3 Healthcare IT Leaders Reflect on Their Cloud Journeys So Far

HEALTHTECH: Can you bring us up to date on your organization’s use of the cloud today? Where does cloud adoption stand on your list of technology priorities?

ARCHULETA: Cloud adoption has progressed from a priority to a core enabler of our operational strategy at Mt. San Rafael. We view the cloud not as an optional add-on but as an integrated foundation for agile, secure and data-driven healthcare. It has allowed us to optimize resource management and deliver rapid scalability across critical applications, and it supports our vision of transforming healthcare IT into a dynamic, adaptive digital environment, ensuring our systems are ready for both present demands and future growth.

PANAGIOTOPOULOS: If there was a way I could put everything in the cloud and manage my costs, I would seriously consider that, but we know that’s not the reality today. We’re continuing to move to the cloud when doing so fits our business needs, but ultimately, any solution has to meet our standards, and it has to perform well.

KAPLAREVIC: We were a solid cloud user two years ago, and we’re even more so today. Pretty much every aspect of our cloud footprint grew significantly over the past 24 months. The major difference between now and then is the people we’ve brought onboard who have the means to utilize cloud technology. We have much better informational services support, and we’ve ramped up IT security. We also have a new office that’s in charge of enterprise applications, and we have another group that’s focused on data analytics and generative artificial intelligence.

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HEALTHTECH: How are your cloud initiatives helping your organization achieve its mission?

ARCHULETA: Our Nutanix HCI deployment has centralized our data resources, making them accessible and flexible. We can virtualize key functions such as patient data access, clinical analytics and secure collaboration. This consolidation has helped reduce infrastructure complexity, minimize hardware dependency and optimize application uptime. Nutanix Cloud Enterprise integrated within this environment empowers our team to orchestrate workloads with precision, whether for on-premises operations or extending into a hybrid cloud model. As a result, our clinicians can access data instantly, elevating patient care and ensuring continuity across care settings.

PANAGIOTOPOULOS: One example is our use of Palantir, which leverages Amazon Web Services to analyze our data and improve our workflows. We’re also completely in Office 365 and Microsoft Azure, and we’re using a cloud solution for our telehealth services, which have expanded significantly over the past couple of years.

KAPLAREVIC: For our domain, which is pediatric healthcare and clinical research, the integration of cloud-based technologies holds the promise of more accessible, efficient and personalized care for children. We’re lucky to have AWS as a strategic partner, and we recently received an investment of $1 million from them to support a number of research initiatives. We’re also partnering with Microsoft Azure for our administrative functions. Overall, the cloud has allowed us to make phenomenal progress in terms of our capabilities.

HEALTHTECH: Can you describe your cloud strategy and your approach to adopting new cloud-based technologies?

ARCHULETA: Our cloud strategy is intentional and built on a few key pillars: cybersecurity, efficiency and scalability. With Nutanix as a backbone, we approach each new cloud solution with a focus on interoperability, data protection and cost-efficiency. The decision to adopt new technology is guided by its ability to enhance patient care, increase workforce productivity and streamline operations. Most importantly, we look for solutions that align with our hyper-converged setup to drive operational consistency and reduce the risk of disruption as we expand our capabilities.

PANAGIOTOPOULOS: We started out around 10 years ago when we moved our Cerner platform to their private cloud. Today, we try to find a balance between the costs of any cloud solution and the business case for adoption. We want to position ourselves to be nimble and flexible, and that’s led us to a hybrid cloud strategy. In some cases, such as with Microsoft Azure, we partner with enterprise vendors, but we also have instances where we’re self-managing in the cloud, and we have our own internal LifeBridge Cloud.

KAPLAREVIC: The biggest thing for us is our team of experts, who make sure that any new solution is something that will help us as a pediatric healthcare and clinical research organization. With cloud adoption, you have to remember that IT security and patient safety are critical. You can’t just look at how something is going to improve your efficiency.

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HEALTHTECH: How has cloud adoption set your organization up for leveraging new and emerging technologies?

ARCHULETA: Our cloud-first approach has created a robust framework that enables us to adopt and integrate new technologies such as AI with ease. We’re leveraging AI to drive predictive analytics, optimize treatment pathways and even assist in clinical decision-making. This is possible because of the flexibility and high-performance capabilities of our virtualized environment, which allows for seamless integration and scalability of data-intensive AI applications. The cloud gives us the adaptability to deploy advanced technologies without interrupting ongoing operations.

PANAGIOTOPOULOS: When the COVID-19 pandemic hit, we’d already rolled out our cloud-based telehealth solution to all of our providers, but we were using it primarily internally for videoconferencing between clinicians at different facilities. That obviously put us in a very good position when, all of a sudden, we were seeing 5,000 to 10,000 patients via telehealth each month. When it comes to AI, it’s kind of the Wild West out there now, so we’re taking a very slow and methodical approach to evaluating vendors and their products. They have to prove to us that they can take our data and put it in their cloud and give us the benefits that we’re looking for. One success we’ve had in that regard is Aidoc, a cloud solution that reviews and prioritizes radiology images for our clinicians.

KAPLAREVIC: We recently engaged with the Azure team to go through four use cases that we identified as very good candidates for generative AI. We had a workshop and developed several prototypes as a proof of concept. Some of these tools are administrative, but others are directly related to patient care: diagnostics, reporting, data analysis and so on. We’re also conducting generative AI exercises and prototype building in AWS. For example, we’re using the cloud and AI to develop a “smart” FAQ page that is part of our internal research website, where people can very easily and quickly obtain any information that pertains to their computational or administrative needs. It replaces hours of work they’d typically spend browsing through documents and files. When you think about the impact of having such a tool at your fingertips, it’s absolutely mind-blowing.

HEALTHTECH: Is there anything else about your cloud journey that you want to share with our readers?

ARCHULETA: At the end of the day, hospitals are digital companies that deliver healthcare services. For just about anything we’re trying to accomplish, it makes sense for us to move away from the data center business and into a cloud-based model.

PANAGIOTOPOULOS: To anyone who’s considering the cloud, my advice would be to take small, incremental steps. Work with trusted partners and consider taking a hybrid approach so you don’t put all of your eggs in one basket.

KAPLAREVIC: With the cloud and generative AI working together, I think that we’re witnessing a technological breakthrough that will have an absolutely unbelievable impact on healthcare. Patient outcomes, patient safety, IT security, data storage and analysis — every aspect of clinical care and research is about to be fundamentally transformed.