Healthcare Software Development Guide 2024

• November 09, 2023

Introduction

Healthcare software development sector has generated approximately $600 billion in revenue this year, underscoring its significance in the healthcare field. In addition to the evident benefits of enhancing patient care and streamlining administrative tasks related to data processing, various factors have contributed to this remarkable growth.

The rapid advancements in technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the utilization of the Internet of Things (IoT), which enables seamless data and process sharing across platforms, have compelled healthcare companies to innovate and seek improved solutions for their healthcare platforms. An exemplary instance is the surging popularity of telemedicine in recent years, driven by increased accessibility and user-friendliness, with expectations of generating $240 billion in profits by 2032.

In this article, we will explore the landscape of healthcare software development by providing a comprehensive definition, dissecting its intricacies and inner workings, and offering insights into future projections. By the time you conclude reading, you will have a deep appreciation for the value these platforms bring and a clear understanding of how to harness their potential for enhancing the efficiency of healthcare organizations.

What is Healthcare Software Development?

In its simplest form, healthcare software is designed to facilitate and streamline the numerous interactions and administrative tasks that occur daily between patients, medical professionals, and healthcare administrators. These software platforms excel in optimizing interactions, elevating the quality of patient care, and ensuring the privacy and accuracy of record-keeping across various healthcare settings, including hospitals, clinics, research laboratories, financial service offices, and medical equipment providers.

Software development for healthcare systems creates an ecosystem where healthcare services are characterized by enhanced quality and precision. Machine learning has played a pivotal role in accelerating software development for healthcare, offering a plethora of advantages, such as simplifying the digitization of patient records and aiding in disease diagnosis. Additionally, the utilization of Big Data and e-health has significantly contributed to the transformation of healthcare software development.

Key Categories of Healthcare Software Development

Custom Healthcare Software for Patients and General Users

Developing tailored healthcare software for patients and general users involves creating user-friendly applications with various purposes and benefits, including:

1. Patient Health Monitoring Software: These apps assist individuals, especially those with chronic conditions, in managing their health by offering symptom checks and medical advice.
2. Medication Tracking Software: Popular in medical software development, these apps help users schedule medications, set reminders, and locate nearby pharmacies with special offers.
3. Mental Health Software: These apps support users in dealing with mental health issues, providing features like gamification, breathing exercises, and meditations.
4. Medical Education Software: Comprehensive databases of up-to-date medical information, catering to a wide audience, from regular users to medical professionals and students.
5. Healthy Lifestyle Software: Covering fitness, wellness, and therapy apps, these applications promote a healthier lifestyle.
6. Dieting Software: These apps facilitate the adoption of healthy eating habits by providing nutrition information, meal planning, calorie tracking, and reminders.

Custom healthcare software benefits users by improving their health and well-being through specialized solutions.

Custom Healthcare Software for Healthcare Professionals

A comprehensive range of healthcare software development types is vital for maintaining clinical workflows and optimizing day-to-day operations. These technologies aid in the management of medical records, appointment scheduling, financial management, and accounting.

1. Electronic Health Record Software: This category is tailored for the maintenance and management of electronic patient records, encompassing data on allergies, laboratory findings, medical histories, and demographic statistics. It's noteworthy that Electronic Health Record (EHR) systems can be seamlessly integrated into Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems within the healthcare sector, offering expanded functionality to healthcare institutions.
2. E-Prescribing Software: This technology streamlines the direct transmission of medical prescriptions to pharmacies, strengthening the connections within the healthcare industry and enhancing patient convenience.
3. Hospital Management Software: This set of technologies focuses on optimizing hospital management processes, including billing, insurance assignment, patient data management, and administrative tasks.
4. Healthcare CRM (Customer Relationship Management) Software: This software specializes in customer relationship management, emphasizing the enhancement of client relations. It contributes to improving the quality of care, efficient contact management, and the generation of accurate performance reports.
5. Telemedicine Software: Medical professionals, including doctors, therapists, and psychiatrists, utilize telemedicine software to remotely examine and diagnose patients through video conferencing and file-sharing tools.
6. Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS): LIMS enhances the accuracy of results within laboratory settings by managing samples, automating workflows, collecting data from these samples, and integrating various instruments into the laboratory environment.
7. Radiology Information Systems (RIS): This software, primarily used in medical imaging, excels in tracking patients and their images, scheduling appointments, generating reports, and handling invoicing. RIS systems significantly enhance the quality and speed of patient care and diagnosis in radiology departments.
8. Pharmacy Management Systems: These systems ensure the safe and efficient operation of pharmacies by managing tasks such as handling expired medications, reordering stock, sending SMS reminders to patients, storing comprehensive customer data, and performing backup data management.
9. Health Information Exchange (HIE) Software: HIE software enables secure and swift sharing of patients' private health information among medical personnel, leading to faster, more efficient, and ultimately more reliable patient care.
10. Billing and Revenue Cycle Management Software: Designed with a specific focus on tracking billing and revenue throughout a patient's lifecycle, this software provides a comprehensive overview of the cost of treatment for each individual.

