Healthcare technology has never been more important than it is today. As the world faces a collective, albeit forced, digital transformation in response to COVID-19, healthcare IT has become the backbone of a society that relies on telemedicine. VMware SD-WAN™ by VeloCloud® is leading the charge in healthcare network solutions.
How Healthcare Technology Supports Our World Today
SD-WAN is currently being used in these healthcare-related use cases:
Telehealth/Telemedicine
Telehealth, using video to virtually connect patients and healthcare workers to prevent unnecessary physical contact, leverages cloud applications to deliver access to EMRs and the sharing of high-resolution medical images. Unified communications (UC) applications require a high level of reliable bandwidth, which is what SD-WAN can provide. Implementing a VMware SD-WAN Edge in the home enables automatic prioritization of business traffic over that of other users in the home. As broadband ISP networks become more congested with the explosion of traffic, the VMware SD-WAN patented Dynamic Multipath Optimization (DMPO) technology can help remediate poor link conditions for a more reliable experience, even when the home user only has one link or connection coming into the home.
Pop-up Test Clinics
COVID-19 testing is complex as healthcare workers try to limit potential virus carriers from congregating in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices. Pop-up facilities require connectivity to the cloud in order to access patient records. However, there is not often convenient connectivity near these tent locations. By using VMware SD-WAN, healthcare workers can use an LTE-enabled SD-WAN appliance to connect to the Internet and gain reliable and secure access to the cloud and hospital data centers. An additional LTE device can be added for additional bandwidth or redundancy and SD-WAN will automatically load balance the traffic between the two links.
Healthcare Call Center Agents Working from Home
Healthcare organizations often employ call centers to field calls from patients, direct them to the right care department, and handle insurance claims. This becomes especially important as healthcare facilities try to keep the number of people in the waiting room down and organized by urgency. As work from home becomes the mandate, call center employees must also shift their workspace to their residences. By using VMware SD-WAN at home, agents are able to utilize reliable VOIP, UCaaS, collaboration applications, and SaaS access using their existing broadband links.
Pre- or Post-Treatment Payment
Healthcare offices and clinics often require patients to render payment at the time care is provided. This highly sensitive data be segmented from regular office traffic, and must also adhere to PCI DSS Compliance regulations. VMware SD-WAN allows for the speed, routing, and protection of this data in order to meet these requirements.
A Solution That Empowers Healthcare
With outdated IT infrastructure and limited IT staff, meeting regulations and providing quality healthcare to a population that relies on healthcare services done rapidly–and sometimes virtually–can be difficult. VMware SD-WAN is the flexible and scalable networking solution that addresses these challenges. Using VMware SD-WAN, healthcare organizations can deploy a secure network that eliminates business-impacting network outages and ensures high-quality application performance, while complying with healthcare security regulations.
