Health Policy Partnership and European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (one of AFFIRMO’s partners) experts in research, health data and patient advocacy have worked together to develop a report on cloud technology in healthcare. 

The report was launched at the HIMSS23 European Health Conference & Exhibition in Lisbon, aiming to involve the patient community and healthcare professionals in discussions and policymaking around cloud technology to ensure that its implementation both serves them and takes their perspectives into account. 

Cloud technology and Healthcare  

Health systems are facing unprecedented issues all around the world; a comprehensive and data-driven strategy is needed to address them. This data-driven strategy is made possible in large part by cloud computing (or "the cloud").  

Cloud technology is already present in our lives when we use email, social media, or online banking; however, when it comes to healthcare, most people know very little about its role. The cloud already shows enormous potential for improving population and individual health in several crucial areas, including: 

1. more efficient and person-centred care  
2. a population-based approach to health  
3. research that drives innovation  
4. sustainable and resilient health systems 

 The report emphasizes the value of a multi-stakeholder approach with the patient community at the centre of all decision-making regarding the use of cloud technology in health systems. It highlights the prospects that cloud technology presents for enabling better individual and population health. 

Ensuring cloud technology can be used to its full potential to advance health requires engagement from all stakeholders, including patient advocates, healthcare practitioners and the wider public.  

Importance for AFFIRMO 

This report is very interesting for AFFIRMO as the project is developing a new informatics tool, the intelligent, interoperable ABC care framework (iABC). The tool will be developed to help identify the impact of disease on quality of life and treatment goals (shared decision-making) consequently facilitating a patient-tailored ABC care pathway for the evaluation and management of older AF patients with multimorbidity. 

Click here to read the report 

Reference: The Health Policy Partnership and the European Institute for Innovation through Health Data. 2023. Our health in the cloud: exploring the evolving role of cloud technology In healthcare. London: The Health Policy Partnership