When is Custom Healthcare Software Development Required?

Custom healthcare software development is a crucial service due to the uniqueness of each healthcare institution. These services are essential to cater to the specific needs of clients and offer several benefits, including the establishment of a secure and unified platform for storing medical information. Consequently, clients can achieve outcomes characterized by greater inclusiveness, performance, and scalability.

Typically, clients seek custom healthcare software development when they require tailored solutions for specific challenges, including but not limited to:

1. Enhancing the management of patient records.
2. Facilitating communication between healthcare providers and patients.
3. Promoting collaboration among healthcare professionals.
4. Seamlessly integration with existing systems.
5. Ensuring compliance with regulatory standards such as HIPAA.
6. Facilitating the seamless creation and exchange of individual health plans and strategies.
7. Supporting telemedicine and remote care.
8. Improving the accuracy of diagnoses.
9. Reducing unnecessary expenses.
10. Incorporating emerging technologies like chatbots, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR).

Incorporating emerging technologies like chatbots, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR).

Challenges Hindering Healthcare Software Development

There are a number of challenges that can cripple healthcare software development initiatives. Some of the most common challenges include:

1. Complexity: Healthcare software is complex and must meet the needs of a wide range of users, including clinicians, patients, and administrators. This complexity can make it difficult to develop and maintain healthcare software.
2. Interoperability: Healthcare software must be able to interoperate with other healthcare systems, such as EHRs and billing systems. This interoperability can be difficult to achieve, as different healthcare systems often use different proprietary formats.
3. Regulatory compliance: Healthcare software must comply with a variety of regulations, such as HIPAA and other privacy regulations. This regulatory compliance can add to the complexity and cost of healthcare software development.
4. Budget and resource constraints: Healthcare organizations often have limited budgets and resources for software development. This can make it difficult to develop and deploy new healthcare software.
5. Lack of expertise: Healthcare organizations may not have the in-house expertise to develop and maintain healthcare software. This can lead to reliance on external vendors, which can increase costs and complexity.
6. User resistance: Healthcare users may be resistant to change and may not be willing to adopt new software. This resistance can make it difficult to deploy and use healthcare software effectively.

In addition to these general challenges, there are a number of specific challenges that can arise depending on the type of healthcare software being developed. For example, developing software for clinical decision support systems can be challenging due to the need to integrate complex medical knowledge into the software. Similarly, developing software for patient engagement can be challenging due to the need to create software that is user-friendly and accessible to a wide range of patients.

RELATED: How Poor CDS EHR Integration Impacts Patient Care?

Considerations Before Developing Your HealthTech Software

Security and Regulatory Compliance

Healthcare is a heavily regulated industry, so it's important to make sure that your software complies with all applicable laws and regulations. This includes understanding HIPAA and other privacy regulations, as well as any specific requirements that may apply to your target market.

ONC Healthcare IT Certification In the United States, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) administers certification programs for health IT products, including Electronic Health Records (EHR) systems. ONC certification signifies that your healthcare software adheres to specific standards and criteria concerning functionality, security, and interoperability. Healthcare providers often prioritize ONC-certified software to ensure compliance with regulatory requirements and to support meaningful use. Therefore, securing ONC certification for your software can boost its appeal and adoption within the healthcare sector. Be prepared to align your development process with ONC certification standards to navigate the intricate landscape of healthcare technology regulations.

