Momentum Building for Desktop Virtualization in Healthcare

James Millington

Striking that ‘just right’ balance between information access and security seems like a tougher goal than ever for healthcare IT pros.  On one hand, they’re tasked with delivering fast, seamless and increasingly mobile access to patient information for doctors, nurses and other clinicians.  Meanwhile, they’re dealing with budget pressures, regulatory changes and the need to accommodate some very different clinical workflows.

How to get it all done, and right?  For more and more healthcare IT decision makers throughout the U.S. and EMEA, the answer includes desktop virtualization. That’s one of the major findings from a survey recently fielded by Imprivata, polled nearly 300 healthcare IT professionals at hospitals across both regions.  Key findings, summarized in the 2013 Desktop Virtualization Trends in Healthcare: A Global Perspective report, include:

Desktop virtualization in healthcare is…

  • Prevalent – In the U.S., 75% of respondents are now using Server Based Computing (SBC) and 57% now use Server Hosted Virtual Desktops (SHVD) with 48% using single sign-on (SSO). In EMEA, 84% of the survey participants said they are now using SBC and 42% are using SHVD with 42% using SSO.
  • Growing – Usage of SBC, SHVD and SSO is growing in the U.S. and EMEA hospitals, especially in EMEA where respondents anticipate a more rapid increase across all three areas over the next two years.
  • Changing – Participants across both regions are using a variety of endpoint devices with VDI deployments today. Most expect rapid increases in thin and zero client usage as well as the emergence of smartphones and tablets as endpoint devices for desktop virtualization.   

Find Out More
To learn more about these topics and other trends in virtual desktop infrastructures for healthcare, join myself and experts from Citrix and Dell Cloud Client Computing on a webinar on Tuesday November 5 at 1:00 p.m. EDT.

We will discuss how healthcare IT professionals are crafting a better balance between data access and information security using virtual desktop infrastructures.  We’ll cover innovative, real-world examples of hospital IT teams are leveraging solutions including XenApp and XenDesktop from Citrix, thin and zero client devices from Dell Cloud Client Computing, and strong authentication and single sign-on from Imprivata OneSign to give clinicians the access they need while still meeting securing and regulatory compliance requirements. Register here.