Cloud Computing Brings Challenges for Health Care Data Storage; Privacy

http://ow.ly/5YEre

Article appearing on eWeek.com and written by Brian T. Horowitz, recaps an interview with Chris Witt, President of IT provider Wake Technology Services.

This summary of an interview with Chris Witt provides some interesting information regarding the challenges associated with storage of healthcare information and Electronic Health Records within a cloud environment.

The article points out that certain healthcare providers might be better candidates to store their data in the cloud than others, "If you have key systems that are being hosted internally by the Windows or Linux platforms, then a move to the cloud is very doable. If you don't, you were probably not a good candidate for the cloud. You might be a good candidate for managed hosting, which by pure definition is not the cloud. It is a different method. The result is the same, but it's not a true cloud."

The article also discusses the need for HIPAA compliance and the increased level of security that is required to protect sensitive healthcare information.