Healthcare cloud set to grow 20 per cent over next five years

The healthcare cloud computing market is tipped to grow by 20.5 per cent worldwide over the next five years, according to new research.

This would put the worldwide market for healthcare cloud computing at $5.4 billion by 2017.

The Healthcare Cloud Computing Market – Global Trends, Challenges, Opportunities and Forecasts report, carried out by analysts Research and Markets, examined SaaS, public, private and hybrid cloud adoption rates.

It found that technologies in the healthcare IT industry are outpacing the legacy systems used by hospitals and healthcare providers. 

Cloud technology has started replacing these legacy systems and offers easier and faster access to data as defined by the way it is stored, said the report.

It also claimed that health care providers are using the cloud to permit the exchange of patient information and provide cheaper, more agile IT services.

With health budgets being reined in around the world, cloud provides the healthcare market with an opportunity to deliver more while keeping a cap on costs, it stated.

According to its findings, in 2011, the penetration of cloud in the healthcare industry was around four per cent and the market was valued at $1.7 billion. 

In global terms, North America represented the biggest market for healthcare cloud computing, followed by Europe. The sector's largest vendors were identified as CareCloud, Carestream Health, Merge Healthcare and GE Healthcare. 

One of the report’s authors, Kalyani Jekkaraju, said the market is set to enjoy good growth, although the highly-regulated healthcare sector means that public cloud adoption will lag behind for some time.

Increased scrutiny over patient privacy and data security means that cloud uptake would be slower than in other industries, Jekkaraju added.