The global market for healthcare cloud computing -- revenue generated by cloud computing services offered to providers -- will grow to worth almost $10 billion by 2021, according to Frost & Sullivan.
New research from the company finds that growth is primarily being driven by the need to store the exponentially increasing volume of healthcare data.
The healthcare industry has been slow to adopt new technologies, including the cloud, the research found. However, industry-wide demand to use health data to improve system efficiency, deliver value-based care and enable productive collaborations is driving investment in cloud solutions.
At the heart of these innovations is a clear shift in healthcare providers' attitude toward cloud solutions with key decision makers now convinced that cloud environments are more secure than on-premise infrastructure, especially in terms of data back-up and disaster recovery.
"One major industry game-changer will be real-world data. The volume of unstructured medical and health data that is generated outside of clinical settings is growing exponentially, while the need for such data sets is even direr among providers, pharmaceuticals, medical technology vendors, governments, and university researchers," Frost & Sullivan digital health research manager Natasha Gulati said.
"Growing awareness of the benefits of open platforms and increasing industry focus on interoperability and collaborative solution design are creating a huge demand for vertically integrated cloud platforms that open the data to multiple stakeholders who are willing to share the risks and the rewards of shared data assets."
Furthermore, hospitals, physician practices, and other facets of the continuum of care will rapidly adopt cloud platforms to improve data and application access, enhance interoperability, and manage, store, and archive a wide range of health data for the enterprise. Applications that leverage de-identified patient information that is collated from and analyzed at multiple points of care are an important growth opportunity.