Clouds in Healthcare

In healthcare, blood results are often still sent by fax or MRI scans on a DVD in the mail. Doctors’ practices and hospitals have not yet taken advantage of the opportunities offered by new technologies and software. Cloud computing offers many new opportunities for the healthcare sector and is therefore becoming increasingly important. Here we present some application scenarios for clouds in the healthcare sector in more detail.

Basics for clouds in healthcare

A cloud is a virtual storage facility accessed by different computers over the Internet, regardless of location. In the cloud, companies store their data or use the environment as a server for software and apps. When companies do not manage the cloud themselves, they save resources. In these cases, the entire IT infrastructure is located with a service provider who provides the technology. Doctors or hospitals connect to the cloud environment via networks and use it from then on.

Cloud computing in the healthcare industry is based on the private cloud model. A company’s IT department sets up this platform, which they then make available to employees throughout the company. In addition, so-called public clouds also exist, but they are out of the question for all medical institutions for reasons of data protection and data security. Dropbox, OneDrive from Microsoft or Amazon are examples of such cloud types.

To remain flexible, many organizations combine cloud types and use a hybrid cloud. Sensitive data with a high risk remains in the private cloud environment or is transferred via end-to-end encrypted cloud services. This ensures secure access and data security.

Cloud solutions in the medical sector

Healthcare produces an enormous amount of data every day. Patient information from a doctor’s office or the results of an examination from a clinic are essential for further treatments. However, the ways of exchanging data between doctors are sometimes outdated and take longer accordingly. Results are still sent to the specialist by fax. X-ray images are usually still stored as a recording on a DVD, which patients hand over to the doctor in charge or send by mail.

The problem is that with these methods, the applicable requirements for security, confidentiality and usability suffer. Information provided by fax for the next doctor is therefore not encrypted during transmission and may therefore fall into the wrong hands. In addition, the values must first be re-entered into the computer by the staff at the other practice in order for them to be permanently available and accessible.

Clouds in healthcare: Data security with TeamDrive

Since January 2021, politicians in Germany have been relying on the electronic patient record. In this system, this patient data is stored securely in a cloud environment. Access is only permitted to specialists, hospitals or health insurance companies. TeamDrive has also established itself as an encrypted cloud service in the healthcare sector. TeamDrive users have the option of creating individual user rights and managing secure access themselves.

Sensitive data can then only be viewed by those who have the rights to do so. All other users and TeamDrive itself never have access to confidential content, so that the requirements of medical confidentiality are met. Therefore, an inexpensive, flexible and very secure cloud service such as TeamDrive is precisely designed to meet the needs that arise for the secure exchange of data between laboratory and doctor as well as hospital, doctor and health insurance company.

Patients themselves have access to their own data via an app or their home computer. Findings from the doctor or the laboratory are sent to them digitally. However, the cost of their own cloud technology is often a challenge for medical practices. TeamDrive offers individual solutions here and provides cloud services tailored to requirements. IT security also plays a central role in cloud computing because personal data is processed and stored. The IT environment of a cloud provider must therefore comply with very high standards.

TeamDrive offers data protection and secure encryption

TeamDrive meets the following requirements for a healthcare cloud:

Use cases of clouds in healthcare

Introducing cloud services in healthcare simplifies many processes. First, there is the process of transferring important patient data. In a doctor’s office, a primary care physician accesses the patient’s file, adds the results of a new examination and saves the file again. Other doctors or hospitals can also access this information.

Cloud computing also enables other applications in the healthcare sector. E-health is still in its infancy as a topic in the context of digital IT in the healthcare industry and has by no means exhausted its potential. People who regularly take medication can use an app to check at any time how often and when they need to take a medication.

Artificial intelligence also offers advantages and approaches to help sick people with individual therapies and treatments. Data is particularly relevant for large clinical trials in order to gain insights quickly. The Corona pandemic in particular clearly demonstrated how useful the globally networked and rapid exchange of information and data is in the healthcare sector via secure clouds.

Cloud computing in the healthcare sector: What do you need to watch out for?

Cloud services have many advantages for healthcare infrastructures. They simplify processes and enable IT to be used on demand. This saves time, which benefits patients, especially in the healthcare sector. In addition, they gain direct access to personal health data, which they can also access via mobile app. The use of artificial intelligence also expands the scope for health insurers, who gain new insights with the data.

Personal data is stored in a cloud. That is why TeamDrive, as a provider of cloud systems, offers the highest standards for the security of this information. This includes data protection in accordance with the strict requirements of the DSGVO and data security based on the Knowledge Zero principle. Personal data exchanged between organizations in the healthcare sector does not fall into unauthorized hands. Full end-to-end encryption with complex encryption methods ensures this content security. The risk of theft and misuse of patient data in the cloud is low with TeamDrive.

Clouds in healthcare: Archiving patient data in an audit-proof manner

At the same time, companies in the healthcare sector that use a cloud must pay attention to their compliance. This applies in particular to hospitals, which are obliged to retain patient records for up to 30 years. With TeamDrive, it is possible to archive data in an audit-proof manner and monitor retention periods. After all, it is not enough to simply store healthcare data.

Anyone archiving data should always pay attention to file formats as well. The common file formats used today may not be readable in the future. In addition, the data carriers themselves have proven to be a problem in recent years. Physical formats such as floppy disks or the compact disc are hardly usable today. This issue can therefore be easily circumvented with cloud services and structured data maintenance.

Inevitable and valid for any kind of processing and storage of patient data is in each case the consent of the patients concerned. This also applies to the electronic patient file, which is provided as an optional service.

TeamDrive offers data protection and data security

TeamDrive is a Hamburg-based company that specializes in clouds. With our solutions, we enable secure data exchange and offer full data protection and data security. Our servers are located in Germany and therefore meet 100 percent of all the required specifications of the DSGVO. As a provider, we also have no access to your data at any time due to the zero-knowledge principle and encrypt all content with end-to-end encryption. The current expert opinion from EuroPriSe GmbH, an independent data protection testing body, certifies that TeamDrive fully complies with these points.

Have we piqued your interest? Then register as a TeamDrive customer right now and open your first Space. On TeamDrive’s Youtube channel you will find tutorials on the various functions of our system. We offer different licenses depending on the number of users. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us and we will be happy to advise you individually.

Doctors and medical professionals belong to the group of professional secrecy holders. Handling data in these professions requires special sensitivity. Our cloud solution complies with the DSGVO, also offers security against failure as well as third-party access and creates regular backups. The transmission and storage of documents with confidential content is always encrypted.

A TeamDrive solution costs you just €4.95 per workstation per month. The starter package for the practice starts at 299€ net/year for five users and 100 GB cloud storage space in Germany.