The impact of cloud computing on the medical device industry  

The healthcare industry is often risk-averse compared to other sectors when adopting new technologies, primarily due to the tough regulations the industry faces. However, mainly due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the industry has witnessed an acceleration in digital transformation, leading to improved efficiencies and enhanced patient outcomes.  

Cloud computing is an already well-established technology in the industry, key to providing a faster, cheaper, and more agile approach to operating IT architecture and modernising enterprise applications. Healthcare companies can use the cloud across business functions, smoothing and accelerating operations and providing new possibilities in healthcare, such as decentralised clinical trials (DCTs).  

Here we look at how cloud computing can both help and, in some cases hinder, companies in addressing some of the healthcare sector's challenges. 

By migrating computing from in-house corporate data centres to third-party cloud data centres, healthcare companies will need to buy less IT equipment to support the increased volume and complexity of health data. Cloud deployment models allow for a more scalable, cost-effective, and interconnected method of storing and sharing patient data between relevant stakeholders. For example, an emergency responder can access electronic health records (EHR) collected in a hospital by a physician and via RPM devices at home as and when required. 

Improving data sharing and collection with cloud computing is the first step in enabling and improving the digitalisation of health data. Cloud computing can also help in the important process of data interpretation and analysis. Software can be implemented to help providers reduce inefficiencies in patient care, allow patients to take better control of their health at home, payors to issue invoices for payments, and clinical trial operators to see real-time results. 

However, simply moving into the cloud will not overcome all the challenges associated with digitalising health data. Interoperability and data privacy are the prime challenges slowing cloud adoption. Companies must consider professional services to help with improving interoperability between cloud environments and securing confidential health data. 

Cloud computing helped healthcare companies to address the many challenges created by the COVID-19 pandemic. Cloud-based analytics helped healthcare providers manage patient inflows, recruit staff, and purchase vital equipment. For example, Northwell Health brought on an additional 700 temporary employees to cope with demand during the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic. The provider used Oracle’s cloud products to create a human resources (HR) dashboard to predict staffing shortages. 

Virtual care offered a way of keeping up with unprecedented demand. Virtual care is supported by RPM devices, digital therapeutics (DTx), mobile health (mHealth) apps, and telemedicine. Cloud computing enables these technologies. Although usage patterns indicate that the demand for virtual care caused by the COVID-19 pandemic may have peaked, GlobalData polls suggest that there will be a demand for these services beyond the pandemic. Cloud-enabled devices for virtual care will continue to appear in the industry, with GlobalData’s Medical Device Approval Analyzer forecasting that 10 cloud-connected RPM and telemedicine devices will receive regulatory approval by 2025. 

According to various GlobalData surveys, cloud computing saw a surge in interest in 2020 due to COVID-19. For example, over half of the participants in GlobalData’s Digital Transformation and Emerging Technology in the Healthcare Industry 2022 survey said that cloud computing was one of the technologies with the biggest increase in investment due to COVID-19. This was driven by lockdowns and social distancing measures that forced companies to implement new ways of engaging with vendors, customers, employees, and stakeholders. 

Moving operations to the cloud could help reduce a company’s energy footprint. Virtualisation, an underlying cloud computing technology, allows for the consolidation of resources, including servers, storage, and networking, into large data centres. Virtualisation through virtual machines (VMs) or containers can reduce energy consumption by reducing the amount of hardware required. Multiple VMs only require one physical machine, as they function as guests, while using their own operating system (OS). 

It has been argued that containers are more energy efficient than VMs and generate higher output due to low latency. However, the knock-on effect of any virtualisation technology is that reducing the hardware volume while increasing the workload requires more energy, bringing us back to the original problem of requiring more energy to power and cool the IT equipment. As more companies move to the cloud, large data centres are using more energy, raising questions as to whether the technology has a positive or negative impact on the environment. 

Healthcare companies must compare their ability to create energy-efficient in-house data centres, with cloud vendors' capabilities. If a cloud vendor can invest in energy-efficient cooling technology for data centres that the healthcare company cannot afford for its own in-house data centre, then choosing to use that cloud vendor should reduce its own emissions and, in turn, improve its ESG reporting. Some vendors, such as Microsoft, Google, and SAP, offer carbon emission monitoring as part of their cloud packages. 

In confronting social and governance issues, cloud solutions could benefit or harm healthcare companies. For example, some SaaS vendors offer solutions that help with internal management and auditing processes. On the other hand, moving operations to the cloud could pose a greater risk of misuse of patient data if cloud vendors do not prioritise cybersecurity. 

