Empowering Healthcare: Enabling Data Interoperability & Accessibility

Business Opportunity

Enabling Healthcare Access

The client is a regional tech-enabled, omnichannel healthcare company, on a mission to make healthcare simple, accessible, and efficient for everyone.The client’s digital platform bridges gaps in the healthcare ecosystem through technology and innovation, enabling users to manage their health easily and effectively through the DA mobile app. Headquartered in Singapore and with a presence in six countries across the region, the client now serves more than 2.5 million (and growing) users across Southeast Asia.

We joined the client in their pursuit to simplify healthcare access by creating a proof-of-concept cloud-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) on the Google Cloud Healthcare API. The solution includes consolidating patient data into a GCP data lake, democratizing data access, and expediting diagnosis and treatment across the client’s clinics and applications. Data in FHIR and DICOM formats ensures interoperability, allowing seamless access for applications and quick, informed decision-making by doctors. Additionally, connecting the Philips PACs system to GCP via the Cloud Health system eliminated the need for physical backups and reduced operational workload by automating record maintenance.

Technical Challenge

• The client wanted to establish a secure and scalable cloud infrastructure to support their healthcare operations in the form of a Landing Zone on GCP.
• They required a seamless integration between on-premises PACS and the cloud environment for the bi-directional transfer of medical images in the DICOM format.
• Exporting medical imaging data to different platforms for further analysis and usage such as making the data available on BigQuery and GCS for storage and analysis.

Our Solution

We developed a proof-of-concept cloud-based Electronic Health Record (EHR) on the Google Cloud Healthcare API. This EHR consolidates patient data, including medical images, into a GCP data lake, eliminating the need for physical reports and enhancing the patient experience. It unifies patient data across all encounters, virtual or in-person, allowing the client to manage all aspects of patient health.

Clinics across the client’s ecosystem can now connect to this data lake, democratizing data access and expediting diagnosis and treatment. Data is consolidated in FHIR and DICOM formats for consistency and interoperability, enabling quick access for informed decision-making.

Additionally, the Philips PACS System, used by client clinics, is connected to GCP via Cloud Health, facilitating seamless data transfer to the data lake. This eliminated the need for physical backups, reducing data loss risk and operational workload by automating record maintenance.

Our multi-phased approach ensured smooth operation and optimal performance, delivering significant business benefits. We established a secure IPsec VPN connection to the VPC network to safely transfer sensitive DICOM images, ensuring data integrity and compliance with healthcare regulations.

Applications were deployed on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) for the DICOM and FHIR/HL7 Adapter, leveraging GKE’s auto-scaling, self-healing, and management capabilities for high availability and reliability. REST API communications were secured with HTTPS to protect data in transit, safeguarding patient information and ensuring regulatory compliance.

We used Apigee to expose Cloud Healthcare FHIR APIs, enabling secure, compliant data sharing across systems, which is critical for enhancing patient care and operational workflows.

The solution included – 

• Setting up a comprehensive Landing Zone in Google Cloud Platform (GCP). 
• Deploying a DICOM Adapter within the Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) to facilitate this transfer, ensuring smooth and efficient data exchange 
• Utilizing Google Cloud Healthcare APIs for storing the data in the DICOM Datastore 
• Configuring the system to facilitate data export to Google BigQuery and Google Cloud Storage
• Exposing Cloud Healthcare APIs using Apigee to sync FHIR Data using OAuth based authentication

Benefits of Data Modernization with Niveus

• Promotes Data Interoperability: Cloud Healthcare API supports bulk import and export of FHIR and DICOM data, and provides a convenient API for moving data between on-premises systems and Google Cloud. This facilitates seamless data interoperability; and enables efficient and standardized data exchange, which is crucial for integrated and comprehensive patient care in the medical industry.
• Ensures Disaster Recovery: Data stored in Google Cloud acts as a backup and can be restored to on-premises systems in case of disaster. This helps to minimize downtime and data loss.
• Boosts Future-Proofing: Cloud Healthcare API offers web-native, serverless scaling optimized by Google’s infrastructure. Easy activation of the API allows immediate sending of requests without initial capacity configuration. These features future-proof the client’s infrastructure by enabling effortless scalability and adaptability to handle growing data volumes and evolving healthcare needs.
• Increased Cloud Adoption: Enables seamless scaling up or down based on demand. This facilitates increased adoption of cloud technologies, allowing the client to keep innovating on the cloud.

Results

The impact of the solution includes –

• Enhanced patient experience: Consolidated patient data, including medical images, into a GCP data lake, removing the need for physical diagnostic reports and enhancing patient experience
• Democratized data: Enabled clinics across the client ecosystem to connect to the data lake, democratizing data access and expediting diagnosis and treatment
• Consistent, interoperable data: Ensured data consistency and interoperability by consolidating data in FHIR and DICOM formats, allowing seamless access for compatible applications
• Minimized data loss: Connected Philips PACS System worldwide to GCP via the Cloud Health system, creating a pathway for data to move to the data lake, eliminating physical backups and preventing data loss
• Eliminated manual efforts: Reduced operational workload by automating record maintenance, previously requiring significant manual effort

Power of Partnership

Partnering with Niveus was crucial in implementing the client’s advanced healthcare solution on GCP. Our expertise and collaborative approach facilitated a smooth migration from their previous infrastructure to a robust cloud-based system. Niveus guided the client through complex technical challenges, ensuring a seamless integration of their Electronic Health Record (EHR) system with the Google Cloud Healthcare API. 

By leveraging our deep knowledge of cloud technologies and DevOps practices, we automated processes, optimized infrastructure, and ensured data consistency and interoperability. This partnership shows how we could enable the client to focus on delivering exceptional patient care while we managed the technical intricacies, resulting in a swift and efficient deployment.