Healthcare in the cloud

Along with education, health care is another major concern for President Obama and the United States. As I mentioned last week, services in the cloud are increasing in popularity daily and may just be the fix to many of our worries. Since the majority of private practices consist of an office with 3 physicians, the efficiency with which tasks are delegated to different practices/hospitals/insurance companies etc. are horrifically inefficient.

Ultimately, according to a recent study by Thomson Reuters, the US WASTES 700 BILLION DOLLARS a year on health care inefficiencies.

Example: I have been getting migraines and want to see a specialist.

Process: 
1. Call my regular doctors office, schedule an appointment with the admin.
2. Go in to see my doctor.
3. Get a referral
4. Research to make sure specialist is covered by my insurance plan
5. Book appointment through new admin
6. Make sure my regular doctor faxes over the correct documents and scans
7. Have appointment, go from there
8. Deal with the usual problems that occur with scheduling, insurance providers, documentation, etc.
9. Get second, third, fourth opinion – redo step 1-8.
10. Prepare for, book and undergo all next steps, surgeries, medication, etc.
11. Get prescribed appropriate medication.
12. Make sure medication covered by insurance.
13. YOU GET MY POINT

In the cloud1. Patients, doctors, specialists, hospitals, insurance agencies, pharmacies, gyms, health clinics, etc. are all connected on the same online platform, and can be accessed in the cloud. This health care IT ecosystem consists of everything needed to build a sophisticated health care relationship. There is then a social community layered on top of this connecting all the pieces and making referrals easy.

2. This then links back to the doctors, acting as a practice management system and EMR.

3. All medical records are securely stored online, and can be accessed with permission by any parties involved. Records are neat, kept organized and can be updated in the cloud. Having all of this information available to doctors will also lead to better and faster diagnoses and ultimately a healthier US. Doctors and other health experts will also be able to put content in different forms on the site, linking people together even further.

Again, as in the education market, many of these expansion stage companies are looking for investors to ramp up their growth and visibility. For many of these companies, their product and development are complete and with some expansion capital, sales support and marketing, they are all queing to become the dominant leader very quickly.

Easy, remote acces, communication and support will enhance any business or service. These cloud companies are bringing a very nice way of doing business that the world cannot afford to ignore.