Jerry Fahrni

Software as a service (SaaS) has recently been popping up in healthcare related news, from Fujitsu’s SaaS solution for drug trials to the host of web-based applications from Pharmacy OnceSource.

SaaS is different than the traditional enterprise software model because the provider of the software licenses it to the customer as an on-demand service. The vendor often times hosts the software on their own servers where data is manipulated and returned to the customer for viewing. It’s kind of like renting software.

The beauty of SaaS applications like those from Pharmacy OneSource are that they can be viewed from any device with a web-enabled browser; Mac, PC, smartphone, etc. In addition, the application is owned, delivered, maintained and managed by the provider, limiting the burden on the customer. A by-product of this model is that delivery of the application over the web ensures that the software is always up to date.

The SaaS model appears to be popular in the “business” world at present, but is increasing in popularity in healthcare secondary to its simplified deployment and reduced cost. With advances in cloud computing strategy, better data storage models and faster internet connections I think it’s only a matter of time before we start to see more SaaS solutions in pharmacy practice. And why shouldn’t we? By their very nature SaaS applications lend themselves to use on mobile devices like the tablet PC and iPad, which in turn offers greater flexibility for pharmacists practicing at the bedside. Just a thought.

InformationWeek: “The pilot program has already shown the way toward more consistency in environmental reporting and given the Army baseline data for forecasting, but Davis is looking for more, especially in the way of greenhouse gasses. “As we begin to understand and appreciate the benefits of this information technology, we can calculate our greenhouse gas emissions and ultimately our carbon boot print,” he said. “I want something we can audit later on, something that’s not just a back of an envelope calculation.” The Army’s choice of multi-tenant SaaS for its pilot is notable, as the military has been reluctant to use Web-based systems in other cases, especially with operational data such as on-installation emissions. “The reaction of some of our customers is, ‘Oh my gosh, on the Internet?’ ” John Garing, director of strategic planning at the Defense Information Systems Agency, said in an interview earlier this year.” – You know you’re behind the times when the US military is outpacing you in non-weapons related technology. Doh!

ByteandSwitch: “Every week or so one major internet service or another goes down for a moment, Amazon S3, Google Apps, Twitter etc… Let’s face it, if you store data in the cloud there are a hundred variables between you and your data and if any one of those variables decides to, well, be variable, then you may not be able to get to your data for a period of time. This does not mean that you can’t use the cloud, it means that you can’t put data that you are going to need immediate access to solely in the cloud.  What this does mean is using a hybrid model for cloud storage. As we demonstrate in our latest video “What is Hybrid Cloud Storage?” a hybrid cloud is an appliance that is placed on the customer’s site to act as a intermediary storage location for data that is in route to the cloud. The appliance serves many purposes: translation from CIFS/NFS to more internet friendly protocols, local cache for rapid restores of last copy of a backup or archive and as a place to get to data that would otherwise be inaccessible due to some sort of connection issue.”

– This actually makes perfect sense to me. One issue that often comes up when discussing a cloud environment, besides access to data, is speed. We have started using thin clients here at the hospital in place of desktop machines, and there is little doubt that performance has suffered. With the option discussed in the article above, data would move quickly between you and the local environment while in use, but slowly moved into the cloud in the background. I like it.