To maximize the value of healthcare data, solution providers must overcome traditional interoperability challenges. The new Google Cloud Healthcare API enables industry innovators to share, ingest and analyze information in a secure and scalable way.
Multiple data formats, a range of disparate sources and systems—the healthcare interoperability landscape is complex. The stakeholders are equally diverse, each with their own concerns and capabilities. Everyone from large hospitals to individual physicians’ offices to digital health companies, medical device companies and solution providers have a need to process and analyze health and wellness data. And across the entire spectrum, there’s broad agreement on the value of an ecosystem where health and wellness data can be more effectively leveraged for extracting data insights, building applications, and securely sharing with partner organizations and patients alike.
Traditional, on-premises technologies weren't designed for this kind of broad data exchange and enterprises often found it difficult to innovate their offerings using legacy tools. However, COVID-19 accelerated the need for better interoperability as patients and providers turned to telehealth to augment in-office care. Even when regions reopen and face-to-face medical services become more easily accessible, the reliance on telehealth is likely to continue. Almost 90% of Canadians say the pandemic showed them that virtual care tools can be important alternatives to in-person visits.
Convenience is one driver. Consumers are accustomed to leveraging technology to facilitate much of their lives, and they increasingly seek out tools that help them enable quick and user-friendly healthcare interactions, too. The consumerization of technology also created an environment where people expect to receive more health information, from lab results to specialist consultations, through electronic means. Health concerns stemming from the pandemic may also persist, prompting patients to prefer virtual care options over in-person visits well into the future.
