Challenges & Rewards of Building Healthcare Software

Healthcare software development has been booming in the healthcare industry. With a steep rise from 18% to 88% in the last two decades in EHR software development and adoption in healthcare practices, the demand for innovative software in healthcare is growing demand.

That is why healthcare app development services have been trending and growing in recent years. Healthcare software development has become a crucial part of healthcare practices. It has efficiently restored the focus on patient care and enhanced overall care delivery with a holistic approach.

However, the demand for healthcare software development is not just from the healthcare providers’ side. A survey conducted by Frost & Sullivan stated that 72% of patients are demanding digital tools in healthcare practices. Scheduling appointments, managing prescriptions and accessing medical records are some of the demands the patients are expecting for convenience to take back control of their health.

However, the process of simplifying healthcare services with healthcare software development is not easy. There are various challenges but the benefits it provides in care delivery and enhancing practices are rewarding.

In this blog, we’ll have a look at the major challenges and how overcoming them is beneficial for the practices. So, without further ado, let’s get started!

Navigating the Regulatory Landscape

Every software deals with data, and based on that, it gives us the desired result. Since these healthcare software deals with sensitive patient health information, a lot of emphasis is placed on protecting the fundamental rights of the patients.

That is why there are so many regulatory bodies in place to regulate the digital healthcare landscape and are responsible for safeguarding patient’s data and its ethical use. If you’ve been familiar with healthcare software development, then HIPAA compliance is something you must be knowing.

Adhering to the HIPAA compliance in software helps you in defining the functionality of your healthcare software with respect to protecting patient data and maintaining its privacy. On the other hand, not adhering to the HIPAA development can lead to heavy fines and reputation damage for your practice.

However, the most common challenge many providers face with HIPAA compliance in healthcare software development , is regarding its privacy protecting measures. It generally includes strong data encryption measures and role based access control to maintain the integrity of the practice.

Designing User-Centric Experiences

One of the features of a successful healthcare mobile app or medical record software is its engaging design. Since your staff and patients will be majorly using the healthcare software for healthcare services, it is important to give them a friendly and elevated experience while they’re using the software.

However, the major challenge is the patient portal development, where many healthcare app development services struggle. The patient portal is used by both patients and providers, finding the right balance for both the users with different requirements is often difficult. On top of that, catering to diverse user needs without disrupting the clinical workflow and giving them an elevated user-experience is often difficult.

The main challenge still remains designing an intuitive design that aligns perfectly with the clinical workflow. Here are some tips that can help in designing an intuitive workflow:

• Conduct user research with all your used groups and understand their needs to understand the workflow addressing their pain points.

• Rather than focus on design, focus on the user experience that makes the tasks easier for the users.

• People generally prefer simple things, and having a focus on designing simple user interfaces can elevate the user experience greatly.

• Bring out the copywriter in you and use clear and concise language in the custom healthcare software.

Building Secure & Scalable Systems

The patient information that the custom healthcare software will be dealing with is sensitive in nature. That is the reason you need to make the software secure, however, healthcare data security is easier said than done. Though HIPAA compliance in healthcare software development covers a major part of security, while keeping it intact you also need to make your healthcare software scalable for future growth.

Some of the robust security measures that you need to take are strong data encryptions, role-based access control and conducting regular audits to track all user activities and find loopholes in the security systems.

However, the major challenge that arises in security development in healthcare software is mitigating cyberattacks. It is challenging because of the legacy systems, complex workflows and vulnerabilities that are there in the interconnected devices. Carefully navigate through this development phase and since these cyberattacks evolve rapidly, constant adaptation to the latest technologies and trends to stay a step ahead of the attackers.

Integration with Existing Systems

The healthcare industry is one of the most well-connected industries in the world. Your practice depends not just on your clinic but also on pharmacies, laboratories, radiologies, etc. While developing your custom healthcare software, the medical software development company must seamlessly integrate your software with existing healthcare IT infrastructure for a smooth flow of data.

One of the major challenges is data interoperability and smooth communication between other healthcare systems. Since every healthcare practice is different, the data formats and other aspects they use in healthcare software development are different. To enable your software to transfer and interpret the data in the correct format, following proper interoperability standards is essential.

There are some standard interoperability standards in the healthcare industry like HL7 and FHIR which can be used in your healthcare software development to make your software interoperable.

Frequently Asked Questions