IT Needs Pose Unique Challenges for Smaller Healthcare Organizations

Dell Enterprise Forum - June 4-6, 2013 (San Jose)

The majority of healthcare is delivered in clinics, physician practices and small- to mid-size hospitals and that’s where patient information (including medical records and clinical images) is often accessed and retained. Yet many smaller organizations are ill-equipped to meet the growing demands of information-enabled healthcare.

In addition to managing the explosion of data created by electronic medical records (EMR) and digital imaging, there is the need to exchange patient information with other providers to coordinate care. Clinicians also need a virtualized environment that allows mobility but keeps patient information secure. This often requires more compute, storage and networking capacity than is typically found in a traditional clinic setting.

Additionally, consolidation of care networks complicates integration and sharing of information necessary to coordinate patient care. And the growing prevalence of genetic data – particularly in clinical cancer trials – can substantially increase the size of a patient’s EMR.

While cloud-based applications and image storage can help manage large and growing datasets, local technology resources are often needed to provide the best patient care. If a remote clinic’s ISP is down, patient care must continue. Local compute and storage also offers performance advantages which can improve care delivery by enabling more rapid diagnosis.

Computing resources for healthcare organizations should be flexible and scalable. When applications need to accelerate, there should be a simple way to increase capacity. When clinical information begins to max out available resources, there should be a simple way to add more space. Networking complexity should be streamlined and eliminated wherever possible. And in an era when experienced IT talent is hard to come by, remote diagnostics are a must.

To address the needs of small- to mid-size healthcare organizations, Dell has developed a new all-in-one solution that will give these organizations the enterprise-class IT capacity needed to manage growing data demands and support mobility in a small form factor without the cost, complexity and staffing requirements of a data center. This is an exciting development which will enable smaller organizations to realize the benefits of information-driven healthcare. Watch for our news coming out of the Dell Enterprise Forum, June 4-6 in San Jose, to learn more.

About the Author: August Calhoun