Hartford Healthcare and Google Cloud announced a five-year partnership late Thursday at HHC’s new Pearl Street headquarters.
The partnership will allow HHC to store the health data of more than 1 million patients securely in the Google Cloud, the health system said. It will also allow for advanced analytics enabling doctors to potentially better predict patient treatments and outcomes, officials said.
Google Cloud East Region Vice President Michael Clark signed the agreement with several HHC officials during a presentation in front of more than 350 people – including HHC CEO Jeffrey Flaks, Gov. Ned Lamont and U.S. Rep. John Larson – who were in attendance for the headquarters opening.
HHC Senior Vice President and Chief Information and Digital Officer Joel Vengco said the health system will save about $4 million annually by storing patient information in the cloud. It currently costs HHC $11 million a year to store data.
The Google Cloud will have several benefits to HHC and provide easier access to care for patients, officials said.
Vengco said that for the next 12 to 14 months, HHC and Google Cloud will take the physical data of more than 1 million patients and put it into the secure cloud.
Then, in about 14 months, Vengco said, patients will be able to access their data in the cloud, giving them easier access to their own information. They will also be able to download an app to make a medical appointment, officials said.
It will also give care providers easier access to patient data.
“We will know who you are and what doctors you have been too to better serve you,” said Dr. Barry Stein, HHC chief innovation officer. “Right now, patients have to make calls to their medical provider and make appointments. It’s time-consuming and you do not always get the results you want. Data is the fuel of information.”
In addition, Stein said, “We can do advanced analytics that will allow us to predict what will happen to a patient and know the best treatment to give you. This is important because we will be able to extract insights and knowledge about a patient to predict what will happen to that patient and manage care before anything bad happens.”
Google Cloud’s Clark said: “Frequently, the information healthcare leaders and administrators need is siloed and isn’t easy to access. It may be buried deep in the patient record or spread across IT systems that don’t speak to each other. … By using Google Cloud’s infrastructure and intelligent data platform, they will be able to increase access to care, give clinicians insights that can help them better care for patients, and they’ll have insights that can help prevent or predict diseases.”
According to the website Statista, Google Cloud generated revenues of $19 billion in 2021, which represents about 7% of Google’s total revenues.
Google Cloud said customers in more than 200 countries use the platform.
