St. Joseph's Healthcare, based in Irvine, Calif., has been thinking about the cloud for years. The health system's CIO Bill Russell examines the provider's early relationship with cloud platform Box and where he sees his organization's cloud strategy headed.
Question: How is St. Joseph's Healthcare leveraging the cloud?
Bill Russell: Three years ago, there was a realization that change in healthcare would not slow down. We immediately identified the cloud as a must-have technology. We looked at various cloud vendors, including Amazon Web Services. At the time, not a lot of providers were ready to make the move considering the security complexities of healthcare. We opted to building our own private cloud.
Q: When did the health system first partner with Box?
BR: Our contract with Box is two and a half years old. The whole conversation started with a phone call to Dropbox. The sales representative told us we were one of their largest healthcare users. We determined Box offered an environment better suited to healthcare than Dropbox. We saw what we could offer our end users. Now, Box has become our primary mode of data storage. We are storing more of our data on the cloud than in our traditional servers.
Q: What have you found to be the biggest opportunities and challenges associated with the cloud?
BR: The first healthcare applications weren't known for their user experience, but cloud platforms deliver a much better user experience. Applications are beginning to work more like users are accustomed to, and there is less training involved. The cloud provides agility. As organizations form new partnerships, this agility is going to allow them to move more rapidly. You need to ramp up the sharing of information between different organizations quickly.
The responsibility for security never leaves the health system. The biggest challenge becomes identity. We have to think through what our cloud activity management will look like. How will we manage identity internally?
Q: How does St. Joseph's Healthcare plan to use the cloud in the future?
BR: We continue to look at the different solutions Box is bringing to the table. We have discussed their radiology solution. We want to enable more interaction in the cloud environment. We are now trying to figure out if we are ready to connect with consumers through the Box platform. We are looking at all of these options and deciding where it makes sense to expand.
The cloud in healthcare is a foregone conclusion. The wave has already crashed, and the pace will only pick up. CIOs just need to figure out their strategy.