In the past two years, the healthcare sector has relied on technology and cloud computing to provide reliable information to patients and direct them to proper resources and treatments.
With the advent of chatbots, remote monitoring, and telehealth, the industry has adapted and found new ways to provide care. To enhance medical insights, healthcare should examine the ways in which access to relevant patient data along with analytics and machine learning can improve patient outcomes in a precise, efficient, secure, and timely manner.
The power of cloud and data
Cloud can boost digital and analytical abilities in the healthcare industry. According to a recent McKinsey report titled “Cloud’s trillion-dollar prize is up for grabs,” the use of the cloud can lead to a potential value of $100 billion to $170 billion for healthcare companies by 2030. The key to unlocking this value is through enabling companies to more efficiently innovate, digitise processes and achieve their strategic goals.
“The true potential of cloud computing in healthcare lies in its ability to democratise access to critical data, advanced tools for machine learning and artificial intelligence, and to make these resources accessible to researchers, developers, and pharmaceutical companies globally,” said Dr Rowland Illing, Director & Chief Medical Officer, International Public Sector Health at Amazon Web Services (AWS).
“This is achieved by removing the need for large on-premises computer resources and investment in technology, and instead offering a cloud-based solution that can be easily accessed and utilised with just a switch.”
By democratising access to data, tools, and solutions, cloud technology empowers the creation of new applications that can be readily available at the point of need. This is the true power that the cloud brings to healthcare, and it is all underpinned by its security benefits, ensuring that security is always paramount, networking is properly secured, and healthcare organisations and technology companies can focus on their core responsibilities.
As healthcare organisations embrace the cloud and accelerate digitalisation, a growing challenge facing medical professionals and researchers is how to effectively process vast amounts of data to provide personalised care. The abundance of information available often exceeds their capacity to analyse and utilise it effectively. In order to address this, AWS recently launched a purpose-built service called Amazon Omics.
Healthcare and life sciences organisations today are utilising biological data to revolutionise patient care and drive cutting-edge scientific research. By mapping an individual’s genetic makeup and its relation to disease, identifying novel drug targets through protein analysis, profiling tumors based on gene expression, and exploring the impact of gut bacteria on human health, these organisations are constantly expanding the understanding of the human body. These studies, collectively referred to as “omics,” represent a major step forward in improving advancing medical research and drug discovery.
The challenge in omics research lies in its requirement for massive data processing, which can be overwhelming for healthcare and life sciences companies without proper infrastructure.
“Most healthcare data are unstructured, with 97 percent going unused. Sorting and understanding this information becomes even more difficult when dealing with large amounts of omic data collected from numerous patients,” explained Dr Illing.
That’s where AWS believes it can make a difference with Amazon Omics.
“Amazon Omics is a data normalisation engine that simplifies the process of managing and analysing genomic data. It is designed to support large-scale analysis and collaborative research on omics data,” he added.
The service offers efficient data storage and enables researchers to access other AWS services for population-wide genome analysis. Additionally, Amazon Omics automates the deployment and scaling of bioinformatics workflows, allowing researchers to perform analysis at a large scale.
“We have partnered with major genomics organisations, such as Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technologies and support biobanking initiatives globally to generate valuable data insights. Amazon Omics is designed to be a foundational piece that can be integrated into various applications. It takes care of the heavy lifting, freeing up customers to focus on building innovative solutions more quickly and easily,” said Dr Illing.
In the Middle East, AWS partnered with G42 Healthcare, a subsidiary of Abu Dhabi’s artificial intelligence and cloud computing company G42, to pilot Amazon Omics in the region and to develop a genomics, proteomics and biobanking service. G42 Healthcare owns the region’s largest Omics Centre of Omics Excellence in Abu Dhabi, which can deliver over 500,000 whole-genome sequences per year.
“G42 is a dynamic organisation that we believe can play an integral role in revolutionising healthcare in the Middle East. They aim to make biobanking more widespread across countries to promote health equity. With G42 Healthcare leveraging Amazon Omics, healthcare firms across the region will be able to get a comprehensive representation of the region’s genomes and health data,” said Dr Illing.
Looking ahead, Dr Illing highlighted that Amazon’s healthcare unit’s goal is to enhance access to and delivery of personalised care while reducing costs and improving outcomes through the digital transformation and utilisation of healthcare data.
“At our core, we believe in collaboration and strive to partner with a wide range of customers, including national and state governments, hospitals, research organisations, primary care providers, health technology firms, and beyond.
“Our mission is to leverage the latest technology to integrate various data sources and provide actionable insights that drive better health outcomes. To further support this goal, we are actively engaged with the startup community and provide resources to help these companies grow and innovate. Our healthcare-specific startup accelerators are focused on fostering new ideas and solutions through initiatives related to workforce development and health equity. These efforts play a key role in advancing the healthcare industry and ensuring that everyone has access to the highest quality care,” said Dr Illing.
