The open platform may be the biggest problem facing the medical cloud

Medical cloud is not to build a cloud platform so simple, the particularity and complexity of hospital business, cause at present only medical information construction and no medical cloud status quo. At this stage, the biggest problem facing the medical cloud is the lack of top-level design. If this problem is not solved, the medical cloud can only be a utopia in contemporary people's mind.

Discussion of the medical cloud, the meaning of which should be more prominent industry attributes, medical cloud refers to the use of "cloud computing" concept to build a health care service system. We can interpret it as a service for the public community. Of course, the industry also has a "private medical cloud" concept, in essence, in hospital units, using virtualization, cloud computing technology to build a new IT information system. Macroscopic view, the current medical system is faced with the medical information is not smooth, unequal distribution of resources, alone It information System update does not bring about a substantial change. Therefore, it is more meaningful to understand the medical cloud as a model to solve social medical problems.

What problems can the medical cloud solve? To Conquer cancer? Control epidemics?

The core of medical cloud is to build a wide range of medical information platform, to enable the interconnection of medical data from different geographical locations, to promote the sharing of medical resources in the whole society, to provide a basic platform for medical large data. So, the medical cloud is not to let the medical level become higher, but lets the medical resources cover wider, brings the vital benefit to the populace and the patient.

The medical cloud solves two major waste in the medical and health industry, one is the low utilization rate of medical resources and the other is the repeated development of the system. This is very good understanding: economic development imbalance, resulting in different areas of hospital hardware conditions vary greatly, the utilization of medical equipment is not high, more people who need these resources can not enjoy these services; On the other hand, the information occlusion between hospitals leads to the uneven development quality of the system, and the same demand is duplicated. It is a good thing for the whole society to integrate the soft and hardware resources through the medical cloud.

However, the existing medical information construction is not equal to the medical cloud. Now, his (Hospital information System) and PACS (image archiving and communication systems) are the two main aspects of medical information construction. For the hospital, the implementation of this step is gratifying, but for the whole society, only to implement this step can not form a resultant force. Currently, electronic medical records are a hot topic in the industry, and cloud computing technology is more than just a single product or solution.

Status quo: Decentralized systems and isolated information

To realize the grand goal of medical cloud, we must first step out of medical information construction. But in reality, the current medical information construction presents a series of problems: The system is complex, users dispersed, standards are not uniform, professional talent is scarce.

In the past, the vast majority of hospital information construction or behind closed doors, fragmented. Despite the implementation of advanced electronic medical records, PACS, but these data are limited to the hospital itself, hospitals and hospitals can not achieve data sharing. If different hospitals choose different systems, there is no common data interface, do not have data interconnection, information sharing basis, we can understand, but even worse, some hospitals because of hardware and software supporting not in place, even the sharing of the hospital has problems.

Private cloud construction can solve the internal information interoperability problem, but can not change the external situation. Is it so difficult to exchange information between hospitals? In fact, for the current IT system, the hardware is not a problem, mainly software issues. Fundamentally speaking, is the medical cloud Platform construction has no standard to depend on.

In view of these phenomena, some experts believe that the medical information is too different, the information process is too complex, cloud computing can not support the core business of large hospitals, and the low level of information on the small hospitals and rural hospitals have no regard.

Industry chain, service providers are only in the trial phase, and there is no general promotion of the model. The problem with the industry chain is that many of the so-called medical cloud solutions remain essentially a cloud of IT infrastructure and do not touch the health-care cloud.

The medical cloud is a powerful weapon to eliminate the islands of information, but the biggest problem is the lack of top-tier design.

Opportunity: "Twelve-Five" to establish new information requirements for medical reform

In the "Twelve-Five" plan, the state mentioned the requirements of the new medical reform information: interconnection, guarantee medical quality, reduce costs, and require the establishment of data centers and level three platform. The new health reform proposed to interconnection, information sharing, to the construction of medical cloud to bring a glimmer of light. However, the systematic design is still not landing, such as the development of standards, the relevant laws and regulations to protect. Although the state has set aside large sums of money to promote new health reform, it is a drop in the bucket across the country.

In any case, it is already the information-sharing problem that will be taken into account in the construction of medical informatization. Despite the specificity and complexity of the hospital's information systems, including the complexity of the business, the complexity of the process, and the scale of the system, these problems are far beyond our original assumptions, but the key to these technical problems is that the service providers can easily do it, but the past does not know which direction to do.

Practice: National guidance and construction of medical cloud industry chain

In practice, the top level design should be guided by the state. For example, the National 3521 Project two applications, health records and electronic medical records, is the national Ministry of Health to do the guidance, set up a data structure standards, build a platform. After the standard is established, the subsequent development of electronic medical records and health records of the software system to meet this structural standard, so that from the beginning to ensure interoperability. It can be said that the national 3521 Project for the development of medical cloud system laid a foundation.

At present, in some pilot cities such as Xiamen, hospitals have initially established a health file and electronic medical records sharing. But more people are not able to enjoy the convenience, such as Beijing, although the basic popularity of electronic medical records, but the sharing of electronic medical records has not been achieved. The problem will soon be resolved as long as the government directs and promotes it.

Medical cloud can not be separated from the hospital business to build, the current development of digital hospital has been rule-based. Electronic medical records play a central role, from patients to hospital visits. This time the role of the private cloud appears, all the medical procedures are on the hospital's unified platform to operate. Accompanied by the process of treatment, drugs, medical supplies and other consumption will be in the process of automatic collection, to achieve the network, digital transmission process. At the same time, the cost information flow along with the patient's entire diagnosis and treatment process, automatic recording, you can use a card to pay, or even the whole process without cash. Overall, the hospital's internal system has been more mature.

The "Information Island" formed between hospitals mainly refers to the electronic medical record information and the hospital diagnosis and treatment information are not disclosed. Some hospitals are unwilling to share this information for reasons of interest, and some hospitals are eager to share it. So the big system needs the guidance of the State, the hospital to cooperate. Now the former health care work is a model, the off-site health care has been achieved. Of course, there is a key problem to be solved, that is, how to ensure the interests of hospitals.

The top design of medical cloud needs to be led by state-driven and related functional departments. Medical information from the top down to control the overall situation, build an open platform. Only open, medical Yun Cai can establish a complete ecological industry chain, can have real vitality. Medical cloud relationships are a huge system for everyone. In China's view, the system is at least 1.3 billion people to meet the potential demand, involving cost input, such as data storage, data flow costs, this is an astronomical. Take the area as the unit, refer to the model of household registration management, distinguish static and dynamic data, find a feasible plan, this is the work that the industry chain wants to complete. It is also important to draw on the experience of other industries, such as data security, can we draw on the model of banking network?

Overall, the medical cloud is still an informational process, but it is geared towards all hospitals, and the process needs to be perfected by the whole society. Solve the problem of platform construction, "Utopia" can also have built a day.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)