UKCloud Health Launched

UKCloud Ltd, a cloud services company, announced a new division, UKCloud Health, which will deliver an open, collaborative and UK sovereign public cloud platform specifically to the healthcare industry, supporting health and care organisations, research and life sciences and pharmaceuticals.

The launch comes as research shows that 75% of UK adults are concerned about the protection of their personal data, including medical records, by companies and public services.*

UKCloud Health launches with 29 partners and 30 customers, including Genomics England and the Devon Partnership NHS Trust. The initial UKCloud Health launch partners are Activ8rlives, Advice Cloud, Arctick, babylon, Brisskit (Red Informatics Ltd), Capgemini Service SAS, Cinos Communications Services, Carelink, Cimar, CloudHub 360, Contract Sentinel, Digital Healthcare Management, Differentis, Docman, Egton, FujiFilm Corporation, Intec for Business, Informatica Systems, iSite, Rescon, MyLife Digital, MDS Technologies, Open Medical, Operon, PretaGov, Regify, RIVIAM Digital Care, Siemens Healthineers and Wiggly-Amps.

The new division is also supported by a dedicated advisory board of industry businesses, including Lord Paul Drayson, former Minister of State for Science and Innovation; Rachel Neaman, former Department of Health digital leader; and Cathrin Petty, European head of healthcare at CVC Capital Partners.

“To date, we’ve focused on developing a unique cloud platform exclusively to meet the needs of the UK public sector, with great success,” said Simon Hansford, CEO, UKCloud. “We’re now looking to replicate our business model with a new division exclusively focused on the healthcare sector, where cloud adoption rates are typically impeded by a host of different challenges.“

The UKCloud platform has powered more than 200 UK public sector projects to date.

As a supplier to the G-Cloud Framework and the UK Government’s Digital Marketplace, the company has cemented its position as a public sector specialist, with industry knowledge and expertise. It believes that it is time to deliver its assured, open and collaborative platform for not only the NHS, but also for private healthcare providers; biomedical companies, research institutions and pharmaceutical companies.

The interoperability of UKCloud’s Health platform provides an online community enabling open data sharing.

As Hansford explained: “Vast quantities of data are generated by research institutions and companies, and as that research moves into product or drug development, yet more data is generated through trials, for instance. Once medication, procedures or devices are approved – which produces even more data – they reach the NHS and other mainstream health providers, where more data is generated and fed back through iterative cycles to the research institutions and pharmaceutical companies. We believe that providing a central, secure, open and collaborative cloud platform, where all of this data can be stored and appropriately shared, will provide a great deal of value to the healthcare industry as a whole.“

The healthcare sector not only faces funding and efficiency gaps. An added challenge is patient trust when it comes to the security of their personal data.

Hansford added: “There is undoubtedly a significant trust issue when it comes to the public perception of the security of highly sensitive data in the cloud. We pride ourselves on offering the highest possible levels of assurance and believe the ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach offered by US headquartered generalist cloud platforms is not appropriate for specialised sectors such as healthcare, where issues of trust, privacy and interoperability are particularly important. This is evident in recent research, which reveals that 82% of British adults believe that the Government should seek permission before storing and processing personal data with non-UK businesses.” *

UKCloud works with Genomics England on the ground-breaking 100,000 genomes project, which aims to being genomic medicine into mainstream healthcare. Data security is of paramount importance to this project and UKCloud’s track record of providing UK cloud services provider with the highest possible levels of resilience and security was an important factor in Genomics England choosing to partner with them.

UKCloud Health is committed to supporting digital transformation across the healthcare sector. Together with its dedicated partners, it offers expertise regarding the sector’s core requirements, from protecting the privacy of patient identifiable data to enabling collaboration across government networks, such as N3, HSCN, Janet and PSN.

* Research conducted by ComRes for UKCloud Health; 2,044 UK adults were interviewed aged 18+ online between 26-27 April 2017.