Goomedic.com Biomedical Informatics – News , Articles by geeks

As in the introductory part #1 article i wrote about ” applying cloud computing in  medicine ” , i listed the 3 categories of cloud computing , and introduction about using it in medicine with the features can be included in medical and health care cloud services . In this  post its more about key characteristics for every category and how it can be beneficial for medical and health care filed . Also here i listed some notes about obstacles and issues which concern using certain categories of clouds in medicine .

Why the cloud ?

To be able to define Why we need the cloud in medicine and health care ?, what are  the benefits of using it ? and how we  can use it ?, we need first to define the key characteristics of all categories .

The key characteristics of the cloud in all levels / and categories IssS , PaaS , SaaS are pointing to how its cost effective , and more sufficient .  So I’ll try to define first the shared key characteristics of the all categories of clouds , then move to the special key characteristics which consider every type .

Shared key characteristics :
0-Centralization !!!
1-The client ( mostly ) don’t own the physical hardware .
2-Cost effective .
3-Patch update , and upgrade .
4-one office monitoring , support and security .
5-Sharing ( resources , operations , process , functions , storage , …… )
6-Collaboration .

IaaS ( Infrastructure-as-a-Service ) key characteristics :

1-Sharing hardware resources ,
2-extending the infrastructure on demand ,
3-Networking capability ,
4-Internet connection .
5-Cost effective cause it replace the need for buying , installing , configuration , customization , extending , support , and upgrade .

PaaS ( Platform-as-a-Service ) key characteristics :

Platform as i mentioned before aimed for developer to build their applications on a specific platform which has already infrastructure ,   and many extending features as that platform may extend in the future .

So the characteristics for PaaS are :
1-Developers build their applications over it ,
2-The platform is extending , with other web services and with more features in the future .
3-The platform is hosted by the vendor ,
4-The vendor is responsible for updating , upgrading , security and management of the platform .

SaaS ( Software-as-a-Service ) :

SaaS : its just a web application which is hosted by the vendor , storing the data records ,and responsible for  updating and upgrading .

key characteristics for SaaS :
1-Targeting the end user ,
2-User has no need to worry about updating , upgrading , security , …..
3-Easy to extend with more features ,
4-The vendor is hosting the service , storing the files , the customer informations and data .

Risks , Obstacles , and problems of using cloud in medicine !!!

The main issue about using anything any technology , system or applying any idea or concept in medicine is ” We have rules ” , but  Cloud is not a new concept , its just a metaphor , for services we are using already , the main problem in here is this metaphor hold many components at once . We are using web based EMR and EHR which classified under ( Software-as-a-Service ) but is that enough to go through the cloud on all levels , is it safe to build medical and health related applications over web platform ( PaaS : Platform-as-a-Service ) ? .

So here is some points , they must be included in this article about cloud before we continue to see what is fit and what is not :

1-IaaS ( Infrastructure-as-a-Service ) : The Vendor own the Hardware , along with the data saved at the storage space !
2-PaaS ( Platform-as-a-Service ) : developers don’t own the software  .
3-PaaS evelopers don’t like PaaS : Developers get too many privileges , especially in creation their own application to work on the platform , but there is NO portability for their application to work on other platform . !
4- PaaS : The service ( platform ) provider host everything . including the data and the information !
5-SaaS ( Software-as-a-Service ) is targeting the end-user which will get benefit of Internet connectivity , collaboration , support and upgrading .
6-SaaS : The service provider are hosting the application ( software ) , which means hosting the data and information as well .

Common Mistake , Thats is just one cloud :
Some voices loudly claim there is huge risk of using the cloud services for medical and health care area , which personally i see we already using the cloud especially in the SaaS category , those voices are quite sure cloud will put the patients privacy at risk of information  piracy , and they are pointing at PHR lunched by Google ( Google health ) and Microsoft ( HealthValut ) , well they have the right . But its hard to generalize the narrow definition of one category of the cloud in one topic ( PHR ) .

What we need from cloud computing for medical field :
Centralization : One of the most important features will be so beneficial for the medical field and health care area is Centralization , which means saving time , cost and data . as well as providing more easier approach to access , retrieve and processing data . Risk will increase in centralization , and thats is risk covered by 2 elements : Centralization of security process is an important factor to relay on, And end-user privileges and  access  levels .

Collaboration : Collaboration on certain projects , or tasks is also an important needed feature of cloud computing . which also is an important feature to use , Doctors can collaborate together on cases , researches , through sharing resources , informations , files …

Virtualization is the core axis of IaaS ( Infrastructure-as-a-Service ) : which referring to using virtual machine rather than the hardware , which will make a good sense if the vendor of medical devices ( radiology ) can make a use of the concept . it’ll be cost effective .

Learning from the past to save the future :

Development : as the development of a software itself is not a problem , other complementary process for development as updating , upgrading , securing and management  along with installation , configuration and customization are very vital for the software , but they are more attached to the end-user time-line of using the software , those process sometimes are costing much to be performed , especially when the end-user are engaged / or worse ( married ) to the software  .or worst case scenario not provided they supposed to be .

Development process is different in 2 categories of Cloud PaaS ( Platform as a Service ) and SaaS ( Software as a Service ) , while the SaaS solutions built to be independent using programming languages , the PaaS applications are built on platform , which depend on this platform , using resource , features and capabilities of that specific platform .The most common example here is WebOS .

Using the cloud for medicine :
Public or private : I don’t encourage using the public cloud services for medicine ,the private cloud is making more sense , especially the target user will be in control of his data , and information flow .
Platform : Using platform as a webOS to build an application on it  , there are issues :
-Portability ,
-limited features to the platform features ( can be extended ) ,
-Its not owned either by the developer or the end user ,

There is solution only for one issue which is who own the cloud , as there are many usable , developers friendly and end user friendly WebOS listed as Open source , the developer can download and build his own system over it . Using an Open source webOS  to build an application on , and install , host , configure it will eliminate the fear of exposing data at the vendor hosting .

Still the other 2 problems  , the first is the portability : if this application can be portable to other platforms or not , which is not ,and that is what will put the developer in rabbit trap  , the second issue  limitation of the application to the platform features , i can’t count this as a real issue because one of the most advantage of PaaS is extending its features  and making them available for all applications which built on it , after all its all up to the developers of the platform and the features they want to be added .