analyze, and extract important information from piles of unstructured data, including physician and lab notes, via the natural language processing capabilities of machine learning (Thomas, 2024). A healthcare cloud is a type of data management that has emerged as a transformative force in healthcare and biomedical sciences, offering scalable, on-demand resources for managing vast amounts of data (Sachdeva & Bhatia, 2024). The cloud can be used in a variety of healthcare domains, such as electronic medical records, telemedicine, and personalized patient care, as well as its impact on bioinformatics research, particularly in genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics (Sachdeva & Bhatia, 2024). Big data analytics in the form of a cryptosystem has been shown to allow healthcare workers to improve healthcare, mainly by being able to detect any medical conditions by using any clinical images of the patients. This cryptosystem is also extremely secure against cyberattacks, which is key in dealing with sensitive patient health information (PHI) (Sachdeva & Bhatia, 2024).
How can NPs utilize the healthcare cloud for their patients? By utilizing the healthcare cloud in the avenue, such as electronic health records (EHR), telemedicine, medical imaging and diagnostics, remote patient monitoring, and electronic medical records, providers can not only reach more patients, they can provide more options for patients, improve their outcomes, and reduce overall healthcare costs (TheKnowledgeAcademy, 2024). FNPs are bridging the gap in the need for primary healthcare providers, and by utilizing these services, they can reach even more patients, especially those in rural communities. Patients need to feel like they can reach their provider, be able to send messages, and feel engaged with their healthcare, and by utilizing the cloud providers can give this to their patients. When patients feel engaged in their healthcare, they are more likely to follow their medication regimens, be an active member of their care team, and follow their care plan, and by using the cloud, patients are more likely to be engaged.
How can patient privacy and confidentiality be best protected? Cloud biosecurity is one of the most evolving interdisciplinary sciences, which involves cybersecurity, cyber-physical security, and biosecurity, and has become one of the most expensive areas of security in the United States (Bulto, 2024). Rules and regulations surrounding PHI, such as HIPAA and HITECH ACT, are also heavily involved in regulating the protection of patient privacy. Cloud security is of the utmost importance and something the United States and the World have spent billions of dollars protecting. This should help patients feel safe that their PHI is secure and that their information is not being easily accessed and spread around the world.
No matter the way they use it, the Healthcare Cloud is a crucial tool for FNPs to not only help provide better diagnostic care but to improve patient engagement and outcomes, and to reduce patient costs. By utilizing telemedicine, patients can be seen from further away and can see more providers, and it reduces the burden and cost of traveling. By having access to things like myChart and other EHRs, patients can send their providers messages, see test results, review care plans, and be more engaged in their healthcare. NPs can utilize these tools and foster a healthcare environment of direct patient care with an emphasis on holistic healing. I also recorded a short video reviewing the article linked this week, as I found it insightful on the uses of the healthcare cloud and how many options are available to us.
References
Bulto, L. N. (2024). The role of nurse‐led telehealth interventions in bridging healthcare gaps and expanding access. Nursing Open, 11(1). https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.2092
Sachdeva, S., & Bhatia, S. (2024). Unraveling the role of cloud computing in health care system and biomedical sciences. Heliyon, 10(7), e29044–e29044. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.heliyon.2024.e29044
TheKnowledgeAcademy. (2024). Cloud Computing in Healthcare: Explained. Www.theknowledgeacademy.com. https://www.theknowledgeacademy.com/blog/cloud-computing-in-healthcare/
Thomas, M. (2024, January 19). Cloud Computing in Healthcare: 13 Examples to Know | Built In. Builtin.com. https://builtin.com/articles/cloud-computing-in-healthcare
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