Healthcare Services in the Cloud -- Obstacles to Adoption, and a Way Forward

Cloud computing has been receiving a great deal of attention during the past few years. A major feature of public cloud services is that data are processed remotely in unknown systems that the users do not own or operate. This context creates a number of challenges related to data privacy and security and may hinder the adoption of cloud technology in, for example, the healthcare domain. This paper presents results from a stakeholder elicitation activity, in which the participants identified a number of obstacles to the adoption of cloud computing for the processing of healthcare data. We compare our results with previous studies and outline accountability as a possible way forward to increase the adoption of cloud services in the healthcare domain.