Comment: Smart healthcare is a data proposition
by Ricky Cooper of Digital Realty
In this article, Ricky Cooper, vice president at Digital Realty, explains why we are still not seeing a ramp up in 3D modelling technologies, robotics, gene sequencing and wearables
Technology innovations are advancing medicine on a daily basis and many more are waiting to be tested and rolled out.
Advanced scanning and 3-D modelling technologies already exist in business. When applied to medicine, computers will be able to perform anomaly analysis in seconds
The emergence of wearable technology is empowering people to take more control over their day-to-day health. This data can also be passed onto doctors, alongside other innovations that will affect the doctor-patient relationship.
Beyond this, treatment, research and other ‘behind-the-scenes’ activity will change the way that the health services operates at a fundamental level. The NHS committed itself to plugging a £22billion gap in its funding, by 2020, by implementing efficiencies.
Numerous ‘paperless’ initiatives are in focus now, and an automated diagnostic process will surely grow in importance over the next few years.
Advanced scanning and 3-D modelling technologies already exist in business. When applied to medicine, computers will be able to perform anomaly analysis in seconds. Doctors will instantly get results, eliminating piles of scans and the bottleneck of human review. The speed of diagnosis – and crucially, treatment – will improve. The 2-3% productivity improvements that the NHS needs could potentially be found in this one development.
Healthcare is an area where guarantees of quality are needed over and above most other industries
High-quality technology is available today. Gartner predicts 91 million smart fitness devices – including wristbands, watches etc – will be sold this year. And predictions around the Fourth Industrial Revolution all include robotics in the future. But why isn’t there more of this technology in action today?
I believe there are two reasons for this. First is the need for exhaustive testing. Healthcare is an area where guarantees of quality are needed over and above most other industries.
Second is a technology challenge of a different kind: hospitals are not data centres. The latest medical technology creates more data than hospitals can currently deal with themselves. Their infrastructure needs to change.
Digital records – supplemented by smart health devices – smart buildings and next-generation diagnostic equipment all create a digital footprint. And the data has to go somewhere. But, at the same time, records need to be accessible, smart buildings need real-time data, and diagnostics need databases to analyse against.
Hospitals and other healthcare providers don’t have the infrastructures of business pioneers. They have a data challenge. They need an infrastructure as a service (IaaS) to host their apps and data, and provide a robust service-level agreement.
Hospitals have a data challenge. They need an infrastructure as a service to host their apps and data, and provide a robust service-level agreement
It’s a much better option than trying to put data centres in hospitals. It allows all hospital space to be used for caregiving and alleviates service and maintenance headaches. Facilities and headcount are focused on health rather than operations.
It also allows these healthcare organisations to set themselves up for the future, where research such as gene-sequencing will be highly data intensive. They will benefit from IaaS.
Whether the future lies in zero-incision solutions or nanobots implanted into the body, the reliance on data will only grow. The good thing is that these developments fit in with the bigger healthcare priorities of doing more with less. But the infrastructure that supports the changes will hold the key to success.