RELATED: Achieving ONC Certification and Ensuring Compliance : Your Trusted Partner

Choose the right technology stack.

There are a number of different technologies that can be used to develop HealthTech software. When choosing a technology stack, it's important to consider the following factors:

1. Scalability: Your software needs to be able to handle a growing user base and increasing data volume.
2. Security: Your software needs to be secure and protect patient data.
3. Interoperability: Your software needs to be able to interoperate with other healthcare systems.

Choice of APIs and Integration

According to research conducted by Bain, interoperability and the integration of electronic medical records are significant challenges for healthcare providers. To address this, your software architecture should be designed to be interoperable, incorporating APIs and integrations that facilitate seamless data exchange. The selection of specific APIs should align with your healthcare data exchange standards and software objectives.

A team with the right expertise.

Developing HealthTech software requires a team with a variety of skills and experience, including:

1. Software development
2. Healthcare domain knowledge
3. Regulatory compliance
4. User experience design

Plan for testing and deployment.

Once your software is developed, it's important to thoroughly test it before deploying it to production. This includes unit testing, integration testing, and user acceptance testing. Once your software is tested, you need to develop a plan for deploying it to your users. This may involve working with your EHR vendor or other healthcare IT providers.

Data being stored in non-homogeneous formats and the lack of standardization complicates the processes of data acquisition and cleansing. These difficulties lead to restricted interoperability, a major hurdle for healthcare data analytics. Since data is seldom standardized, there are challenges in obtaining and preparing data in a consistent format that allows for universal sharing and analysis. As data becomes more globally integrated, the field of data analytics must address barriers including language differences, diverse standards, and varying terminologies.

Cost Considerations in Healthcare Software Development

The cost of healthcare software development varies depending on several factors:

1. Type of Collaboration: The choice between establishing an in-house team or outsourcing software development significantly impacts the cost. Outsourcing often provides high-quality software at a more cost-effective rate.
2. Team Composition: The size and expertise of the software development team, including factors like the number of team members, their experience, skills, and the technological stack used, play a role in determining the final cost.
3. Project Complexity: The complexity of the software solution, design intricacies, and the number of features required all influence the overall budget.
4. Development Timeline:

Future Trends of Healthcare Software Development

Deloitte predicts a significant transformation in the healthcare software development industry, emphasizing the shift towards open yet secure platforms, patient-centric care, and seamless data exchange. This approach reinforces a human-centered perspective in healthcare, connecting various solutions, such as optimizing treatment plans, monitoring health progress, and enabling online consultations.

From a business perspective, this direction leads to improved brand management, enhanced reputation, and superior service delivery. Key software development trends in the medical field include:

1. Emphasis on self-care and online communication, with a focus on accessibility and user-friendliness, addressing the needs of specific demographics like the neurodivergent community.
2. Adoption of blockchain innovation, contributing to sector democratization by enhancing transparency, trustworthiness, and collaboration.
3. Expansion of Electronic Medical Record (EMR) software, unifying all medical records digitally and linking various specialties.
4. Advancements in telemedicine, fostering close remote connections between physicians and patients, removing traditional barriers.
5. Leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) for more precise diagnoses and personalized treatment plans.
6. Exploring the potential of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) for applications in medical professional training and patient education.
7. Development of tools for managing chronic diseases, such as mobile apps and wearable devices, which can significantly benefit the aging population.

While the future of healthcare IT solutions appears promising, it's essential to address safety concerns as they are common challenges in modern digital solutions. Additionally, managing Big Data should be a top priority.

Summary

KPi-Tech offers high-quality support in the design and development of various healthcare software solutions. Through consultation with our Healthcare IT experts, you can expect a solution that integrates effectively into your digital ecosystem, ensuring long-term service and accurate data management. KPi-Tech specializes in providing transformative solutions and data-driven insights for companies, including the dental industry, where their software has boosted revenue and attracted new patients.

If you and your organization are ready to embrace innovative IT solutions and shift your mindset, it's recommended to engage with KPi-Tech's experts to explore the latest healthcare software technologies and their potential benefits for your business or project.