Covid19, Cloud Computing, and A Cloud-Generation Healthcare System

You’ve seen this chart non-stop over the last week – on-line, and on TV! Simply enough, it makes the case for social distancing and other actions to match the # of cases of Covid19 to the capacity of the Healthcare system (in this case for the USA, but the concept can apply to countries around the world).

So when Dr. Fauci stated  "The system is not really geared to what we need right now... let's admit it," , I started to wonder how can our healthcare system evolve to match the force of Covid19 and whatever else may come our way in the future?  To me, it feels like a surge problem that those of us in tech will recognize as we’ve been talking about it in the context of cloud computing since 2006.

The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) definition for Cloud Computing still holds for the most part. So, what can a healthcare system modeled along the characteristics of cloud computing look like? Let's look at some (see the link above for the full list, and noodle on it) of the definitional elements of cloud and apply them to a hypothetical healthcare system.

On-demand self-service. In the world of cloud, when you need a service – it’s clicks away. It can be a virtual machine, object/file/block storage, AI/ML services, Containers, even Quantum computing services. So for healthcare, services can be easily accessed and delivered – just a click away. Corona Virus is introducing many people to Tele Medicine. But it’s a field that has been discussed for close to a decade. Much work is needed to have an on-demand self-service healthcare system, with appropriate guide rails to assure efficiency and efficacy. But it’s not far-fetched and at least the tech “plumbing” is here. DoorDashDoc!

Rapid elasticity. Organizations that use cloud computing love the elastic capabilities it delivers. Elasticity can be automatic, where resources that support an application scale to meet the demands or it can be manual for fine-tuned control. For example, on Black Friday, additional resources are deployed as on-line and in store demand scales and spikes. When demand subsides, the resources are released. As the resources are releases, cost is no longer incurred.  Elasticity in healthcare may be a bit trickier given that we are working with physical and digital assets. Maybe greater cooperation between public and private, between state and federal, between state and state, between non-profit and for-profit institutions can help. So when we need test kits, medical devices, respirators. Etc. – we can rapidly move the capacity to the need. And if we need to build a hospital in 10 days – the Chinese have that figured out! All of that can be enabled through cloud-based systems, mobile applications, and even edge computing powered by 5G!

Economical. In the world of cloud computing, you pay for what you deploy and consume. And with ever-increasing adoption and ever-increasing scale and efficiency, cloud providers are consistently cutting prices. In fact, according to Amazon Web Services (AWS) CEO Andy Jassy, in a 2019 interview, AWS has cut prices 70 times! And that was more than a year ago. Yes, in healthcare we do see for example,  high cost drugs go generic, but in general costs are not going down. One could advocate for a single-payer system here – but I’m not touching that third-rail today -).

Note – that is only 3 of the definitional elements and market characteristics of Cloud Computing. We can dig into the others next time.

So, let's think asymmetrically. Can we take principles of cloud computing and use that to stretch how we imagine our healthcare system that today is so stressed with the Covid19 crisis?

The reality is that Healthcare and Cloud leaders are no longer strange bedfellows. We see it with companies like Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase partnering to form Haven. And more timely, we see Verily working with California to establish “testing sites in the Bay Area and an online tool to increase risk screening and testing for people at high risk of COVID-19.”

Maybe, now is the time for optimism and looking forward to seeing the ethos of cloud computing permeate healthcare to standup a  modern system that IS geared to what we need right now!

Now, let’s wash our hands, close the door, and let’s get back to work  while practicing social distancing. Walk the dog, pat the cat, enjoy family and your SO. We’ll get through this!