Call for Chapters: Cloud Computing Applications for Quality Health Care Delivery
Editors
Dr. Anastasius Moumtzoglou (“P. & A. Kyriakou” Children’s Hospital, President of the Hellenic Society for Quality & Safety in Healthcare, Greece);
Dr. Anastasia Kastania (Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece)
Proposals Submission Deadline: May 30, 2013
Full Chapters Due: August 30, 2013
Submission Date: November 30, 2013
For release in the Advances in Medical Technologies and Clinical Practice (AMTCP) Book Series
The Internet, having its roots in telephony applications in the early 1990s, is often referred to as “The Cloud.” By the turn of the millennium, the Internet was referred to as broadband, and the term “in the cloud” was highly desired. Telephone utilities were investing in “The Cloud” for switching and routing the appropriate connections for phone calls, faxes, live feeds, and signals. Then, around the middle of the decade, Computational Cloud Services, called “Cloud Computing,” was firmly in the vocabulary as a way to describe what the user was doing: accessing computing services in the cloud.
At the beginning of the decade, companies began building their websites in such a way that users could utilize their services exclusively through the use of a browser. Shortly, through the use of more powerful technologies, “in the cloud” applications became commonplace. By the middle of the decade, most leading corporations with a strong Web presence had reasonable and reliable operation of their services exclusively “in the cloud.”
The “Cloud” represents a fundamental change in the use of IT services, which involves a shift from owning and managing the IT system to accessing IT systems as a service. The term Cloud Services, a distinct terminology from outsourced IT hosting, comes from the fact that the Internet has often been depicted as a “Cloud.” Cloud Services have been defined as the services that meet the following criteria:
Consumers neither own the hardware on which data processing and storage happens, nor the software that performs the data processing.
Consumers have the ability to access and use the service at any time over the Internet.
As a result, the definition of Cloud Services is twofold. The first part pertains to the ownership of the actual hardware and software that is used to perform data storage and data processing, while the second part refers to the client’s ability to access the service remotely when it needs to use it.
On the other hand, as definitions evolved, Cloud Computing denoted the influence of cloud, and implied the user experience moving away from personal computers to a “cloud” of computers. In this context, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) defined Cloud Computing as “a model for enabling ubiquitous, convenient, on-demand network access to a shared pool of configurable computing resources (e.g., networks, servers, storage, applications, and services) that can be rapidly provisioned and released with minimal management effort or service provider interaction”. This cloud model is composed of five essential characteristics, three service models, and four deployment models. Essential characteristics, according to NIST, include on-demand self-service, broad network access, resource pooling, rapid elasticity, and measured service. Service Models include Software as a Service (SaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), while deployment models include the Private cloud, the Community cloud, the Public cloud, and the Hybrid cloud.
Moreover, the research firm IDC described Cloud Computing as “an emerging IT development, deployment and distribution model, enabling real-time delivery of products, services and solutions over the Internet.” It also defined Cloud Services as “Consumer and Business products, services and solutions that are delivered and consumed in real-time over the Internet.” Finally, analyst firm Gartner defined Cloud Computing as “a model of computing in which scalable and flexible IT-enabled capabilities are delivered as a service to external customers using Internet technologies.”
As far as healthcare is concerned, the trend appears to be irreversible. Software applications and information once in the realm of a local computer or a local server are now in the sphere of the public Internet. Private health information once confined to local networks is migrating onto the Internet. Patients voluntarily grant access to their health records, while the collection and management of this data is entirely legal. Microsoft and Google are two notable examples of companies following the accelerating likelihood of placing, once restricted and private health records, “in the cloud.” Their initiatives hold the attention timing and force convergence of events if we consider the “Transforming Healthcare Through IT” and “Enabling Healthcare Reform Using Information Technology” initiatives.
Objective of the Book
The book will provide an overview of cloud technologies that might affect quality in healthcare. The proposed book intends to provide a compendium of terms, definitions, and explanations of concepts, processes, and acronyms. Additionally, it will present chapters (each chapter consisting of 7,000-10,000 words) authored by leading experts, offering an in-depth description of key terms and concepts related to the demystification of healthcare quality in the Cloud.
Target Audience
The prospective audience includes undergraduate and extended degree programs students, graduate students of health care quality and health services management, executive education and continuing education, health care managers and health professionals.
Recommended topics include, but are not limited to, the following:
Healthcare Cloud computing and Web Services
Definition, features and types of cloud services in healthcare
Adoption of cloud services and quality in healthcare
Benefits and drawbacks of cloud services in healthcare
Cloud technologies and quality in healthcare
Cloud-based systems for healthcare information technology and quality in healthcare
Cloud Perspective for HIPAA and HITECH
Interoperability
Privacy in Healthcare Cloud Computing
High Performance Computing in the Healthcare Cloud
Information Assurance and Security in Cloud Computing
Characteristics of Cloud-based Healthcare Organisations Cloud-based EMRs and quality in healthcare
Cloud-based medical practice management applications and quality in healthcare
Cloud-based patient portals and quality in healthcare
Cloud-based ePrescription systems and quality in healthcare
Cloud-based Laboratory solutions and quality in healthcare
Mobile Cloud Computing and quality in healthcare
Mobile Multimedia-Cloud Computing
Cloud healthcare simulation
Autonomic Clouds in Healthcare
Submission Procedure
Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit on or before May 30, 2013, a 2-3 page chapter proposal clearly explaining the mission and concerns of his or her proposed chapter. Authors of accepted proposals will be notified by June 15, 2013 about the status of their proposals and sent chapter guidelines. Full chapters are expected to be submitted by August 30, 2013. All submitted chapters will be reviewed on a double-blind review basis. Contributors may also be requested to serve as reviewers for this project.
Publisher
This book is scheduled to be published by IGI Global (formerly Idea Group Inc.), publisher of the “Information Science Reference” (formerly Idea Group Reference), “Medical Information Science Reference” and “IGI Publishing” imprints. For additional information regarding the publisher, please visit www.igi-global.com. This publication is anticipated to be released in 2014.
Important Dates:
May 30, 2013: Proposal Submission Deadline
June 15, 2013: Notification of Acceptance
August 30, 2013: Full Chapter Submission
October 30, 2013: Review Results Returned
November 30, 2013: Final Chapter Submission
February 15, 2014: Final deadline
Editorial Advisory Board
Vahe A. Kazandjian, Johns Hopkins University, USA
Dimitris Koutsouris, National Technical University of Athens, Greece
Athina Lazakidou, University of Peloponnese, Greece
Ales Bourek, Masaryk University, Czech Republic
Kathleen Abrahamson, Purdue University, USA
George Bohoris, University of Piraeus, Greece
Inquiries and submissions can be forwarded electronically (Word document):
Dr. Anastasius Moumtzoglou
“P. & A. Kyriakou” Children’s Hospital
Thivon & Levadias, 11527 Athens, Greece
Tel.: +302132009822 • GSM: +306974558870
E-mail: anas1@hol.gr
Dr. Anastasia Kastania
Athens University of Economis and Business
Patission 76 Str, 10434 Athens, Greece
Tel: +30-210-8203158, Fax: +30-210-8203157, GSM: +306944546208
E-mail: ank@aueb.gr
