What’s Driving the Adoption of Edge Computing in the Healthcare Sector

August 16, 2022

Edge computing is becoming one of the best answers healthcare has to that data problem. The healthcare industry is drowning in data. According to a 2020 Dell survey, healthcare and life sciences data grew by a staggering 900% over the last two years. Part of that growth comes from the 10 to 15 devices now connected to the average hospital bedside. New tools are being deployed by modern health systems, hospitals, and providers, and new models of care are being developed to serve patients better.

Further;

• Clinical trials generate about 3 million data points on average.

• Health care and life sciences account for 30% of all global stored data.

• Edge will generate 75% of all data by 2025

As a result, healthcare facilities have to deal with big data sets that can quickly become overwhelming to control, label, and share efficiently.

With the arrival of smart devices, the Internet of Things (IoT), and Artificial Intelligence (AI), healthcare providers increasingly need to process large data sets. That need is especially urgent for real-time applications. Edge computing and edge analytics quickly convert large volumes of data into valuable insights.

More and more healthcare facilities are turning to edge computing to counter the latency and availability hiccups associated with the cloud. That way, the facilities can compute and process information closer to the source.

Whether it is on a physician’s ingestible sensor, wearable device, mobile app, or tablet, computing at the “edge” matters. It’s where performance, scale, and speed get decided.

What does this mean for the healthcare industry?

Let’s explore further.

Opportunities Offered By Edge Computing for Healthcare

Edge computing presents endless opportunities in the healthcare sector. Examples include:

Real-time Care

Nowadays, a significant percentage of patient care happens at retail drugstores, from scans to blood work and other assessments.

By leveraging edge computing capabilities and tools, patient care can happen on-site, in real-time. That way, patients don’t have to send samples to the lab and wait for days or weeks to get the results back.

Robot-assisted Medical Procedures

The emergence of 5G technology, the latest standard for broadband cellular networks, will also spur opportunities. It blends with edge computing to support IoT and Machine Learning (ML) tools.

The 5 G’s super-low latency network and edge computing will help power smart devices and applications.

Robot surgery, for instance, will enable surgeons to get near-instant, sub-millisecond sensory feedback. That’s not doable in any other way than through technologies like edge computing and 5G.

Such crucial information is useless if processed somewhere else and comes in a couple of seconds or minutes late.

Expected Benefits from Edge Computing for the Healthcare Sector

The boons for healthcare providers that compute and process data closer to the edge include:

Savings and Reduced Operational Costs

Data storage costs have dropped significantly over the last ten years. Still, the cost of moving data around in healthcare keeps rising.

Industry insiders expect the cost to continue rising as the industry experiences data spikes. They also expect healthcare facilities to implement more bandwidth to handle the ballooning data load, further driving up the result.

Still, healthcare facilities can cut down costs by adopting edge computing. Shifting to the edge reduces the amount of data moving back and forth to the cloud. That, in turn, keeps operational costs in check.

Better Speed and Reduced Latency

With edge computing, health facilities don’t have to move patients’ data from endpoints to the cloud and back.

Trimming down the entire process saves time, albeit in seconds or milliseconds. That might not seem like much, but travel time is a crucial consideration in healthcare. Real-time decision-making capabilities matter here.

Robot-assisted surgery is a perfect example of speed and low latency in action. It requires machines to analyze information and return instructions almost instantly for a safe procedure.

Stronger Security and Privacy Protections

Edge computing can deliver improved security and an extra layer of privacy protection because of its ability to keep data close to the edge, eliminating centralized servers.

While edge devices are vulnerable to hacking, they hold limited data amounts and often do not complete data sets cybercriminals can use.

For example, sensors collect a patient’s vital signs, which are then examined by an edge computing device. That particular device only holds those readings.

The script changes if the sensors send data back to a centralized server. There, it’s stored alongside other data, including the patient’s personally identifiable information.

Better Patient Experience

Edge computing allows doctors to monitor patients remotely and use telemedicine. That can help reduce hospital admissions and let agile healthcare thrive locally.

Edge computing also offers a chance to improve the quality of care delivered to an individual patient. At the same time, it provides data that can be used for the broader good.

The dispersed edge nodes network also delivers quicker responses to end users. That enables faster retrieval and real-time data analysis, a vital capability for healthcare providers.

Smart devices and wearables also give clinicians a prompt status of key patient vitals like blood pressure and heart rate. That notifies medical staff of issues before they turn into serious problems.

The minimal response time in analyzing information creates better workflows. Doctors can respond more efficiently to patients’ needs and offer a seamless experience.

Smarter Decision Making

A significant advantage of edge computing is reduced latency. In essence, this means that healthcare providers can receive critical patient information and knowledge when and where it is needed. That way, doctors can make data-backed decisions faster.

Everything works at lightning speed, which is especially beneficial for patients with chronic conditions who require regular monitoring.

Faster decision-making can also be a lifesaver for older patients suffering from cognition because it enables early detection of potential problems and health complications.

Volico Can Help You Implement Edge Computing

Even though some technology applications are still in their infant stages, edge computing will eventually solve problems in the healthcare industry that the cloud cannot.

Still, computing data at the edge will help solve complex healthcare challenges in the short term.

As a forward-thinking healthcare provider, you want to be part of the transformation — and that’s where Volico comes in.

By leveraging Volico edge colocation services, your healthcare facility can reap the revolutionary benefits processing, and computing data at the edge brings to the healthcare industry.

Why Volico Edge Colocation?

Volico edge colocation is a fully-fledged service that:

The network is fully redundant, with multiple points of entry to the data center. That means no route overlap when you connect to us.
Compliance and security are built in, not bolted on. We go beyond the basics like HIPAA and PCI DSS. Our colocation procedures, process, and operations are NIST compliant and federal-level certified.
Reliability is a given: we promise 99.999% uptime across all portfolios for meaningful application performance and user experience.
A wide range of cloud and network providers creates an optimized environment for your applications. Competitive internet and transport circuit rates come standard.

With multi-cloud options, you can leverage the best breed for each application. You get the highest throughput and the lowest latency, so your applications run seamlessly.