The Greater Seattle Area IT Experts

In 2009, U.S. lawmakers mandated the use of information technology as a part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act). The Act, a part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, provides greatly-needed subsidy for healthcare organizations that work to implement IT, specifically electronic health record (EHR) technology, into their service delivery.

For the longest time, many medical administrators considered the use of IT erroneous. That explains why many medical practices just started using IT-fueled systems around a decade ago despite being readily available for the past 25 years. It’s also why it isn’t surprising that as the world around healthcare is inundated with intriguing innovations, the healthcare industry is biding its time. After all, the consequences are literally life and death, and leaving that up to any degree of automation should be handled with pause.

While many of these technologies could be viewed as a fit for the healthcare industry, one has jumped to the forefront and may just be the next big thing in care delivery: machine learning.

For those of you who aren’t familiar with the concept, machine learning is the most basic form of artificial intelligence. The concept is that digital systems, especially ones that are so involved like the EHR, create a lot of data. So much data that it would take human analysts years to compile and analyze it. With this breadth of data being produced, machine learning algorithms can take the data and analyze it. Some algorithms in use today are already performing on the level of an average human physician.

This is largely because the information being sorted is all very specific and gives these rudimentary A.I. systems the chance to provide superior care in some cases. For example, a person goes to their doctor for an ailment. Many general practitioners, while surely good care providers, don’t have the capabilities to be in the know about every medical study, every care option, and all prescription medications that could more effectively treat his/her patient. With machine learning algorithms, these systems can quickly scan new research to provide doctors an on-demand resource that would keep them in the know about important and modern findings by research scientists.

Properly diagnosing and finding treatments for patient ailments is the doctor’s job, and a resource that makes them more effective at doing their job benefits them, their practice, and the patients that depend on his/her expertise. So while the doctor is a very human job, providing them dynamic new resources in which to do their job more effectively is exciting for everyone.

Google and IBM have recognized this and are working on solutions that could change the face of healthcare sooner rather than later. IBM, using the Watson A.I., has partnered with world-class oncology center Sloan-Kettering to develop Watson for Oncology. The system will focus on amalgamating the newest and best information for the treatment of cancer, while incorporating individual patient records, family history, and other information to come up with detailed plans to aggressively treat a patient’s cancer.

It’s only a matter of time before this technology will be used in other parts of the medical field. This technology is state-of-the-art, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that it will eventually be used to help treat patients with all types of ailments. Are you excited for the future of healthcare using modern artificial intelligence systems? Leave your thoughts in the comments and check back to our blog for more great technology information.

Reading into Read-Only
Read-only is an attribute that is stored alongside the file that keeps users from doing more than just reading the contents. This attribute blocks users from changing or deleting the files, which might lead you to believe that “read-only” means that the file is extremely important.

Other files that aren’t necessarily important can also be assigned the read-only attribute. A folder could take advantage of read-only, preventing its contents from being altered unless the attribute is removed from the folder. External storage media can also use this attribute to keep others from messing around with your flash drives and SD cards. Even the CD-ROM, those relics of the past, took advantage of read-only technology (the acronym actually stands for Compact Disk Read-Only Memory), preventing users from overwriting the data stored on the disk.

Why Are Documents Marked This Way?
There are several reasons why a file or folder might be marked as read-only, but the primary one you’ll see is that these files or folders aren’t meant to be seen in the first place. These files are meant to be protected from being changed, as they are often critical files for a computer’s hardware and software. Certain files need to be in specific locations, as well as contain specific information. If the file is altered, the computer simply won’t work properly.

In essence, this functionality is programmed in so that users can’t accidentally disable their computers by deleting the wrong files. Besides, these files are more or less hidden from view anyway, meaning that users wouldn’t be able to delete them in the first place.

You can mark a file as read-only yourself as well, which you can do by accessing the properties. This could be helpful if your business wants to make a certain file available for all to see but without actually giving permissions to edit the file (like your employee handbook). What are some other uses you can think of for a read-only file? Let us know in the comments.

What Type of Cloud Is It?
If you’re trying to determine which cloud solution you’ll be implementing, the number one thing to consider is if it’s going to be a public, private, or hybrid cloud solution. Public clouds are generally hosted off-site on a third-party provider’s infrastructure, but a private cloud is more focused on hosting the service in-house on your organization’s infrastructure. A hybrid solution is typically a solution that is hosted on another organization's infrastructure, but still offers a level of control that you don’t have with the public cloud. Depending on your business’ needs, a public cloud solution might not be enough. For example, a public cloud’s storage space might be partitioned off so that only you can access your storage space, but it’s still hosted on the same infrastructure as someone else’s, which might make some organizations shy away from it. If your business would rather have its own private storage or private cloud, hosting on your own hardware is the way to go--or working with a MSP to make it happen in a hybrid environment.

What Responsibilities Does Your Business Have?
This is incredibly important to know, especially if your business isn’t the one hosting the solution. You should know what expectations there are on your end of the dealings with your cloud provider. An example of this is if you’re getting your cloud storage through a third-party provider. While they are the ones responsible for hosting it, you’re the one responsible for accessing it. This includes having workstations and an Internet connection with enough bandwidth to make full use of your new solution or service. After all, if your business is using solutions that it can’t reliably access, it’s time to reevaluate your options so that downtime isn’t ruining your bottom line.

What is Your Service Level Agreement?
Part of working with other organizations that provide goods and services to your business is communicating with them when you’re in need of assistance. Therefore, you’ll have to consider just how timely you can expect your cloud providers to be when faced with support requests. If you aren’t aware of these details, you could suffer from downtime that could have been avoided with a little more proactive thought.

Digital Seattle can help your business build out a solid cloud computing strategy. To learn more, reach out to us at (206) 709-9556.