No Clouds in Future for Health Data

Health care data won't be moving to the cloud any time soon despite an expected increase in the volume of information, according to health IT managers.

In a survey conducted by Bridgehead Software, 133 health care executives weighed in on the challenges they'll be facing when it comes to managing health care data, reports Healthcare IT News. Half of the respondents said they expect their data volume to grow, driven primarily by digital imaging files, scanned documents and electronic health records.

However, while 70 percent reported that they use disks to store archived data, fewer than 10 percent use cloud services. Further, the survey found that just about 9 percent planned to shift storage to the cloud in the next 12 to 14 months. The primary driver of respondents' hesitancy was the security and availability of data sent to the cloud, a concern echoed across federal agencies considering a similar move. The survey found cost and the benefits of local storage also were important to executives.