Network Modernization The Key to the Future of Healthcare

FEATURE

ARUBA

NETWORK MODERNIZATION: THE KEY TO THE FUTURE OF HEALTHCARE

By: Jacob Chacko, Regional Director - ME, Saudi & SA at Aruba, an HP Enterprise company

Jacob Chacko

Regional Director - ME, Saudi & SA at Aruba

There’s no denying that COVID-19 had an irreversible impact across every industry, perhaps most notably the healthcare sector. Two years ago, healthcare providers and facilities had to make huge changes to adjust to the influx of COVID patients.

From telemedicine to patient portals, new technologies are still being deployed today to help the system fight back against the backlog of patients needing care, as well as deliver the improved and more seamless service that customers now expect. This has meant that the IoT device explosion is on the rise across the healthcare sector. Deloitte predicts that the IoMT market will grow in Europe from $ 12 billion to $44billion by 2025.

As healthcare organizations continue to introduce IoT devices to their operations, their digital success stories depend on one fundamental component – a reliable network. Resilient and secure connectivity must underpin every institution’s digital roadmap, upholding and progressing the convergence of IT, patient care, and operational efficiencies. So, just how do they achieve this?

STEP 1: UPGRADING THE NETWORK

Many legacy networks that IT teams in the healthcare sector are pushed to work with were designed during a pre-COVID time when applications were static. These outdated networks not only create their roadblocks but trying to adapt them to support today’s demands can also result in huge operational issues. An IT team tasked with scaling their network up to support a surge in users and devices across various locations would be faced with having to manually process every connection type and device if a network hasn’t been modernized.

Networks based on traditional VLAN architectures will struggle to accommodate huge amounts of IoT devices, so modernizing WAN solutions with SD-WAN should be seen as the next step for healthcare organizations. Offering greater efficiency and cost savings, hospitals and clinics can also opt for an approach that doesn’t involve the wholesale replacement of their current infrastructures, but rather look for options that coexist with current architectures.

STEP 2: LEVERAGING AUTOMATION

With a modern network in place and now set up for scale and connectivity, health organizations must then look towards leveraging the benefits of automation.

As all these IoT devices churn out large quantities of health information, automation merged with other smart technologies such as machine learning can help turn into actionable insights that healthcare organizations can use to build new solutions. Here, simplified workflows can also help alleviate administrative burdens and redeploy precious time so that staff can focus on patient care. From apps that help patients manage their care themselves, to online symptom checkers and e-triage AI tools, virtual agents that can carry out tasks in hospitals, or a bionic pancreas to help patients with diabetes, adding AI to your technology arsenal can greatly enhance patient care.

STEP 3: SECURITY

While a modern network and the IoT devices and AI solutions it can support have the potential to transform healthcare in practice, the growing use of connective devices also poses increased risk for healthcare organizations. In a hospital setting where staff, patients, and visitors are always on the go, multiple new devices are constantly joining and leaving the network. Now, securing the network is more important than ever.

The key to a secure network is visibility. This means that everything, from sensors to visitors' phones, needs to be individually identified, secured, and monitored. By ‘fingerprinting’ every device this way, any vulnerability can be spotted and addressed immediately before it is ex-ploited. This level of nuance is also particularly vital in healthcare. In life-or-death environ-ments, critical-care devices that need to run continuously can’t be treated the same way as those which can be disconnected if needed. Instead, Zero Trust architectures ensure that all devices and users trying to access the network are identified and authenticated, before providing the least amount of access required through a predefined security policy.

DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION DURING AND BEYOND COVID-19

Written By: Naji Kazak, Managing Director - EMEA at Kodak Alaris

KODAK ALARIS

FEATURE

COVID-19 has been a massive catalyst for digital transformation, but companies need to do more than implement short-term solutions that enable remote work. Businesses with an eye to fully automated workflows will enjoy benefits that far outlast the pandemic.

WORK FROM HOME - WORK MUST GO ON

Working from home isn’t exactly new, but the need to work from home is. When it became apparent that social distancing would be a key tactic to slow the spread of COVID-19, immediately closing office buildings was the natural response.

In fact, it is likely that companies’ familiarity with remote work — if only on an occasional basis — has smoothed the rapid transition and enabled ongoing operations.

However, this urgency has served as a sort of double-edged sword: While it is responsible for the rapid transition to remote work policies, it is also responsible for quick fixes that may do more to hinder than help workflows in the long run.

URGENCY SPURS TECH ADOPTION

Companies that embrace digital transformation are more successful than those that lag behind.

Digital companies typically have a superior customer experience, better employee engagement and retention, and increased business growth and profits, among other benefits. What’s more, manual processes can cause companies to miss opportunities, make illinformed business decisions, and lose clients to competition.

In the midst of this global pandemic, these realities take on even greater importance: Digital transformation is no longer a question of “sinking or swimming” over an extended period of time, but of sinking or swimming now. Technology adoption has been one of the single biggest factors in ensuring business survival.

For instance, grocery stores have turned to online ordering and curbside pickup, restaurants have implemented QR code menus to minimize shared objects, and healthcare organizations have relied on telehealth platforms to provide virtual care.

For companies that have turned to remote work, tech adoption has meant using equipment such as document scanners, mobile devices, and multifunction printers (MFPs) as specific needs arise.

FROM DIGITIZING PAPER PROCESSES TO FULLY INTEGRATED WORKFLOWS

Getting the right information to the right employees is challenging enough when everything is paperbased and everyone’s working remotely, but the issue is greater than that. Enabling digital workflows isn’t just about scanning paper documents into electronic files so that the immediate task at hand can be completed, but about automating

Naji Kazak

MD - EMEA, Kodak Alaris

the processes themselves so that work can be carried out efficiently and effectively over the long term.

This automation requires taking a close look at business processes, reengineering them as needed, and investing in technology that goes beyond simple document capture.

For instance, when faced with these issues, Xenith Intelligent Workplace Solutions teamed up with Kodak Alaris to create a new Scan@ Home Solution with preconfigured automatic workflows. Built on Kodak Alaris’ INfuse Smart Connected Scanning Solution, the offering enables workers to save information to the right place, send documents to the right person, and scan directly into line-of-business systems from home — all without a PC connection or local software.

A CULTURAL SHIFT

Remote work seems to be here to stay, and digital transformation will continue to facilitate it. For companies that haven’t embraced it, now is the time to invest in the digital transformation strategies that enable remote work, and in the technologies that spur digital transformation.