Pharmaceutical cloud computing makes medical collaboration easier

Cloud computing is a technology that allows us access to near-unlimited storage and computation over the internet. Cloud computing is relatively new, introduced commercially only in the early 2000s. Yet, in this short time, it has played a vital role in reforming significant industries, most notably the automotive, financial, and education sectors. 

Even though cloud computing has had innumerable successes, one industry that has yet to adopt cloud computing is the pharmaceutical industry, mainly attributed to strict protocols and compliance regulations within the industry. Nonetheless, there are countless ways a pharmaceutical company can leverage the benefits of the cloud. 

Accelerated Drug Discovery Process

Traditionally, researching and developing new drugs would take years to complete. According to Dickson, leveraging cloud computing can help reduce the ‘time-to-market’ for potentially lifesaving drugs by giving researchers access to near-unlimited storage and computing resources. Access to near-unlimited storage and computing data means that pharmaceutical companies can safely store all their patient data, lab reports, and imaging data at scale and have it served up instantly as and when required. 

Researchers can also run their compute-intensive software and workloads on a large amount of data with relative ease since there is virtually no restriction on the computing power available. These benefits save time and reduce expenditure through every stage of the R&D cycle. In addition, it allows companies to focus more on drug discovery itself rather than the procurement and management of the infrastructure required.

Enhanced AI/ML Insights

In recent years, adopting Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning technologies into a company’s practices has become almost a no-brainer.  AI/ML products accelerated by cloud computing have myriad opportunities for pharmaceutical companies. By leveraging AI/ML services, companies can make better, more informed decisions, increasing their revenue while reducing operational costs and making them more efficient.

Cutting-edge AI/ML techniques like Market Basket Analysis & Disease Spread Prediction can gain insights and an edge over their competitors. However, a rule of thumb for AI/ML has always been that collecting more data increases your accuracy, and this is where the computing aspect comes into play. Cloud computing gives AI/ML solutions a platform, providing them with the high computing power and storage requirements needed, making integrating AI/ML solutions more commercially viable and easier to manage for pharmaceutical companies. Thus, cloud computing helps pharmaceutical companies make the best use of AI/ML while keeping management costs and overheads to a minimum.

Enhanced Collaboration

The recent pandemic showed us the accurate global scale of the pharmaceutical operation. Efficient development and testing of drugs/vaccines entail international collaboration between partner companies, independent research labs, federal agencies, local offices, and hospitals. Therefore, leveraging cloud computing to fill in the gaps and streamline the entire end-to-end process right from R&D to testing, distribution & management for seamless collaboration. Cloud computing can provide a common platform that can improve productivity by enhancing cooperation between all the key stakeholders while also ensuring data security and the ability to scale up as and when needed. Thus, cloud computing enables pharmaceutical companies and other key stakeholders to collaborate quickly, efficiently, and securely.

Enhanced Health Monitoring & Data Collection 

IoT (Internet of things) is a technology that has revolutionized the way we monitor our health. Wearables powered by IoT constantly monitor a person’s health and send valuable data to pharmaceutical companies. Although the process of health monitoring has become much more accessible, storing that data and deriving knowledge from it has become arduous due to the sheer volume and velocity of data generated from these devices. 

Cloud computing providers offer many services tailor-made to handle the high volume and velocity of data generated by IoT devices, enabling us to manage and store the data efficiently. It also allows us to perform real-time analytics on the data to gather quick insights or actionable information, which helps companies make time-sensitive decisions. Therefore, creating processes like clinical trials, test subject monitoring, and emergency healthcare is more efficient and robust. Hence, IoT underpinned by Cloud computing has proven to be a game changer in health monitoring and data collection. 

Improved Marketing Operations

A company continually seeks to improve its market share while reducing costs, thus minimizing the risks it faces, which is no different in the pharmaceutical sector. Pharmaceutical companies are constantly trying to breach new global markets and gain a standing, which is only possible through good marketing. 

Pharmaceutical companies are investing more and more in cloud computing to boost their global marketing operations. Leveraging cloud computing allows the marketing divisions to function more efficiently, enhances collaboration between marketers, and gives them access to tons of data pertinent to making sound marketing decisions. Implementing cloud computing also maximizes the marketing division’s cost efficiency, saving pharmaceutical companies millions that could improve other divisions. Therefore, showing how beneficial a marketing division powered by cloud computing could be to a pharmaceutical company.

Cloud computing and other IT solutions are vital to the healthcare and medical industry. Not only does cloud computing future-proof your infrastructure, but it also keeps you updated in terms of technology. In the last few years, we have seen the entry of Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning, Big Data Analytics, IoT, etc., into the medical & life sciences field. Cloud Computing integrates with all these technologies, ensuring you are always at the forefront of technology. Furthermore, it does all this while ensuring you get the best in security, connectivity, and speed. 

To conclude, cloud computing as a tool offers an unbeatable value proposition that is too good to ignore. Pharmaceutical companies increasingly realize the benefits cloud computing offers and are slowly migrating to the cloud.