After years of baby steps, hospitals nationwide are moving increasing amounts of health data into the cloud to guard against malware attacks and seize opportunities to use artificial intelligence to analyze data on patients, operations, and finances.
Health care’s shift to centralized data storage on the internet — and away from on-premises server warehouses — seems as dull as the laying of new water pipes in hospital basements. But these pipes are carrying vast amounts of sensitive data as well as the ambitions of dominant vendors such as Google Cloud, Amazon Web Services, and Microsoft Azure — all of which are swiftly ramping up their offerings to win hospital contracts.
The competition was on full display at the annual conference of the Healthcare Management and Information Systems Society (HIMSS), one of the largest and most influential gatherings of health care IT specialists and companies, which drew more than 43,000 attendees to Orlando, Fla., last month. All three companies showcased their analytics capabilities in massive booths on the exhibit floor and participated in discussions on the virtues of artificial intelligence and data sharing within the industry.
This article is exclusive to STAT+ subscribers
Unlock this article — plus in-depth analysis, newsletters, premium events, and networking platform access.
Already have an account? Log in
Already have an account? Log in
About the Author Reprints
To submit a correction request, please visit our Contact Us page.
STAT encourages you to share your voice. We welcome your commentary, criticism, and expertise on our subscriber-only platform, STAT+ Connect