An Integrated Cloud-based Healthcare Infrastructure

Abstract—We present a cloud-based healthcare system that integrates a formal care system (DACAR) with an informal care system (Microsoft HealthVault). The system provides high levels of security and privacy within a cloud environment, enabling sharing of both health records and the access rights, along the patient pathway. We also define a case study that can help in evaluating and in demonstrating the usefulness of a cloud-based integrated health care system

Investigation of the viability of an integrated cloud-based electronic medical record for health clinics in Free State, South Africa

Thesis (Master of Information Technology) -- Central University of Technology, Free State, 2019The use of paper-based medical records leads to gaps in patient healthcare. Paper-based records are prone to challenges such as lack of real-time access to patient data, and inability to share and exchange medical data among different health institutions. A solution to address most of the challenges associated with paper-based medical records is to have an information system, such as an Electronic Medical Record (EMR) system. EMRs have proven to be more complete and quicker to access as opposed to paper records. Although EMRs may help resolve some of the problems with paper-based medical records, if the EMR systems are not linked or integrated, the problem of real-time accessibility and exchange of patient data remains unresolved. This leads to challenges in monitoring a patient’s health progress and providing continuity of care. The emerging cloud-computing model, which leverages the Internet to allow the sharing of IT resources as online services, may offer a cost-effective solution of integrating diverse EMR systems. It can serve as an electronic medical record storage centre which simplifies the complexities with EMR exchange methods between different systems and saves the equipment setup expenses for smaller healthcare facilities. In addition, cloud computing may improve healthcare services and benefit medical research. Despite the benefits offered by cloud computing, the adoption of cloud computing in the healthcare industry is the slowest compared to other industries. Further, adopting cloud computing involves many factors which require rigorous evaluation prior to introducing the new computing model to an organization. Very few empirical studies have focused on exploring factors influencing the adoption of cloud computing, especially in the public health sector. This study aimed to investigate the viability of an integrated cloud-based EMR system by exploring factors which influence the intent to adopt cloud computing at public healthcare facilities in the Free State province, South Africa. Through a review of literature on existing studies on the adoption of cloud computing and the Technology-Organization-Environment (TOE) framework, TOE factors were identified and adopted to suit the study’s context. The study carried out a quantitative cross-sectional research by collecting data using a questionnaire which was surveyed to a sample of five principal network controllers from all districts of the Free State and 31 public healthcare facilities in the Free State (FS), South Africa. The data collected was analyzed using SPSS version 19. The study’s hypotheses were tested by conducting a Spearman’s Coefficient Correlation. Results of the study revealed that most of the public healthcare facilities are using paper-based medical records with some form of IT to record basic patient information. Further, results of the study showed that some of the Health Information Systems (HIS) utilized at these healthcare facilities in the FS include Meditech, PADS, PharmAssist, Tier.net, HPRS, Rx Solutions, RDM, ETR and DHIS. According to this study, investments into IT infrastructure need to be considered by these health facilities as the current internet facilities will not be able to accommodate the use of cloud computing and only some facilities have internet facilities in place. Despite these challenges, these healthcare facilities are willing to adopt a cloud-based EMR system. Lastly, results of the study revealed that the factors associated with the intent to adopt cloud computing included relative advantage, security concern, organization readiness and top management support

Towards A Well-Secured Electronic Health Record in the Health Cloud

The major concerns for most cloud implementers particularly in the health care industry have remained data security and privacy. A prominent and major threat that constitutes a hurdle for practitioners within the health industry from exploiting and benefiting from the gains of cloud computing is the fear of theft of patients health data in the cloud. Investigations and surveys have revealed that most practitioners in the health care industry are concerned about the risk of health data mix-up amongst the various cloud providers, hacking to comprise the cloud platform and theft of vital patients’ health data.An overview of the diverse issues relating to health data privacy and overall security in the cloud are presented in this technical report. Based on identifed secure access requirements, an encryption-based eHR security model for securing and enforcing authorised access to electronic health data (records), eHR is also presented. It highlights three core functionalities for managing issues relating to health data privacy and security of eHR in health care cloud

Cloud Storage and Bioinformatics in a private cloud deployment: Lessons for Data Intensive research

This paper describes service portability for a private cloud deployment, including a detailed case study about Cloud Storage and bioinformatics services developed as part of the Cloud Computing Adoption Framework (CCAF). Our Cloud Storage design and deployment is based on Storage Area Network (SAN) technologies, details of which include functionalities, technical implementation, architecture and user support. Experiments for data services (backup automation, data recovery and data migration) are performed and results confirm backup automation is completed swiftly and is reliable for data-intensive research. The data recovery result confirms that execution time is in proportion to quantity of recovered data, but the failure rate increases in an exponential manner. The data migration result confirms execution time is in proportion to disk volume of migrated data, but again the failure rate increases in an exponential manner. In addition, benefits of CCAF are illustrated using several bioinformatics examples such as tumour modelling, brain imaging, insulin molecules and simulations for medical training. Our Cloud Storage solution described here offers cost reduction, time-saving and user friendliness

Toward a framework for data quality in cloud-based health information system

This Cloud computing is a promising platform for health information systems in order to reduce costs and improve accessibility. Cloud computing represents a shift away from computing being purchased as a product to be a service delivered over the Internet to customers. Cloud computing paradigm is becoming one of the popular IT infrastructures for facilitating Electronic Health Record (EHR) integration and sharing. EHR is defined as a repository of patient data in digital form. This record is stored and exchanged securely and accessible by different levels of authorized users. Its key purpose is to support the continuity of care, and allow the exchange and integration of medical information for a patient. However, this would not be achieved without ensuring the quality of data populated in the healthcare clouds as the data quality can have a great impact on the overall effectiveness of any system. The assurance of the quality of data used in healthcare systems is a pressing need to help the continuity and quality of care. Identification of data quality dimensions in healthcare clouds is a challenging issue as data quality of cloud-based health information systems arise some issues such as the appropriateness of use, and provenance. Some research proposed frameworks of the data quality dimensions without taking into consideration the nature of cloud-based healthcare systems. In this paper, we proposed an initial framework that fits the data quality attributes. This framework reflects the main elements of the cloud-based healthcare systems and the functionality of EHR