Switching to Cloud Isn’t Easy for Pharmaceutical Industry

The modern healthcare industry is the amalgamation of technology and medical services. With this growing trend of health IT, data security and privacy have become the main concerns for physicians. Be it, medical billing, MIPS & MACRA, electronic healthcare records (EHRs), digital collection and storage have taken the paramount place.

To take advantage of technology and to support MIPS in healthcare, pharmaceutical companies are interested in going cloud-based. However, they want surety to have a secure transition, which is not as simple as it seems.

The professional mapping of the data flows, frameworks and technology implementation requires amazing efforts. While doing all this, a proactive approach, anticipating the potential threats is compulsory.

What steps should be taken to have a safe cloud-based technology?

• Take Measures for Security Breaches

Same as physicians have to protect patients’ data, and other sensitive information from hackers in the MIPS program, the pharma industry has to pay attention to security threats.

It is estimated that during the shifting process of the hand-written data to the cloud-based database, many incidents of data breaches will be experienced. Security experts that are well-aware of the data sensitivity and actively take measures against breaches are one of the major hurdles in implementing this migration.

A connected and heterogeneous cloud-based storage system is a complex process. Therefore, not just a secure database is to be designed but also with an efficient backup system.

Security failures can only be prevented when there will be the right personnel with the right expertise for this job.  Therefore, before moving towards cloud-based technology, the pharma industry needs to have a proper execution plan.

• Be Prepared To Manage Risks

Translating the manual database to a cloud-based database may disturb the entire pharma company. Therefore, the calculation of the internal and external risks is equally important for the effective functioning of cloud-based technology in the pharmaceutical industry.

A reasonable solution is to convert data step-by-step until the whole staff gets comfortable with it. Test the cloud technology implementation and highlight errors that don’t meet the standard. Manage risks and measure return-over-investment.

• Research about the Implementation Protocols

The Pharma industry will not just face problems regarding the right technology.  In addition, it needs to research all the pros, cons, and the working process of technology implementation. Vulnerabilities come across as major setbacks in an efficient running system. If there will not be a proper channel or sequence of operations to enter, fetch, and share data from the system, what will be the point?

In order to support MIPS in healthcare, which is one of the leading value-based incentive programs, pharma companies need to have a front role in understanding all the implementation details.

The Healthcare industry is already sensitive, and pharma being its part can’t be separated from its rules and obligations. There is a reason that the regulatory authorities highly govern this industry.

SaaS – Software as a Service model is getting popular in the pharma industry. However, there is a need to develop the understanding that the implementation of cloud-based services without seeing the capability of the system will cost more than ever.

Thus, flexibility is required but with the hint of sensibility to predict different case scenarios and the associated cost to check if this is the best-suited solution.

Surely, the pharma industry should move forward with the changing times. Nevertheless, the change should be transitive and be able to generate constructive results while making sure of all the security aspects.

In your opinion, what steps should be taken to ensure the reliable implementation of cloud technology in the pharma industry?