This morning I attended a panel discussion about healthcare and the cloud.  The five member panel was represented by Microsoft, a major Boston hospital, a healthcare researcher, and 2 healthcare technology entrepreneurs.  The panel had excellent knowledge and opened my eyes to the enormous changes and issues happening in the healthcare field and how it will integrate with the cloud.

When it comes to patient information, healthcare systems have what was described as a “roach motel” problem.  The data comes in, but it doesn’t get out.  The creation of an electronic medical record (EMR) and the ability to attach patient information, medical images and other information is the logical wave of the future.  As we all share information on Facebook, Twitter and through online banking, we understand the value of that instant information.  We know how easy it is to get that information out.

In a healthcare system in drastic need of reform, it would seem that technology will be the key to the solution.  But how will that work, how safe is the EMR, who can manage it and what are the rules for sharing it?  How does patient information get across the street?  How is efficiency improved to create a greater level of patient care?  Rest assured, the big boys like Microsoft and Google are hard at work building these platforms in the cloud to make sure that that flow of information can be done safely, efficiently and quickly.

The healthcare reform stimulus is throwing a lot of money at the problem, but according to the experts, that is not  a simple solution.  The healthcare industry is reluctant to change.  They hide within their fortress to avoid innovation.  Forcing innovation is a risky plan.  There also needs to be a set of guidelines so that companies looking to provide solutions to the healthcare challenges create products that can have a standard form of integration and an ability to interface with the mountains of legacy data that already exists.  Hopefully that can all be addressed, but it will take time. 

The cloud is eventually going to emerge as the platform that will give healthcare reform its best chance to succeed.  The road will be long and the benefits will be tremendous.  There are great challenges and opportunities for companies like Unitel that provide the IT infrastructure and support and entrepreneurs who are designing solutions for today’s problems.  I only hope that someday it will be easy enough for my doctor to know more about my health and lifestyle than it already is for CVS today.