Healthcare organizations around the world are generating vast amounts of sensitive patient data every day. From electronic health records and medical imaging to genomic sequencing results and IoT-generated biometrics, the volume of healthcare data being created is growing exponentially. As new technologies emerge, the ability to securely and efficiently store this critical patient information is becoming increasingly important.
The Rapid Growth of Healthcare Data
It is estimated that over 2.3 quintillion bytes of data are generated each day in healthcare globally. Much of this comes from routine appointments, treatments, and procedures that generate electronic health records, billing records, and other administrative documentation. However, new sources of Healthcare Data are also fueling this rapid growth.
Advanced medical imaging technologies like CT, MRI, ultrasound, and newer modalities are producing extremely high-resolution images and large multimedia files. A single whole-body MRI scan can generate over 50 gigabytes of image data. As these imaging techniques become more widely used, the volumes grow substantially. Genomic sequencing is also dramatically increasing healthcare data, with a single full human genome analysis producing terabytes of data. Emerging technologies like precision medicine, digital pathology, telehealth, and remote patient monitoring are likewise major new drivers of healthcare data growth.
The Importance of Secure Data Storage
With such immense and sensitive volumes of data being collected, securely storing patient healthcare information is of paramount importance. Strict data protection laws like HIPAA in the US and GDPR in the EU regulate how this type of personal and private data must be handled, stored, and shared. Any breach or loss of protected health information can result in steep financial penalties and damage to an organization’s reputation.
Most healthcare providers rely on on-premise data center infrastructure to store patient records and other files locally. However, traditional data centers require large upfront capital investments and ongoing maintenance costs. They also struggle to easily scale storage capacity to keep pace with the exponential data growth rates. Moving to cloud-based storage solutions is an attractive option as it provides infinitely scalable capacity, lower costs, and advanced security features. But concerns remain around data ownership, regulatory compliance, and vendor lock-in with public cloud options.
Hybrid and Multi-Cloud Strategies Emerging
To balance security, compliance, costs and flexibility requirements – hybrid and multi-cloud models for healthcare data storage are gaining popularity. These approaches leverage the strengths of both on-premise and public cloud platforms. Core patient records and sensitive unstructured data are kept on secure private clouds or dedicated storage hardware within an organization’s four walls.
Less sensitive archived data, backups, research data sets and other large file types can then be migrated to low-cost public cloud storage. Advanced security and access controls ensure data remains protected while infrastructure, software and capacity costs are significantly reduced compared to typical server room solutions. Global healthcare providers are also able to maintain storage and disaster recovery sites across multiple public clouds from different vendors to avoid dependence on any single company.
Global Data Transfer Regulations are Evolving
As patient data becomes more digitized and dispersed across borders via telemedicine, clinical trials and research collaborations – regulations around cross-border data transfers become increasingly important. Historically, some countries imposed strict data sovereignty laws requiring all citizen data to be stored domestically. However, globalization of healthcare makes this impractical.
Recent years have seen a shift towards more interoperable frameworks that enable the secure flow of information across international boundaries when necessary for care or research. Examples include APEC Cross Border Privacy Rules and the upcoming Japan-US Digital Trade Agreement. Still, handling global healthcare data flows compliantly remains a complex challenge as rules and standards continue to develop in different regions. Secure multi-cloud approaches will play a key role by enabling organizations to store data locally as required while also tapping global cloud infrastructures.
The Role of Healthcare Data Management is Growing
With petabytes and exabytes of data expected to be generated each year, finding ways to effectively manage healthcare information at a massive scale has become a strategic priority. Traditional database and storage infrastructures are ill-equipped for the variety, velocity and volume of modern medical data. Emerging techniques like data virtualization, metadata management, blockchain-backed data provenance tracking and AI-powered analytics are being adopted to help derive insights from vast and fast-growing data pools.
Healthcare organizations also recognize the importance of proper data governance, master data management and information lifecycle management programs to maximize the value of their digital assets while minimizing risks and costs. As clinical, financial and operational decisions increasingly rely on accurate, accessible data – the role of effective healthcare data management strategies will only continue expanding in importance.
In summary, the coming years will see healthcare data grow to unprecedented sizes globally as new technologies drive exponential increases in information capture and digitization. Securely storing this critical patient data while remaining compliant with evolving regulations will require innovative usage of hybrid cloud, multi-cloud and data management strategies. Healthcare providers that can successfully navigate these storage and data challenges will be best positioned to derive insights powering precision care, research discoveries and operational efficiencies.
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- Source: CoherentMI, Public sources, Desk research
- We have leveraged AI tools to mine information and compile it