Cloud computing can help companies across healthcare to comply with industry regulations. Sovereign clouds are particularly important for healthcare organisations and public healthcare bodies as they ensure the cloud customer meets the most secure data privacy, data residency, and latency requirements. As well as selecting healthcare regulation-compliant clouds, healthcare companies can choose cloud vendors that offer data encryption services, ensuring that the vendor cannot access the company’s private information. Additionally, cloud vendors can provide disaster recovery services and authentication services, such as two-factor authentication, so only authorised individuals can access data. 

Cloud computing can also accelerate regulatory submission procedures for pharma and medical devices. Companies can provide regulatory bodies with secure links to the necessary data and information on servers instead of the lengthy process of assembling dossiers. This also supports expanded approvals and pharmacovigilance for pharma, as new data can be submitted directly to the cloud for real-time analysis by regulatory bodies (for example, through the US Food and Drug Administration’s (FDA) MyStudies app).  

Cloud-based apps can also help pharma to track drug side effects and encourage patients to receive treatment. For example, Oracle worked with the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to create the v-safe health check app. Any person that received a Covid-19 vaccination registered on the app and voluntarily reported side effects. This helped the CDC to gather real-world evidence on how populations responded to the vaccine. Medical journals then used the study results to counteract misinformation online and reassure pregnant patients that the Covid-19 vaccine was safe. 

For medical device companies, cloud computing can be very beneficial with device recall. Connecting devices to the cloud allows manufacturers to identify devices that need to be recalled and give information on a device’s efficiency and quality. Keeping track of medical devices (e.g., implants) helps to protect patient health and meet device recall regulations. 

However, cloud computing could also pose a risk to a healthcare organisation’s ability to comply with regulations. As discovered in a publication by Morais et al. (2022), security and privacy are the two biggest challenges related to cloud computing adoption by healthcare. Moving data from in-house corporate data centres to the cloud can expose companies to a higher risk of data misuse, as data is no longer stored and secured behind company firewalls.  

However, given the scale of global cloud vendors, such as Oracle, Microsoft Azure, and AWS, these vendors can afford the best cybersecurity practices and hire much larger cybersecurity and data governance teams than most healthcare organisations. Therefore, for healthcare organisations, cloud vendors can provide a much easier, more secure, and cheaper way of complying with data privacy regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR. 

The traditional clinical trial model is inconvenient and taxing for patients, requiring them to visit hospital sites regularly, often with little compensation. Decentralised clinical trials (DCTs) offer an innovative solution to avoid scheduling conflicts, reduce or remove journey times, and improve the patient experience.  

Using digital technologies to bring research closer to patients’ homes (or other local settings), DCTs increase trial access, reducing the burden on participants by decreasing the number of physical site visits. The number of DCTs has increased over the past 10 years, from about 250 in 2012 to over 1,200 in 2022. Cloud computing is a key technology enabling the shift towards DCTs and, in turn, supports other technologies, including telemedicine, wearables, EHRs, and mobile applications. 

Clinical trial operators can securely capture enormous clinical datasets in the cloud and effectively collaborate with stakeholders, such as investigators, contract research organisations (CROs), and sponsors. Cloud can also be used with AI and advanced data analytics to unlock clinical trial insights, leading to improved trial design and enhanced participant recruitment. For example, SaaS provider Veeva System’s Veeva Vault Clinical Suite helps CROs and clinical trial sponsors with training, time management, randomisation in study designs, recruitment tracking, payments, and data capture.

GlobalData predicts that by 2035, supply chains will consist of cloud-based logistics services. Digitalising data collection in supply chains and moving it to the cloud provides companies with real-time insights into the state of a supply chain, helping them anticipate shortages, reduce errors, forecast demand, and enhance compliance checks and traceability. Pharma companies can benefit the most from adopting cloud computing in supply chain management, particularly those producing complex drugs, such as vaccines and cell therapies, which require specific manufacturing processes, storage, and transportation conditions.

The matrix below details the areas in cloud computing where medical device companies should focus their time and resources. We suggest that medical device companies invest in technologies shaded in green, explore the prospect of investing in technologies shaded in yellow, and ignore areas shaded in red.

Medical device company investment in cloud computing should not be too dissimilar to that of pharma or healthcare providers and payors, as, again, they are under strict data privacy regulations, and various business functions will benefit from different deployment models. 

However, in terms of cloud services, the picture is slightly different. As well as investing in SaaS to improve business operations and IT flexibility across the value chain from clinical trials to sales, medical device manufacturers could connect their medical devices to the cloud through readily available or proprietary software. Cloud-connected medical devices will enable virtual care and help protect patient health, as faulty medical devices can be identified in the event of a recall.