Microsoft Azure public cloud will soon host the records of millions of patients from one of the largest NHS (National Health Service) Trusts in the United Kingdom, as part of the Trust's attempt to strengthen its current IT infrastructure.
ComputerWeekly reports that the Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust is specifically migrating the Electronic Health Records of their patients to Azure. Considering that they help treat around 1.5 million patients every year in the West Yorkshire region of the U.K., this is a massive deal.
All of these EHRs contain very sensitive patient data: chronological medical histories, medications, past diagnoses, as well as treatment plans and allergies, to name a few.
Leeds keeps these records updated in real-time, making it hard to store due to its immense size. The Trust mentioned that their records have grown from a mere 25,000 to over 1.5 million per month, which is just way too big for the organization's current IT infrastructure to handle.
Furthermore, the data must also be kept accessible 24/7, which is critical to the Trust's healthcare professionals looking to administer timely, effective treatment.
As such, they had to decide to outsource hosting the EHRs, which is where Microsoft Azure came into play. They might have done so at the right time, too, considering how healthcare cybersecurity has been under attack in recent times.
There were multiple healthcare cybersecurity breaches recorded last year, some of which were considered the biggest hacks ever.
HealthcareITNews lists a few examples, like the Florida Health Kids Corporation hack, which affected roughly 3.5 million people. There were fears that the critical personal information of these people was accessed, which includes names, addresses, birth dates, financial information, and even Social Security numbers.
With this move to Azure, the Leeds Trust likely made an excellent decision.
Read also: Healthcare Faces the Wrath of Ransomware Hackers: Is it Worse Than the Pandemic?
Is A Move To Microsoft Azure Wise?
Quite simply, yes. This is due to a recent circumstance that basically proves the might of Microsoft's cybersecurity infrastructure and how other healthcare institutions have already tapped their services in the past.
Microsoft Azure DDoS Attack
You might not know it, but Microsoft may have just thwarted perhaps the largest DDoS attack of all time: a 3.47 Tbps DDoS hack perpetrated by hackers who were targeting Azure customers in Asia.
The Big Tech giant's DDoS attack came from 10,000 different sources located in multiple countries (via ArsTechnica). This includes Taiwan, India, China, South Korea, Thailand, Indonesia, Iran, Vietnam, Russia, and the United States. The attack itself dwarfs almost any that came before it, including the 2.54 Tbps hack that Google stopped five years ago.
If Microsoft is able to fend off an attack of this scale, no wonder why other healthcare institutions have put their trust on them.
CVS Pharmacy partnered with the tech giant to further digitize their processes and deliver their customers' healthcare needs faster and more efficiently.
It could be safe to say that the Leeds Trust, especially its critical patient records, is in good hands.
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by RJ Pierce
