Telemedicine and intensive care from the cloud

In this article, you will read

• why real-time data is crucial in critical care
• how artificial intelligence/machine learning supports data evaluation
• and why TCC GmbH uses T Cloud Public for its services.

Data is central to medicine, particularly in intensive care. It provides medical professionals with information about a patient’s condition and enables rapid responses if the patient’s status deteriorates. In the past, staff collected this data manually on-site. Today, many hospitals automate data collection. Patient Data Management Systems (PDMS) record and store vital signs, device settings, and laboratory results. They also enable graphical visualizations and analyses and generate documentation within the Hospital Information System (HIS), creating a comprehensive patient case record.

In the future, hospitals will increasingly rely on digital networking with one another and on the optimal distribution of medical resources. This trend is already reflected in the current hospital reform. In this context, it will be important for medical data to be exchanged and evaluated across institutions even without a direct video call. In intensive care medicine, such data exchange must occur in real time.

The Telehealth Competence Center (TCC GmbH), based in Hamburg and founded in 2020, operates in this market segment with its own physicians and software developers. TCC provides an intelligent telemedicine platform through which clinics can exchange services with one another within a network (marketplace) or obtain them directly from TCC. To support this, TCC has established competence centers in Hamburg and Berlin.

TCC’s TCC Core telemedicine solution collects data from medical devices, PDMS, and HIS and evaluates it using integrated AI/machine learning capabilities. The system identifies patterns in large datasets of high-frequency, real-time patient data (e.g., vital signs, laboratory results, ventilator settings) that indicate risks or emerging deterioration at an early stage, enabling timely intervention. Collaboration between TCC specialists and bedside teams leads to shorter lengths of stay, lower costs for externally purchased care, and increased staff satisfaction.

TCC Core, the service offered by TCC GmbH, has a modular structure. The service is provided as SaaS (Software as a Service), enabling a high degree of flexibility without the need to establish local infrastructure. TCC Core and the Connect network module link various participants in the healthcare system on a single platform, ranging from maximum-care providers to rural practices. TCC Core, together with the Connect network module, enables consultation requests via a video platform that also provides patient information on a case-by-case basis. The Cockpit add-on module visualizes and synchronizes a detailed patient overview (patient data). It also enables the integration of AI modules for predictive analysis and intelligent data evaluation.

As a platform that processes health data, TCC Core must meet very high security standards, including end-to-end encryption and geo-redundancy. These requirements also apply to the operating platform for the healthcare SaaS solution, which must comply with strict data protection and data security regulations. In addition, it must support the SaaS model with full scalability. For the launch of its business model, the TCC team therefore sought a sovereign cloud that could meet both the technical and regulatory requirements.

“After analyzing the market, we decided on the T Cloud Public. With its services, it offered us the broadest technical possibilities and met all our regulatory requirements with its comprehensive certification,” explains Prof. Dr. Christian Storm, CEO and Co-Founder of TCC GmbH. To ensure the fail-safe operation of TCC Core, the telemedicine and intensive care specialists use various Elastic Cloud Servers.

To store data, TCC uses a combination of Elastic Volume Services (EVS) and Scalable File Services (SFS) in different performance classes. Block Storage (EVS) is available as common I/O (SATA), high I/O (SAS), and ultra-high I/O (SSD). SFS Turbo, based on the Network File System, is suitable for workloads that involve large file sizes with relatively small numbers of files. This setup enables the company to achieve an optimal balance between near-real-time data availability and cost efficiency. The data flows into a highly available PostgreSQL database through an ultra-high-performance EVS connection.

With the scalable resources of a sovereign cloud, TCC has established a strong foundation for its service, which is set to transform healthcare in the long term. The scalability of T Cloud Public not only supports organic business growth but also reduces the need for costly in-house infrastructure. The cloud model lowers the financial risks for the start-up and minimizes IT investment requirements. At the same time, powerful resources for running AI applications, including GPUs, are readily available. This allows TCC to focus on further developing and marketing its service.

The leading European cloud platform, well established in the market, meets the strict regulatory requirements of the German healthcare sector. Its comprehensive capabilities are confirmed by leading positions in independent benchmarks, such as the Forrester Wave Public Cloud Platforms in Europe and the ISG Provider Lens Multi Public Cloud Germany.