Table 3.

Specificities of cloud computing for health care.

Number	Specificity	Previous understanding	Type
1	CCa relies on SaaSb	PaaSc and IaaSd in general are as relevant as SaaS	Type 1e
2	CC increases data security and interoperability	Low data security and interoperability as CC’s downside	Type 1
3	If any, CC only brings economic benefits in the long term	Reduced costs by using CC in general	Type 1
4	CC focuses on clinical tasks	Health ITf traditionally supports more management areas	Type 2g
5	CC supports patient-centeredness	Health IT products are traditionally heavily physician-centered	Type 2
6	CC increases service mobility and flexibility	Health IT traditionally suffers from inflexible service access	Type 2
7	CC facilitates collaboration in clinical areas	Insufficient capabilities of traditional health IT to support collaboration	Type 2

^aCC: cloud computing.

^bSaaS: software as a service.

^cPaaS: platofrm as a service.

^dIaaS: infrastructure as a service.

^eThe specificity challenges what we have learned about CC in a general context.

^fIT: information technology.

^gThe specificity challenges what we have learned about traditional health IT.