Information is the oil of the 21st century, and analytics is the combustion engine,” said Peter Sondergaard, Senior Vice President at Gartner. Similarly, British data science entrepreneur Clive Humby famously stated, “Data is the new oil.” Nowhere is this more relevant than in the healthcare industry, where data plays a critical role in improving patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
In today's data-driven world, healthcare providers must harness the power of data analytics to enhance patient care, streamline operations, and comply with stringent regulations. With the right tools, timely decisions can be made that improve patient outcomes, reduce costs, and optimize resources. However, tapping into the full potential of data analytics presents challenges—ranging from data quality and privacy concerns to standardization issues, storage, and complex data visualization.
This is where Amazon Web Services (AWS) steps in as a game-changer. AWS offers unmatched scalability, security, and advanced analytics tools, making it easier for healthcare organizations to overcome these obstacles and unlock the potential of their data.
In this case study, we explore how one healthcare provider, with the help of JetBase, successfully leveraged AWS to overcome its data challenges. Read on to learn how we helped our client integrate AWS solutions and continue to support their everyday data operations.
Background of the Healthcare Provider
The healthcare provider operates a web platform where doctors can monitor patients' health indicators in real time and use artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce data overload and streamline information management. In addition, the platform allows clinics to track doctors' activities, manage billing, and securely store all data reports.
With a large patient base and a diverse portfolio of medical services, the platform processes enormous volumes of data every day. Due to confidentiality agreements, we cannot disclose the organization's name, but they are recognized as one of the leading healthcare providers in their region.
When the client approached us, they were facing serious challenges. The existing platform was slow and struggled to handle high volumes of patient data, resulting in performance issues. To address this, we recommended moving the application to the cloud and integrating it with AWS. This would not only improve performance but also provide scalability, security, and cost-efficiency.
Challenges Faced
Before adopting AWS, the healthcare provider faced several key challenges:
- Data Management Complexity: The organization handled data from multiple sources—such as electronic health records (EHRs), patient monitoring devices, and insurance systems. With both structured and unstructured data growing exponentially, managing storage and retrieval became overwhelming.
- Limited Real-Time Insights: The existing system struggled to process data fast enough to provide real-time insights, leading to delayed decisions. This impacted patient care, as healthcare professionals couldn’t act on up-to-date information.
- Compliance and Security Concerns: Ensuring compliance with healthcare regulations like HIPAA and GDPR, while maintaining strong data security, was a constant challenge.
- Scalability Issues: Legacy systems were expensive to scale and maintain. With the growing data needs, this hindered innovation and increased costs.
The AWS Solution for a Healthcare Provider
To solve these issues, we migrated the platform to AWS, selecting specific services tailored to the healthcare provider's needs:
- Amazon S3
We chose Amazon S3 for its industry-leading scalability, security, and reliability. S3 allowed the healthcare provider to store large amounts of structured and unstructured data while offering 99.999999999% data durability. Its automated data lifecycle management reduced storage costs by ensuring that data was stored in the most cost-effective manner.
- AWS Lambda
For real-time data processing, we implemented AWS Lambda, a serverless computing service. It enabled the platform to process data automatically in response to events—such as a patient logging a new health metric—without the need to provision or manage servers.
- AWS HealthScribe
To streamline the documentation process and improve clinical workflows, we integrated HealthScribe. This service transcribes patient-doctor conversations and automatically extracts key medical insights, such as diagnosis and treatment plans. By leveraging AI, HealthScribe reduces the documentation burden on healthcare providers, freeing them to focus on patient care and improving data accuracy for analytics.
- Amazon Bedrock
We employed Amazon Bedrock to enhance the healthcare provider’s ability to develop and deploy generative AI applications tailored for data analysis. With Bedrock, the provider can easily build custom AI models that generate insights from vast amounts of medical data, helping predict patient outcomes, analyze trends, and optimize treatment plans with high accuracy.
- Amazon Transcribe
For speech-to-text needs in healthcare data workflows, we integrated Amazon Transcribe. This service converts audio recordings, such as doctor consultations or patient notes, into accurate, searchable text data. This allows seamless integration of spoken information into the healthcare platform's data analysis processes, improving the accessibility of patient records and supporting real-time decision-making.
Implementation Process
The implementation began with a seamless migration of the healthcare provider’s data from on-premise systems to Amazon S3. AWS Lambda was then integrated for real-time data processing, followed by the deployment of Amazon Redshift for large-scale analytics. Amazon QuickSight provided interactive dashboards for data visualization, while Amazon SageMaker was used to introduce advanced machine learning capabilities.
Throughout the process, strict security protocols ensured compliance with industry regulations such as HIPAA. AWS’s built-in security features, including encryption and identity management, were essential to maintaining the confidentiality and integrity of sensitive healthcare data.
Results and Outcomes
The migration to AWS transformed the healthcare provider’s operations:
- Real-Time Insights: The integration of AWS Lambda and Redshift enabled real-time data analysis, leading to faster and more accurate decision-making by healthcare professionals.
- Scalability: With AWS’s flexible infrastructure, the platform could easily scale to accommodate increasing amounts of data without costly hardware upgrades.
- Cost Savings: By moving to the cloud, the healthcare provider reduced its IT costs by 40%, primarily through the elimination of expensive on-premise infrastructure.
- Improved Patient Outcomes: Real-time access to patient data allowed doctors to make faster diagnoses and adjust treatment plans more quickly, leading to improved health outcomes.
- Compliance and Security: AWS’s suite of compliance certifications (HIPAA, GDPR, etc.) ensured that the provider maintained robust data protection measures while meeting regulatory requirements.
Case Examples
1. Analyzing Large Amounts of Data from Health Devices: Using Amazon Bedrock, the healthcare provider developed AI-driven models to process and analyze vast amounts of data from wearable health devices, such as fitness trackers and continuous glucose monitors. Bedrock enabled the platform to easily deploy generative AI models that analyze trends in patient-generated health data, such as heart rate, sleep patterns, and glucose levels. This allowed doctors to gain deeper insights into patient health, enabling personalized care plans, early detection of potential issues, and more effective long-term health management.
2. Optimizing Doctor Scheduling: With the analytics capabilities of AWS, the platform automated the process of scheduling doctors based on patient demand, clinic workloads, and individual doctor performance metrics. This not only improved operational efficiency but also ensured that the right doctors were available when needed.
3. Mobile Health Monitoring: By leveraging Amazon S3 and Lambda, the healthcare provider's mobile app enabled patients to monitor their health metrics, such as heart rate and glucose levels, in real time. Alerts for medication reminders or abnormal readings were automatically sent to both the patient and their healthcare provider, improving proactive care.
Conclusion and Future Outlook
By migrating their data analytics operations to AWS, the healthcare provider successfully addressed challenges in data management, real-time insights, compliance, and scalability. AWS’s robust platform empowered the organization to enhance patient care, reduce operational costs, and future-proof their operations.
Looking ahead, the provider has significant opportunities to further expand its capabilities. Deeper integration of AI-driven solutions could optimize workflows, personalize treatment plans, and improve resource management. As AWS continues to innovate, the healthcare provider is well-positioned to lead in data-driven healthcare, setting new benchmarks for operational efficiency and patient care.
At JetBase, we are here to support our clients in leveraging the full potential of data analysis and AWS implementation for healthcare IT projects. Our expertise is at your disposal—don’t hesitate to contact us for a free consultation and to explore how we can help elevate your project.
