BACKGROUND
With the continuous development of the Internet and the explosive growth of data, big data technology emerged. The development and application of cloud computing technology provides better storage and analysis of data. The development of cloud healthcare provides a more convenient and effective solution for people’s health. To study the knowledge evolution in the field of cloud healthcare and the research hot topics is becoming one of important issues in medical informatics area. The scholars in medical informatics community need to understand the panorama of the evolution of cloud healthcare research, as well as possible trends in cloud healthcare field as important reference for their future research work.
OBJECTIVE
Drawing on the cloud healthcare literature, this paper aims at revealing the development and evolution of research themes in cloud healthcare through knowledge map and common word analysis.
METHODS
A total of 2878 articles in the cloud healthcare literature were retrieved from the Web of Science database. We used cybermetrics to analyze and visualize the keywords in these articles. In particular, we create a knowledge map to show the evolution of cloud healthcare research. We use co-word analysis to reveal the hot topics in cloud healthcare research and their evolution process.
RESULTS
The evolution and development of cloud healthcare services are shown. And From 2007 to 2009 (Phase I), most scholars applied cloud computing to the medical field mainly to reduce cost; and the technologies used are primarily grid computing and cloud computing. During 2010-2012 (Phase II), scholars began to pay attention to the security of cloud systems. During 2013-2015 (Phase III), the medical informatization created the big data for health services. During 2016-2017 (Phase IV), machine learning and mobile technologies are introduced into the medical field.
CONCLUSIONS
The research of cloud healthcare has been vigorously developing worldwide, and technologies used in cloud health research are becoming diverged and smart simultaneously. Cloud-based mobile health, cloud-based smart health, as well as the security of cloud health data and systems will be three possible trends in the future development of the cloud healthcare field.