Title

AWS re:Invent 2023 - Reimagining healthcare delivery by migrating critical workloads to AWS (HLC202)

Summary

• Angela Shippey, a Senior Physician Executive and Clinical Innovation Lead, and Dan Bennett, CTO of Geisinger Health, discuss the migration of healthcare workloads to AWS.
• AWS has a dedicated practice to healthcare and life sciences, with a team of industry experts.
• Healthcare organizations face challenges such as decreasing margins, workforce demands, and consumer expectations for better health experiences.
• AWS offers purpose-built services like AWS Health Omics, HealthLake, health imaging, and HealthScribe to address these challenges.
• Generative AI (Gen AI) can be used in medical research, clinical efficiency, operational efficiency, and patient experience.
• Upskilling the workforce for cloud understanding is crucial, with AWS offering over 600 online courses and certifications.
• Geisinger's cloud transformation journey involved doubling down on transformation during COVID-19, focusing on supply chains, diminishing payments, and loss of margins.
• Geisinger's IT operating model was restructured, and application rationalization was conducted to modernize infrastructure and application portfolios.
• The migration of Geisinger's electronic health record (EHR) to AWS resulted in performance improvements and cost savings.
• Geisinger utilized a mix of AWS native services and existing technologies to support their architecture.
• Lessons learned include promoting automation, driving enterprise standardization, and investing in organizational change management.
• The presentation concludes with advice on getting started with cloud migration, including strategic goal alignment, planning, and upskilling the workforce.

Insights

• AWS's commitment to healthcare is evident through its specialized services and dedicated team, highlighting the importance of industry-specific solutions in cloud computing.
• The healthcare industry is increasingly looking to cloud services to address financial pressures, workforce optimization, and consumer demands, indicating a shift towards digital transformation in healthcare.
• The use of Gen AI in healthcare suggests a growing trend of AI applications in improving efficiency, personalizing patient care, and advancing medical research.
• Geisinger Health's successful cloud migration showcases the potential benefits of cloud adoption in healthcare, such as improved performance, cost savings, and agility.
• The emphasis on upskilling and training across all levels of an organization, not just IT, underscores the importance of a comprehensive approach to digital transformation.
• The presentation highlights the need for careful planning and consideration of organizational readiness when undertaking large-scale IT projects, such as cloud migrations.
• The blend of AWS native services with existing technologies in Geisinger's approach suggests a pragmatic strategy for cloud adoption, leveraging the strengths of both cloud and on-premises solutions.
• The focus on organizational change management as a key lesson learned points to the significance of cultural and process changes in successful IT transformations.