As the amount of electronically-generated information in healthcare expands, so too does the need to be able to store, access and share that data in an increasingly mobile world.

So, what does that mean for the future of healthcare information management?

Throughout the years, deciding how and where to store healthcare information, while allowing secure, easy and shared access to that data, has been a persistent problem. A study by EMC showed that healthcare represents a significant percentage of the overall digital universe and is growing by 48 percent each year. Enter cloud computing to the rescue.

Cloud computing, as defined by Oxford Dictionaries, is “the practice of using a network of remote servers hosted on the Internet to store, manage, and process data, rather than a local server on a personal computer.”

The acceptance of a person-centered care model within healthcare has necessitated the need for shared access to the information in a person’s electronic health record. This has resulted in an increase in recent years of cloud computing, particularly in the home and community care environment where collaborative care between disparate care providers can often be a challenge.

According to the 2017 Essentials Brief: Cloud Study by HIMSS Analytics, roughly 65 percent of study respondents currently utilize the cloud or cloud services within their healthcare organization. That’s because there are numerous benefits that support using a cloud-based solution for care providers, including:

1. Secure on-demand access to big data
2. Cost and time efficiencies
3. Increased accuracy
4. Decreased duplication and redundancies
5. Scalability
6. Improved data analysis capabilities

GoldCare is a leading provider of healthcare information management software for home & community, children services and long-term care organizations. GoldCare’s new release, CloudCare17, in combination with their Hosting services help healthcare organizations achieve these benefits and more. For more information on how GoldCare can help your organization achieve optimal efficiency, contact Chris Keirstead (in Canada) chris.keirstead@mygoldcare.com / +1 (226) 444-8039; Teena Shea (in Australia) teena.shea@mygoldcare.com / 03 9535 4900.