The common trope "Healthcare is in the midst of a digital transformation" has been the rallying cry of professional services and consulting organizations for many years. For those of us on the front lines in healthcare software and solutions engineering, this mantra is nothing new. Clinical technologies, security requirements, reimbursement, and government regulations are constantly changing, and with them, data management and interoperability.
In the late 90s and early 2000s the industry standard for data management in provider and care facilities was largely paper-based records. With the paperless push through the HITECH Act of 2009, many organizations swarmed to digitize records and build data ecosystems. This glut of bespoke interfaces was built by armies of specialized healthcare interoperability teams, data migration specialists, and manual form-to-field configuration resources. Inevitably the push to digitize became a non-standard, expensive practice. The need for consistency was desperate and technology was lagging in an era where every organization was rolling their own solution.
With widespread adoption of Electronic Health Records, data centralization became the norm. Whilst integrations and interfaces were disparate, the content (be it database, files, images or otherwise) could be readily accessed. Bringing into the equation multiple facilities, time zones, patient address changes and data access requirements surfaced the need for flexible workflow-based data strategies. This sets the market up for the next big regulation in 2016, the 21st Century Cures Act, breaking down information barriers by requiring data accessibility. This paved the way to enable interoperability, driving Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR) forward as the data standard for healthcare.
Major legislation has been required multiple times in the last twenty years to drive digital transformation progress. Have we finally reached an era where technology innovation will drive the market direction next, or will the industry have to wait for the next government regulation to force innovation's hand? Has the healthcare industry truly experienced digital transformation, or is it just the consequence if legislation is required to force companies to adopt? We hope, for the interest of the patient, that the industry is ready to innovate for the sake of innovation.
Eastwall believes this is the case. Having seen the trends in data integration within the last few years, centralized tools & functions with secure access are now the norm. The Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare enables Medical Software Vendors, Clinical Providers, and Research Organizations to quickly get data to a "ready" platform where it can be used to create workflows, query datasets, create meaningful visualization, and apply machine learning/AI models to improve health data insights. Transformation capabilities are now at the fingertips of every healthcare organization. Adoption of these tools in every organization is surfacing innovation to the patient-level in unprecedented ways, becoming the litmus test that the industry has matured. Connected patient and provider experiences are happening, a true emergence of digital transformation.
Eastwall is a company born-in-the-cloud, dedicated to the Healthcare space with years of technology and clinical solution experience. We help organizations leverage Microsoft’s suite of cloud & healthcare services to support increased productivity, add diagnostic intelligence, manage health data, and improve patient experiences. Working with a trusted partner is key. Eastwall is a Microsoft Partner trained and able to support your business in its journey to technical and application modernization. We help your team design, build, and operate innovative cloud solutions on the Azure platform.
Please contact us for a free consultation on how Microsoft’s suite of cloud & healthcare services can help transform your business.