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Healthcare Cloud To Become a $91 Billion Industry by 2028
As more healthcare data heads to the cloud as part of organizations' digitization efforts, the market for the technology to support the transition is booming.
Specifically, the healthcare cloud market is expected to be valued at over $91 billion by 2028, up from $39 billion at the end of 2022. That amounts to a compound annual growth rate of 15.2 percent -- a "remarkable" pace, according to ResearchAndMarkets.com.
In a recent report, the firm attributed the market's growth to a combination of factors:
The rising prevalence of various chronic health diseases, increasing hospitalization, and the growing geriatric population are positively influencing the market. Additionally, the proliferation of the Internet of Things (IoT) devices and wearable technology in healthcare is contributing to the market growth. Apart from this, escalating demand for improved data interoperability and exchange between different healthcare systems and providers is promoting the adoption of cloud computing solutions as they facilitate the secure sharing of patient information across organizations and reduce duplicate tests and procedures. Furthermore, the introduction of mobile health (mHealth) applications that offer features like appointment scheduling, medication reminders, and health tracking is stimulating the market growth.
The cloud is an ideal environment for healthcare providers to keep up with modern patient demands, the firm said. Scalability and cost-efficiency are obvious benefits, but so is the cloud's ability to support an increasingly mobile workforce and far-flung patient base.
The cloud's Big 3 vendors -- Amazon Web Services, Google and Microsoft -- have also made significant strides in supporting healthcare's unique data needs, which have made cloud adoption all but a given for institutions looking to "[process] and [analyze] large data volumes to derive actionable insights" or "gain a deeper understanding of patient populations, disease trends, and treatment effectiveness."
ResearchAndMarkets credited cloud providers for their ongoing efforts to buttress their data protection postures, such as by "investing in...data encryption, authentication protocols, and regular security audits," which is a particularly crucial selling point in such a highly regulated industry as healthcare. In addition, the firm noted, "[c]loud-based solutions can offer advanced disaster recovery capabilities, safeguarding against data loss due to unexpected events, such as natural disasters or cyberattacks."
Other notable findings from the report include:
- SaaS apps make up the lion's share of cloud-based healthcare services in use today (as opposed to IaaS and PaaS) because they let users "access critical tools and information from anywhere, promoting efficient patient care and collaboration," and because SaaS apps require less effort from organizations to maintain, update and secure.
- Public clouds are more common than hybrid or private cloud implementations because public clouds "[offer] unparalleled scalability and flexibility, which allows healthcare organizations to adjust resources and computing power based on demand."
- The most used cloud-based applications are "non-clinical information systems," which help organizations save time on tedious clerical processes and can reduce human error in, for instance, financial transactions.
More information on the report is available here.