Cloud Hosting

The cloud's vast computing power is making it easier and less expensive for companies and clinicians to discover new drugs and medical treatments. Analyzing data that used to take years and tens of millions of dollars can now be done for a fraction of that amount.

Most of us know Amazon as the world's largest online retailer. But its cloud computing business is booming too.

Companies can rent massive computer resources by the hour, and the cost is relatively little. The ability to analyze vast amounts of data in this way is changing lots of industries including health care.

Dr. Michael Cunningham is doing rounds at Seattle Children's Hospital. As medical director of the hospital's Craniofacial Center, he sees young patients whose skulls have fused prematurely.

"The biggest obvious consequence of having craniosynostosis is that your head shape gets very abnormal and it increases the pressure inside the skull, having potential to damage the brain," Cunningham says.

The disease seems to be caused by an abnormality in the way bone cells communicate, but Cunningham wanted much more information. And researchers, working with a huge amount of data stored in the cloud, were able to identify patients whose cells looked similar.

"It's the first thing that's ever been found that really gives us a clue as to where to look in terms of underlying cause," Cunningham says.

That should help in coming up with better treatments.

Aided by cloud computing, researchers crunched, analyzed and sequenced massive amounts of information something Cunningham could not have done on his own. It would have been far too expensive and taken too long.

Work like this is going on at Google, Microsoft and other places too, but Amazon is the leader.

More here:

Cloud Computing Saves Health Care Industry Time And Money