The implementation of cloud technologies in healthcare is paving the way to more effective patient care and management for medical professionals around the world. As more facilities start to integrate cloud computing into their healthcare systems, it is imperative to examine the emergent trends and innovations in the field. Cloud Computing Systems and Applications in Healthcare features innovative research on the impact that cloud technology has on patient care, disease management, and the efficiency of various medical systems. Highlighting the challenges and difficulties in implementing cloud technology into the healthcare field, this publication is a critical reference source for academicians, technology designers, engineers, professionals, analysts, and graduate students.

In both rich and poor nations, public resources for health care are inadequate to meet demand. Policy makers and health care providers must determine how to provide the most effective health care to citizens using the limited resources that are available. This chapter describes current and future challenges in the delivery of health care, and outlines the role that operations research (OR) models can play in helping to solve those problems. The chapter concludes with an overview of this book – its intended audience, the areas covered, and a description of the subsequent chapters. KEY WORDS Health care delivery, Health care planning HEALTH CARE DELIVERY: PROBLEMS AND CHALLENGES 3 1.1 WORLDWIDE HEALTH: THE PAST 50 YEARS Human health has improved significantly in the last 50 years. In 1950, global life expectancy was 46 years [1]. That figure rose to 61 years by 1980 and to 67 years by 1998 [2]. Much of these gains occurred in low- and middle-income countries, and were due in large part to improved nutrition and sanitation, medical innovations, and improvements in public health infrastructure.

The Cloud is an advanced and fast-growing technology in the current era. The computing paradigm has changed drastically. It provided a new insight into the computing world with new characteristics including on-demand, virtualization, scalability and many more. Utility computing, virtualization and service-oriented architecture (SoA) are the key characteristics of Cloud computing. The Cloud provides distinct IT services over the web on a pay-as-you-go and on-demand basis. Cloud Computing Technologies for Smart Agriculture and Healthcare covers Cloud management and its framework. It also focuses how the Cloud computing framework can be integrated with applications based on agriculture and healthcare. Features: Contains a systematic overview of the state-of-the-art, basic theories, challenges, implementation, and case studies on Cloud technology Discusses of recent research results and future advancement in virtualization technology Focuses on core theories, architectures, and technologies necessary to develop and understand the computing models and its applications Includes a wide range of examples that uses Cloud technology for increasing farm profitability and sustainable production Presents the farming industry with Cloud technology that allows it toaggregate, analyze, and share data across farms and the world Includes Cloud-based electronic health records with privacy and security features Offers suitable IT solutions to the global issues in the domain of agriculture and health care for society This reference book is aimed at undergraduate and post-graduate programs. It will also help research scholars in their research work. This book also benefits like scientists, business innovators, entrepreneurs, professionals, and practitioners.

One of the primary topics at the center of discussion, and very often debate, between industry professionals, government officials, and the general public is the current healthcare system and the potential for an overhaul of its processes and services. Many organizations concerned for the long-term care of patients wish to see new strategies, practices, and organizational tools developed to optimize healthcare systems all over the world. One of the central engines of the current shift toward reorientation of healthcare services is virtual and mobile healthcare. Virtual and Mobile Healthcare: Breakthroughs in Research and Practice explores the trends, challenges, and issues related to the emergence of mobile and virtual healthcare. The book also examines how mobile technologies can best be used for the benefit of both doctors and their patients. Highlighting a range of topics such as smart healthcare, electronic health records, and m-health, this publication is an ideal reference source for medical professionals, healthcare administrators, doctors, nurses, practitioners, and researchers in all areas of the medical field.

Cloud computing continues to emerge as a subject of substantial industrial and academic interest. Although the meaning and scope of “cloud computing” continues to be debated, the current notion of clouds blurs the distinctions between grid services, web services, and data centers, among other areas. Clouds also bring considerations of lowering the cost for relatively bursty applications to the fore. Cloud Computing: Principles, Systems and Applications is an essential reference/guide that provides thorough and timely examination of the services, interfaces and types of applications that can be executed on cloud-based systems. The book identifies and highlights state-of-the-art techniques and methods for designing cloud systems, presents mechanisms and schemes for linking clouds to economic activities, and offers balanced coverage of all related technologies that collectively contribute towards the realization of cloud computing. With an emphasis on the conceptual and systemic links between cloud computing and other distributed computing approaches, this text also addresses the practical importance of efficiency, scalability, robustness and security as the four cornerstones of quality of service. Topics and features: explores the relationship of cloud computing to other distributed computing paradigms, namely peer-to-peer, grids, high performance computing and web services; presents the principles, techniques, protocols and algorithms that can be adapted from other distributed computing paradigms to the development of successful clouds; includes a Foreword by Professor Mark Baker of the University of Reading, UK; examines current cloud-practical applications and highlights early deployment experiences; elaborates the economic schemes needed for clouds to become viable business models. This book will serve as a comprehensive reference for researchers and students engaged in cloud computing. Professional system architects, technical managers, and IT consultants will also find this unique text a practical guide to the application and delivery of commercial cloud services. Prof. Nick Antonopoulos is Head of the School of Computing, University of Derby, UK. Dr. Lee Gillam is a Lecturer in the Department of Computing at the University of Surrey, UK.

Systems Simulation and Modelling for Cloud Computing and Big Data Applications provides readers with the most current approaches to solving problems through the use of models and simulations, presenting SSM based approaches to performance testing and benchmarking that offer significant advantages. For example, multiple big data and cloud application developers and researchers can perform tests in a controllable and repeatable manner. Inspired by the need to analyze the performance of different big data processing and cloud frameworks, researchers have introduced several benchmarks, including BigDataBench, BigBench, HiBench, PigMix, CloudSuite and GridMix, which are all covered in this book. Despite the substantial progress, the research community still needs a holistic, comprehensive big data SSM to use in almost every scientific and engineering discipline involving multidisciplinary research. SSM develops frameworks that are applicable across disciplines to develop benchmarking tools that are useful in solutions development.

ADVANCED HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS This book offers a complete package involving the incubation of machine learning, AI, and IoT in healthcare that is beneficial for researchers, healthcare professionals, scientists, and technologists. The applications and challenges of machine learning and artificial intelligence in the Internet of Things (IoT) for healthcare applications are comprehensively covered in this book. IoT generates big data of varying data quality; intelligent processing and analysis of this big data are the keys to developing smart IoT applications, thereby making space for machine learning (ML) applications. Due to its computational tools that can substitute for human intelligence in the performance of certain tasks, artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn from experience, adjust to new inputs and perform human-like tasks. Since IoT platforms provide an interface to gather data from various devices, they can easily be deployed into AI/ML systems. The value of AI in this context is its ability to quickly mesh insights from data and automatically identify patterns and detect anomalies in the data that smart sensors and devices generate—information such as temperature, pressure, humidity, air quality, vibration, and sound—that can be really helpful to rapid diagnosis. Audience This book will be of interest to researchers in artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, machine learning as well as information technologists working in the healthcare sector.