Managing viable and compliant cloud environment for regulated industries in Switzerland - Use Case for Healthcare

Abstract

It is assumed that key questions regarding the implementation of solutions that process patients data in the Cloud are still not answered. But at the same time, the need to integrate new IT services to the Hospital's processes grows continuously because of the lack of IT-HR resources for the analysis and implementation of IT processes in time and quality. IT services and IT processes while related, are not interchangeable terms. IT processes provide a framework for how technology should be used within an organization, while IT services are the speciu001cc solutions and technologies that are used to help the hospitals to achieve desired outcomes. This Master Thesis researches the conditions that a cloud service needs to fulu001cl from an IT Management perspective, regarding data security, compliance and IT governance under which the management of a regulated environment like a hospital can decide to adopt cloud services. And it also questions if cloud services are adequate for hospitals information systems. The methodology to u001cnd the answers comprises two parts. First, a selection of academic papers about cloud services and relevant regulations for healthcare has been consulted and reviewed. In a second step interviews with stakeholders that contribute to my research questions will be performed, to get to know the solutions hospitals are already applying and their considerations regarding cloud services.