Optum takes health care to the cloud
21.05.12
UnitedHealth Group's health services division, Optum, hopes to do for the complex and fragmented health care system what Apple has done for all manner of information that consumers need.
The idea is to get health care data out of scattered hospitals, doctors' offices and insurance claims departments and move it to the cloud, an Internet-based platform that would let doctors and patients get access to all the information they need through one website.
The bold business strategy is expected to be announced Tuesday, when the Eden Prairie-based company launches a secure, cloud-based environment that will offer access to its 700 technology-based products.
"We think we can make technology less visible and therefore bring simplicity to a very complicated world," said Andy Slavitt, Optum's executive group VP, who is leading the initiative. He described the strategy, a year in the making, as "very transformative" and one of the most significant things the firm has done.
Source: Minneapolis Star Tribune