By Fred Donovan, HIT Infrastructure | October 2, 2019

Google Cloud is partnering with Meditech to offer its electronic health record (EHR) system through Google’s public cloud platform.

As a result of this partnership, Meditech’s Expanse EHR platform will be one of the first available on Google Cloud, according to a Meditech release.

The agreement with Google Cloud extends to application development and provides additional options with the Meditech-as-a-service subscription model. In addition, the partnership is expected to improve healthcare facility security and help combat ransomware, according to the release.

“We’ve been retooling Meditech for the new healthcare paradigm, reshaping our company to meet the needs of today’s market and today’s customers. It began with Expanse, one of the first web-based solutions, released as one of the first full-scale platforms of the post-Meaningful Use era. Now, this collaboration with Google Cloud and our commitment to the public cloud further expands the productivity and agility of our customers,” said Meditech CEO Howard Messing.

“Reducing infrastructure costs, while continually providing some of the most advanced technologies available, is appealing to healthcare organizations of all sizes and scopes,” he said.

Joe Corkery, MD, head of product, healthcare and life sciences at Google Cloud, added: “At Google Cloud, we are focused on providing healthcare and life sciences organizations with innovative and scalable technology that can be used to generate novel insights, improve care delivery, and enable greater efficiencies in the healthcare system. We are proud to collaborate with Meditech, to help foster innovation within care systems and advancing data interoperability.”

Last month, Mayo Clinic announced it was teaming with Google Cloud to employ cloud computing, machine learning, and artificial intelligence (AI) for healthcare delivery.

“Data-driven medical innovation is growing exponentially, and our partnership with Google will help us lead the digital transformation in healthcare,” said Gianrico Farrugia, MD, president and CEO of Mayo Clinic.

“It will empower us to solve some of the most complex medical problems; better anticipate the needs of people we serve; and meet them when, where and how they need us. We will share our knowledge and expertise globally while caring for people locally and always do it with a human touch,” Farrugia said.

Mayo Clinic will employ virtual care with digital diagnostics enabled by AI with the help of Google Cloud. Mayo will use Google’s technology to increase its medical research capabilities and create new models of machine learning intended to increase treatment accuracy and clinical outcomes.

Mayo Clinic will securely store data in the Google Cloud while working with the cloud provider to tackle complex healthcare problems using cloud computing and AI technologies. Mayo Clinic will continue monitoring and control patient data access and use.

“With one of the most robust sources of clinical insights in the world, Mayo Clinic is well-positioned to lead digital transformation in health care,” said Christopher Ross, chief information officer at Mayo Clinic.

“Our partnership will propel a multitude of AI projects currently spearheaded by our scientists and physicians and will provide technology tools to unlock the value of data and deliver answers at a scale much greater than today,” Ross noted.

The healthcare cloud computing market is forecast to increase at a 22 percent compound annual growth rate, reaching more than $16 billion by 2025.

Cloud computing increases data collection in real time and enhances data accessibility. Increasing demand for strict regulatory compliance, public awareness, and increasing investment by healthcare players are expected to fuel market growth, the report by the Healthcare Intelligence Markets observed.

The report identified the following major players in the healthcare cloud market: Allscripts Healthcare Solution, Athena health, Cisco Systems, Dell, EMC, GNAX Health, IBM, Iron Mountain, Microsoft, Oracle, Qualcomm, and VMware.