From the January 2013 issue of HealthCare Business News magazine

Access to large teams of health care IT experts
Increased governmental regulation is another concern. Cloud services providers have large teams of highly trained health care IT professionals who are charged with ensuring compliance with evolving meaningful use regulations. While an on-site IT staff will still be required, CIOs should consider leveraging cloud providers that have the scale to support large development and support teams dedicated to testing and adopting the latest health care IT hardware and software technology. These experts can develop processes to address meaningful use regulations, create methods to communicate with a variety of systems and formats, and deploy the highest levels of encryption technology and security procedures available.

A final advantage of cloud-based archiving is its ability to support changing demands and address various levels of service. That makes it equally available and affordable for imaging centers and mid-sized hospitals as well as large health care systems. All health care providers can appreciate services that include ongoing technology refreshment and easily accommodate a growth or decrease in imaging volumes.
Unprecedented data growth, government regulations and cost and investment constraints could be called the perfect storm. The irony is that “cloud” services may help CIOs survive, and even thrive, during these difficult times.

About the author: Bruce Leidal, Carestream’s CIO, streamlined business processes through the consolidation of over 300 core applications and led the successful implementation of more than 60 major projects. He previously served as CIO of Hayes Lemmerz, International (HLI), a $2.4 billion global automotive supplier, and held executive positions at General Motors, Federal-Mogul Corporation and several other companies.

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