What will cloud computing bring to healthcare? -Overview of cloud applications in healthcare

摘要

Cloud computing has been one of the most popular topics in information technology since it was defined by Google in 2007. In the past years, cloud computing has moved from a term to the real applications in different industries such as telecommunication and healthcare. Inevitably, its potential for future healthcare applications has also attracted much attention. Actually, the possible benefits including the reduced cost, the reliability and flexibility that cloud computing can bring are the important driving forces facilitating its applications in healthcare. However, as a kind of new technology and IT service model, the drawbacks of cloud computing such as privacy violation are non-ignorable. Therefore, what cloud computing can bring to healthcare depends on how it will be utilised. Correctly implementing and utilising cloud computing will offer a healthcare organisation practice enormous benefits.