The technology helping hospitals shape the future of digital healthcare
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Ageing populations across the globe mean that there is ever-increasing pressure on healthcare resources and infrastructure. In fact, healthcare expenditure already accounts for more than 10 per cent of GDP in richer countries.
To create a healthcare system that can meet these growing needs, governments need to rethink the way in which they use technology to support and enhance hospital services.
The digital transformation of healthcare systems brings several benefits ranging from higher quality care and better patient satisfaction to improved efficiency and better talent development. In short, everybody benefits from digitisation in healthcare.
Digital hospitals
To provide better quality healthcare services, most hospitals have already adopted digital services in some form. However, transforming into a digital hospital of the future is a multi-stage process. There are four stages of healthcare digitalisation, with the first being ‘informatised healthcare’. This is the most basic level of digital transformation and includes services such as a hospital intranet and digital payment system.
Next on the digitalisation journey is ‘digital healthcare’. This represents a significant step up and is the stage that most hospitals are at. Digital healthcare can include anything from structured electronic medical records (EMR) and high-throughput genome sequencing to home-hospital collaboration and the use of wearable devices.
To create a healthcare system that meets the growing needs, governments need to rethink the way in which they use technology to support and enhance hospital services
Many hospitals are now moving towards the next stage of ‘smart healthcare’, which involves cross-hospital collaborative healthcare, the adoption of 5G, and healthcare data lake platforms. Some hospitals are now even moving to the fourth and final stage of ‘cognitive healthcare’.
This is driven by the adoption of AI for patient services, diagnosis and treatment, along with medical image-aided diagnosis and biometric recognition. All of these can help to reduce operational costs while also improving the quality and efficiency of medical services.
To achieve this kind of digital transformation, hospitals require reliable, fast and flexible IT infrastructure with next-generation storage capabilities. Large hospitals typically rely on two key systems: HIS (hospital information system), which is used to manage tasks such as appointments, registrations, and pricing, and EMR (electronic medical record) which deals with patients’ medical records.
Both systems require multi-node database clusters to deliver 24/7 service, high stability and high performance. They also need real-time data protection and remote disaster recovery (DR) to ensure data is restored if something goes wrong.
Real-world examples
While dual-site and three-site DR solutions have become the norm for large hospitals, Huawei’s Gateway-free Active-Active/3DC Solutions are designed to ensure 24/7 service, flexible expansions and reduced costs. One location that has already embraced this technology is Essen University Hospital, the largest hospital in Germany’s North Rhine-Westphalia region. The renowned hospital treats 50,000 inpatients and 195,000 outpatients every year.
These high patient numbers mean that the hospital has faced a significant surge in user data in its HIS systems. In turn, this created the need to boost storage to ensure a reliable service. By deploying the NVMe-based OceanStor Dorado all-flash Active-Active solution, Essen University Hospital was able to speed up its service response by 40 per cent, offering a service with up to 99.9999 per cent reliability. It was also able to reduce its total cost of ownership (TCO) by a massive 50 per cent.
Along with a rise in organisational data, hospitals are also seeing a surge in medical image data. To meet strict compliance regulations, these images must be accessible anywhere, anytime. They are stored on the Picture Archiving and Communication System (PACS) but the more image data there is, the slower the system’s response time.
The Saint-Luc Hospital in Belgium is already seeing the benefit of Huawei technology. Affiliated to the University of Louvain and one of the world’s top hospitals, it has 5,800 employees and more than 1,000 beds. However, the hospital was unable to provide the necessary data security to handle an annual 20 per cent growth of data in its HIS. As a result, the hospital began using Huawei’s OceanStor solutions, which provided both SAN and NAS storage services plus data back-up services.
With Active-Active solution, the storage system can switch between two equipment rooms if a fault occurs, preventing any service interruption or data loss. The remote DR centre also stores a copy of data. Services can be switched over to the DR site when the production site experiences a fault, which also helps to ensure service continuity. As a result, Saint-Luc Hospital was able to improve its system response by five times. It was also able to lower its TCO by a massive 50 per cent while ensuring a continuous round-the-clock service.
To address this issue, Huawei offers two types of data solution to cater for both big hospitals and smaller clinics. Its Active-Active for SAN and NAS + remote back-up solution is best suited to larger hospitals with more than 1,000 beds. Boasting the simplest architecture and management in the industry, this can shorten image query time as well as ensuring efficiency and real-time data availability, while the remote DR centre provides a back-up.
Many hospitals are now moving towards the next stage of ‘smart healthcare’, which involves cross-hospital collaborative healthcare, the adoption of 5G, and healthcare data lake platforms
For smaller hospitals and clinics, Huawei’s Active-Active solutions for SAN and NAS with OceanStor hybrid flash storage can support multiple services including HIS databases and image data. This also shortens image query time and ensures that real-time data is readily available, as well as reducing overall costs.
Huawei is committed to investing in and developing fully connected healthcare systems and helping hospitals to move towards smart and cognitive healthcare. Further demonstrating that commitment, the company recently teamed up with Thailand’s Department of Medical Services to bring 5G connectivity to the country’s national healthcare system. The aim is to boost the efficiency of medical services and enhance care delivery using 5G-powered measures. These include smart ambulances, telemedicine, and home isolation solutions.
The examples here offer just a glimpse of how Huawei supports clinics and hospitals on their digitalisation journey. Only by ensuring that they have robust and effective IT infrastructure in place can they shape the future of digital healthcare together with hospitals.
To find out more about how Huawei OceanStor Dorado solutions are helping build the future of digital healthcare, visit its online healthcare hub.
In association with:
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