While cloud computing might seem novel to some, it's increasingly revolutionizing the way businesses and companies securely store, access, share, and even analyze their data. Cloud technology entails the hosting of applications, data, and services on centralized internet-based or virtual servers, allowing it to be accessible anywhere, anytime, and from any connected device.
Working in tandem with other emerging technologies like Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, cloud technology can offer an array of benefits to a variety of organizations, including pharmaceutical companies. In fact, the worth of the healthcare cloud market is forecast to hit $35 billion by 2022.
Read on to find out three primary ways pharma firms are taking advantage of the cloud.
(1) Data Management
In the face of technological advancements, changing regulatory environments, and shifting healthcare consumer demands, the pharma industry is fast-evolving in both challenging and promising ways. Mobile, AI, supercomputing, and the internet of things (IoT) enable pharma companies to gather more information than ever before for analysis.
As the importance of centralized and easily accessible data has become apparent, many pharma companies have stockpiled oodles of it with the aim that the value will be realized later. Some have added new software, systems, and devices while others are dealing with digital migration, mergers, and integrations.
Inevitably, almost all pharma companies have ended up with complex data infrastructures. And with swaths of data being handled across the entire pharma supply chain, it can be tricky to manage it effectively and securely. That's where cloud technology comes into play. Pharma companies that can leverage the cloud to collect, secure, and access this data will gain added competitive edge.
Implementing cloud technology means these companies can enhance the quality of data to provide more efficient ways for drug development and clinical trials, as well as support their sales and marketing efforts. The cloud also makes it easier for pharma firms to merge vital information from different computer applications without running into issues that invariably arise during data aggregation or systems integration.
More importantly, cloud computing helps streamline and bolster their ability to not only aggregate information but also share it across a wider geographical divide. As such, this encourages productive collaboration with authorized third-parties like contract research organizations, vendors, and more.
Because of the demonstratively sensitive nature of data held by pharma companies, the key focus of their data management plans revolves around security and privacy protection. With the HIPPAA Journal predicting that the cost of healthcare data breaches will zoom past $4 billion by the close of 2020, this is a real concern for the pharma industry, and fortunately, this is one area in which the cloud has proven tremendously beneficial.
The bottom line is that the cloud is being used by pharma firms for end-to-end data management. In this way, they can ensure regulatory compliance, tight data security, and streamlined workflows across all workloads and applications.
(2) Research
The cloud plays a massive role in fostering collaboration among different teams across different locations. Pharmaceutical research is not only resource-heavy but also highly collaborative. Cloud technologies can help streamline workflow and increase pharma companies' capacity to gather data and make it accessible across the spectrum.
The cloud is even more critical when it comes to computational drug research and development. Pharmaceutical companies leverage a combination of big data, cloud computing, and AI to make the drug research and development process more cost-effective, more collaborative, and faster. That's why companies like Johnson & Johnson have moved boldly to the cloud.
Real-time intelligence is another vital aspect of the cloud that helps companies in the pharmaceutical industry design better strategies. By combining existing data from past research initiatives and clinical trials with critical information the company has real-time access to, pharma can get insights into trends worthy of research. More crucially, insights provided by cloud computing can be priceless to drug development teams, offering real-time and actionable intelligence into market trends, research shifts, and changes in regulatory requirements.
Pharmaceutical research has always been hampered by siloed data. The cloud has proven effective in breaking down data silos, greatly reducing the complexity of drug research and clinical trials. Technically speaking, increasingly pervasive adoption of cloud technology has encouraged more pharma companies to open their data silos and work together on innovation and data analysis.
Thanks to the cloud's agility and scalability, it has the potential to reduce pharma clinical research costs, as well as streamline the research and development process, all while making it possible for companies to grow and adapt as consumer demands evolve. As for clinical trials, cloud technologies increase patient data security, minimize trial dropouts, and thereby accelerate drug development. This helps pharma researchers collaborate at a global scale while aggregating clinical data and analyzing it at a granular level.
(3) Product Quality
Pharma companies must not only stay on top of their clinical research and drug development but must also monitor their products at every point down the supply chain. To better accomplish this, the vast majority of pharmaceutical firms use cloud-based monitoring systems to ensure widespread data visibility pertaining to sensitive products.
These monitoring systems are incredibly critical in situations such as warehouses or supply chain transport where the temperature could impact product safety and quality. In certain situations, cloud-based data loggers serve as a key tool in the environmental monitoring process.
Using cloud-based environmental monitoring, pharma companies can proactively monitor their sensitive products, manufacturing environments, storage zones, and much more. Dickson, for example, offers centralized cloud-based monitoring systems that can track data loggers across multiple facilities or even countries.
Conclusion
Until recently, the pharma industry used data silos that made collecting, storing, and analyzing data an inefficient and cumbersome process. With mergers commonplace, increasing drug development and system integrations can become painfully expensive and complex. That's why pharma companies have embraced cloud technologies to improve data management, as well as streamline clinical research, cut timeframes, and ensure product quality down the entire supply chain.
