Integrating Cloud Computing in E-healthcare: System Design, Implementation and Significance in Context of Developing Countries
Md Ishak, Raiyan Rahman, Tahasin Mahmud · 2021
Cloud computing in the medical sector refers to the method of storing, maintaining, and processing electronic health records and relevant services on cloud servers that are accessible over the internet. The flexibility of cloud computing makes it a practical approach for enhancing the quality, dependability, and efficiency of medical services, as well as increasing patient-doctor interaction and safeguarding patient anonymity if proper measures are taken. Furthermore, cloud strategies facilitate healthcare technologies such as computerized healthcare records, remote appointments, mobile applications, patient portals, IoT devices, and big data analytics, enabling trouble-free scalable solutions. Integrating cloud computing technologies can especially be beneficial in increasing the efficiency of healthcare services in developing counties where physical health infrastructure is usually limited. As such, the objective of this work is to explore the feasibility of incorporating cloud and distributed computing in e-healthcare through an extensive requirement analysis and user study. Then, the smart healthcare system will be compared with traditional database-centric healthcare systems and a prototype system will be designed and implemented based on the findings. Finally, we focus on finding the usability and user acceptance of such systems and challenges that lie with integrating cloud services to e-healthcare systems for the general user demographic of developing countries through extensive usability evaluation.