Streamlining Cloud Transformations in Healthcare for Optimal Results
Sentara Health, a leading healthcare organisation serving communities in Virginia and North Carolina, has adopted a cloud-first strategy to enhance patient care, organisational efficiency, and innovation. This approach emphasises modernisation, scalability, security, and the use of advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI).
Key workloads, including Electronic Health Records (EHR), are being migrated to the cloud, enabling better data access and real-time collaboration across care settings. Sentara Health leverages AI cloud platforms to improve patient experiences and support clinical decision-making, while ensuring data privacy and security through techniques like federated learning.
In implementing this strategy, Sentara Health places a strong emphasis on addressing data security and compliance proactively, particularly regarding HIPAA regulations. They use advanced tools that automate data discovery, classification, and real-time risk assessments to protect electronic protected health information (ePHI) in hybrid environments.
Emphasising ongoing data governance and security management is crucial for Sentara Health to manage data sprawl and reduce the risk of compliance violations. This includes gaining full visibility into where data is created, stored, and accessed, which is fundamental to protecting sensitive information in cloud environments.
Sentara Health coordinates enterprise-wide data initiatives aligned with their strategic goals, indicating a robust governance framework supporting their cloud-first vision. The organisation has designed backup as a core part of its cloud strategy, with nearly 80 percent of the organisation currently supported by cloud solutions.
Asante, another healthcare organisation, has also embraced the cloud, using it primarily for data backup and under a Software as a Service model for some applications due to limited high-capacity internet access and distance from public cloud data centres. They have adopted HPE's GreenLake, a hybrid edge-to-cloud platform, for their critical on-premises data services.
Vibrant Emotional Health, a provider of continuous behavioural health services in New York City, began working with Hitachi in 2016 to move to public cloud and build a data warehouse and call center failover solution using Amazon Web Services (AWS).
Notably, Sentara Health recently launched a joint venture focused on cloud-first solutions to help healthcare organisations modernise their environments. Jeffrey T. Thomas, the Vice President and CTO at Sentara Health, emphasises that cloud support should be chosen based on application and system needs, not just staff needs.
By 2024, healthcare users are expected to increase their reliance on multicloud strategies from 27 percent to 51 percent. However, challenges remain, including integrating data across clouds, performance issues with network overlays, and managing costs. Sentara Health, through its cloud-first strategy, is well-positioned to navigate these challenges and continue to deliver high-quality, efficient care to its patients.
In adherence to their cloud-first strategy, Sentara Health leverages technology like data-and-cloud-computing platforms to migrate key workloads such as Electronic Health Records, facilitating better data access and real-time collaboration. The organisation's digital transformation involves the use of advanced technologies, including AI, to protect, manage, and govern data, ensuring compliance with regulations like HIPAA.
