Report reveals global health cloud market to hit US$40bn by 2026

The Health Cloud Computing Market is estimated to grow at CAGR above 14 % between 2019- 2026 and reach the market value around USD 40 billion by 2026, a new study has found.

Released by Acumen Research and Consulting, the report, “Healthcare Cloud Computing Market – Global Industry Analysis, Market Size and Forecast, 2019 – 2026,”  highlights how increased pressure within healthcare settings to manage the sheer volume of health data is the main driver towards the cloud uptake trend.

General categories of health cloud solutions

According to the report, the emerging cloud solutions within healthcare include:

• Clinical information systems: Including pharmacy, radiology, electronic health records and other patient information systems.
• Non-clinical information systems: Including the income cycle, the automatic billing of the patient, claims and others that support practice management.

Key benefits of cloud adoption

Key benefits of cloud data storage solution highlighted in the report for healthcare include:

• business agility
• Better privacy and security; and
• lower data management costs
• efficient management of patient data – at scale

“A key benefit of cloud health software is that it supports better real-time communication,” MedicalDirector’s Chief Medical Officer and GP, Dr Middleton, said. “For instance, it supports digital referrals, faster communication between primary healthcare providers and hospitals, as well as better communication between GPs and allied health providers. Ultimately, it is this real-time benefit of cloud software that helps support interoperability in the wider health ecosystem.”

Early adopters

Geographically, the increasing use of mobile devices in health care facilities means that North America dominates the market. But the report revealed the Asia-Pacific market is expected to increase at the most rapid rate during the forecast period, mainly because of the huge potential for growth. As a result, the report predicts the APAC region may event dominate the future market of cloud adoption.

Overcoming fears and challenges

Despite the forecast for greater cloud adoption over the next five-six years, the report highlights one of the major challenges is the initial investment and ‘switch’ to the cloud, as well as lack of qualified staff to understand and manage cloud data management.

Meanwhile, data confidentiality and privacy remain a key industry concern, with the report highlighting cloud data management is still attracting both clinician and patient ‘scepticism and anxiety.’

However contrary to common perception, cloud-based platforms offer a more secure, robust, and reliable solution than server or on-premise solutions.

And with tougher cyber security laws now in full force, the pressure is on the healthcare industry to take security and compliance seriously.

Cloud clinical and practice management solutions like Helix, built on the robust market leading Microsoft Azure platform, are surfacing as the more secure and sophisticated method of health data management.

This is because cloud service providers ensure data is encrypted, backed up, easily recoverable, and secured with strict role-based access. It is also prudent to note that while cloud solution providers implement their security measures, healthcare organisations must ensure they have the right security architecture in place to keep sensitive data safe.

And while all data storage solutions have vulnerabilities, the benefit of the cloud is that much of the maintenance that minimises data-loss risk is automated, for example with robust system back-ups. And only those you have given permission to can access the data you store in the cloud. So, in actuality, fewer people have access to data stored in the cloud than data stored on local servers.