By Wu Hanzhang, General Manager of ASUS Cloud and Taizhiyun
In early March, Deputy Minister Shih Chung-liang of the Ministry of Health and Welfare mentioned that the long-awaited "Regulations Governing the Creation and Management of Electronic Medical Records in Medical Institutions" would be implemented in April. One important purpose of this revision is to allow medical institutions to utilize cloud services (hospital cloud migration) to process hospital electronic medical record data, and to clearly define key management points such as principles of localization and supervision. This policy has significant implications for the development of both hospitals and the ICT industry.
First, cloud adoption can alleviate the problem of insufficient IT capacity in hospitals. Cloud technology has been developing for nearly 15 years, and it's commonplace for various industries to utilize cloud services to address the human and resource challenges of digital transformation. Taiwanese hospital IT departments have long been overburdened, but due to unclear past policies on hospital cloud adoption, hospitals have been hesitant to utilize it. In recent years, the booming demand for smart healthcare has made it easier for hospitals to take more digital transformation actions.
Secondly, cloud adoption can help hospitals address cybersecurity challenges. In recent years, cybersecurity threats such as ransomware have intensified, and hospitals at all levels, lacking sufficient manpower and funding, are struggling to cope with these challenges. Opening up cloud access for hospitals allows healthcare institutions with even less IT resources (especially clinics and regional hospitals) to not only utilize the cloud for electronic medical record processing but also leverage the more professional cybersecurity capabilities of cloud service providers to assist in addressing threats.
Third, cloud adoption by hospitals allows them to leverage emerging cloud services. The trend in healthcare services is shifting from in-hospital diagnosis and treatment to holistic care and precision health. Coupled with the pandemic accelerating remote care and telemedicine, hospitals will have even more new digital applications and services. However, the internal IT capabilities of hospitals are insufficient to meet traditional in-hospital needs, and network infrastructure is struggling to support digital-native applications such as telemedicine. With the implementation of hospital cloud adoption policies, hospitals will have the opportunity to utilize high-quality SaaS (Software as a Service) services to solve these problems. The ICT industry will also have the opportunity to develop SaaS products and leverage their scalability to quickly expand into markets outside Taiwan.
Taiwan boasts world-class healthcare and ICT industries, and there's a strong desire to combine these two sectors to create new competitive advantages for Taiwan. However, past integration efforts have been hampered by difficulties. Hospital cloud adoption is arguably one of the most important policy tools for achieving close integration between the healthcare and ICT industries. It's believed that with the policy's implementation this year, a win-win situation for hospitals, the ICT industry, the public, and the government can be seen in the short term!
Source: Financial News Issue 655
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