Medical intervention is a practical knowledge domain, which means that you need to practice to achieve mastery. However, today we are lucky because “the patients’ role” in the learning process has been taken over, at least in part, by simulators. Thanks to the Connect project, medical science is entering a new revolutionary era in which the physical boundaries of sharing knowledge disappear. VirtaMed AG, a Swiss company founded by innovators and engineers, produces the most realistic medical training simulators in the world. VirtaMed devices are already used all around the world, mainly in medical centers, hospitals and other facilities involved in training healthcare professionals. The company, which began as a small startup now employs over a hundred people on three continents. Future medical staff can use original instruments tools to practice their surgical skills before they start performing procedures on patients. Being able to learn under such conditions allows for the practical honing of skills which is of incredible value in modern medicine. The simulators also aid learning by allowing both trainees and teachers to monitor a trainee’s progress and identify areas for improvement. Read more about the project: https://makersoftomorrow.com/cloud-operations

1. Cloud Operations
in Healthcare
Business Case
A project of connecting
medical training simulators
by Cybercom Poland

2. The medical sector is struggling with many problems
such as huge expenses related to health care, an ageing
population, an increased incidence of chronic diseases,
unsustainable care costs, fewer resources both in staff
and finance and more expectations towards digitized
services. Technology is a response to deal with these
issues, increasing efficiency and effectiveness. Many of
the breakthrough scientific achievements in this field have
been introduced to a higher technological level, focusing on
trends such as robotics,
3D printing, faster data processing and lower cost of large-
scale data storage. The possibilities of technology in this
respect enable scientists to adopt new approaches to drug
discovery or large-scale population research.
Modern medicine has achieved spectacular
success in improving health all over the world.
Over the next 15 years, life expectancy will
exceed 90 years in some countries.¹ It turns out
to be possible thanks to advances in science and
technology, which in the medical industry is the
driving force of innovation.
90years
over the next 15 years
life expectancy will exceed
Healthcare overview
¹ https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736%2816%2932381-9/fulltext
in some countries

3. Cloud Computing provides almost infinite computing
power and data storage with many additional
microservices like relational databases, virtual
networks, backup solutions or tools supporting
AI and business intelligence. The data storage
is functionality that covers only up to 10% of
the Cloud’s potential usage. The remaining 90%
is about other services like relational database
service, network (virtual networks, VPN), backup or GPU (graphical processor). This solution gives enormous
possibilities now to everyone, which means you don’t need to be a big company to use Cloud services to store,
program and manage the servers over the Internet.
In every industry Cloud improves the services quality and cost-effectiveness – it is no different in the healthcare,
which though remains a challenging area, especially in terms of digital transformation, because of the number
of legacy systems and sensitive personal information. There are lots of examples where Cloud solutions
were successfully used. The ability to deliver multiple services over one unified network provides work agility.
The advantage also lays in the possibility to access it without having any requirements towards user’s hardware
and software, which makes the process smooth and efficient and at the same time brings significant cost savings.
This benefit both medical staff, which work becomes much more comfortable, and patients who get better services
and can feel the improvement in their journey.
How to deliver quality, cost-
effective solutions? Cloud
Computing is the answer, within
its possibilities rendering
the processes more efficient,
decentralized and focused on
the improvement of patient’s
experience. The predictions say
that the Global HealthcareCloud
Computing market will reach more
than $11 billion by 2022.² This
technology must be ensuredwithin
the organizational transformation,
digitalization, which needs to be
supported by external experts.
Cloud computing
- a key to efficiency
² https://www.marketresearchengine.com/reportdetails/healthcare-cloud-computing-market
³ Source: IDG
Cloud adoption statistics reveal that by 2020
a staggering 83% of the company workload will
be stored on the cloud. Enterprises are predicted
to invest over 3.5 million on average within the
next year. This expenditure will take 30% of their
total IT budget in 2020.

4. The Virtamed devices permit surgeons to practice operations to develop their skills and minimise the risk of
errors. The computer simulation does just that by creating virtual training scenarios. It gives future surgeons and
experienced surgeons alike the opportunity to practice arthroscopic surgery and many other procedures in a risk-free
setting before they operate on real patients.VirtaMed AG, a Swiss company,
founded by innovators and
engineers, produces the most
realistic medical training
simulators in the world. VirtaMed
devices are already used all
around the world, mainly in
medical centres, hospitals
and other facilities involved in
training healthcare professionals.
The company, which began as
a small startup now employs
over a hundred people on three
continents.
Virtamed
- the future of medical training

5. Executive summary:
the Connect Project
VirtaMed was looking to establish a trusted external partner with the
domain knowledge to spearhead Cloud connectivity development. After
speaking with many companies in eastern and central Europe, VirtaMed
selected Cybercom Poland as the best fit to help them expand their
development reach. Cybercom Poland is helping the company take the
simulators to the next level by connecting them to the cloud. The project
began in late 2017, and 2018 Cybercom had developed a prototype to
show the functions of the cloud-based simulator at a global conference.
Due to high quality and security standards, the system requires an extre-
mely efficient and secure connection.
Thanks to the Connect project, medical science is entering a new revolu-
tionary era in which the physical boundaries of sharing knowledge disap-
pear. The Connect project, which has adopted a sustainability approach
by enriching the learning process is an excellent example of a safe and
reliable product that is based on GDPR guidelines and Microsoft Azure
modules.

6. The main scope of the project was to connect the simulators to make a critical difference to mentors
and trainees. Training sessions are going from being one-time events stored in individual devices to being
globally accessible lessons and tools for all users. Improving surgical training, skills and, ultimately, the
quality of healthcare and patient health is the main focus. That aligns well with VirtaMed’s and Cybercom’s
shared ambitions to generate positive values and contribute to sustainable development.

7. The initial assumption of Connect project was to present data to students and their
lecturers.
On one of the presentations, it turned out that students are willing to devote their free
time to overtake their classmates, they did not want to leave the simulators without
improving the results, which would translate into a higher place in the ranking.
As a consequence, Connect is to be a medical Facebook or Strava (application for
athletes), in which students will share the results of the simulation, their activity with
other students. Their lecturers are able to verify the progress and adjust the curricula
and training programs for a particular student. Again, everything to increasequality.
Goal 3:
Good health and well-being for people.
The goal is to ensure that everyone can lead healthy
lives. It also involves promoting the well-being of
people of all ages. Cloud services and tools like
VirtaMed’s simulators contribute to better healthcare
and thus human health and survival.

8. Value impact of
Cloud Computing
Cloud solutions are a core component in scaling medical education, enabling course directors
to share the same curriculum with all of their students and take advantage of standardized
international courses. Another considerable advantage of connected simulators is that the
student’s progress is seen in real-time via the cloud. Storage of that kind of data is not the only
game-changer - the machine learning algorithms are. Data can be analyzed to optimize lear-
ning pathways for individual students. Cloud Computing helps monitor the systems remotely
and ensure uptime, maintain equipment reliability and deploy updates in a more agile way.
The main impact of the Connect
project was in the way the
data could be quickly shown,
downloaded and compared. It is
a real game-changer, especially
taking into consideration that the
simulators are in different places
and can accumulate big volumes
of data in real-time, sending them,
for example to tutors in a different
country. Flexibility is connected to
remote access to applications and
data in medical training.

9. The Connect functionalities:
• generates a detailed report on the work with the simulator for every student;
• generates reports per group of students by working time on simulations, number of
points scored and number of approaches, thus enabling students to compare;
• allows management of simulators and groups of students;
• aggregates simulation results in the form of user-friendly charts, lists;
• sends notifications to students and lecturers (aggregated per group) with results of
work with simulators, after prior subscription;
• creates a work plan for students;
• allows to obtain certificates at the end of training, confirmed by a good result on
the simulator.
VirtaMed simulators, in conjunction with the Cloud-based solutions
provided by Cybercom, have the potential to revolutionize the field of
medical simulation and education. Connect can drive the evolution of
medical education and become a significant element in the learning
process of medical trainees.