Expert Tips on Picking the Most Suitable Healthcare App Development Company!

Expert Tips on Picking the Most Suitable Healthcare App Development Company!
Healthcare App Development Company
In an era when digital transformation is the buzzword, healthcare mobile apps and solutions are the most viable tools for service providers to elevate their business operations to the next level and deliver an unmatched user experience to patients and doctors. Healthcare solutions enable healthcare providers to offer competent and advanced services to patients, boost profitability, optimize costs, streamline workflow, and obtain interoperability.
However, designing an impeccable medical solution and integrating it successfully with other hospital systems and devices requires proficiency, technical skillsets, and thorough experience. As such, most medical providers, these days, prefer hiring professional app development services to stay competitive and avoid any unwanted glitches. Nevertheless, one must be able to identify the right expertise as there are numerous healthcare development services available around the globe.
This post provides all-inclusive guidance on hiring healthcare app development service assistance. A quick read will help you to identify and pick a development company that best suits your goals and project requirements.

Pick the Best Suited Healthcare App development Company: Factors to Consider

Clearly Define your Healthcare App Development Requirements

Before you move on to hire professional assistance for app development in healthcare, define your business objectives, targeted audience, and your expectation from healthcare developers. Identify your competitors and their profitable strategies; then decide on the strategies you would like to adopt. Also, determine your maximum budget for product development.
The aforesaid practices will put you in a better position to compare the offerings by different software development vendors, make the right selection based on your needs and the project cost, and finally, convey your project requirements clearly to your app development partner.

Understand the Healthcare App Market Requirements

Analyze and research the market requirements of the healthcare sector. If you are a novice in this arena, it is advisable to seek professional help from app development specialists for comprehending the basic needs of healthcare app development, understand how these apps function within a healthcare environment, and gain insights on the programming languages commonly used for crafting such applications. This way, you will be able to look for the right skillset in healthcare app developers and know what you are going to pay for. Also, do not forget to review the existing software development payment models and the average hourly developer rates in different outsourcing destinations. This information will help you in identifying the best-suited option for your healthcare app development project.

Check the Domain-specific Experience and Competency of the Agency

Unlike e-commerce or gaming apps, healthcare apps need to adhere to multiple standards like healthcare interoperability, API integration, etc., and maintain certain security compliance protocols like HIS, HIPAA, etc. Hence, the development team should have extensive experience in handling similar projects and possess domain-specific skillsets for handling complex healthcare app development projects. Healthcare development professionals should also have sound knowledge of API integration processes for building apps pertaining to telemedicine services, clinical assistance, life-sustaining systems, medical information, and so on.
Skilled and experienced developers will understand your business goals as well as the product’s roadmap, suggest the most productive feature-set for your app based on the target audience, know how to effectively integrate the required functionalities, standards, & compliances into your application, and confidently sail through any project-related challenge.
For validating the competence and experience of the healthcare app development agency, you need to check their portfolio, case studies of previous projects, customer reviews & ratings, and awards & recognitions on their website and at renowned business listing portals like GoodFirms, Mobile App Daily, Clutch, etc. Also, verify their market reputation & reach, the kind of healthcare solutions they’ve built in the past, and the technologies they work with. It’ll be even better if you are able to find out the company’s previous track record – whether the firm was able to fulfill client requirements and whether or not the developers have adhered to project delivery deadlines in the past.

Check the Design Principles, Technologies, Tools, and Methodologies proposed for your Project

The design plays a crucial role in defining the user experience of a healthcare application. So, check the previous healthcare products built by the healthcare app development company to understand whether they are capable of creating visually attractive, user-friendly, and intuitive apps.
Also, ensure that your technology partner will be using the latest technologies, tools, effective development methodologies, and best practices for your project. An ideal app development company in healthcare in USA will conduct an initial analysis to gauge the project requirements; create an architectural roadmap based on the app’s structural requirements; possess expertise in programming languages like PHP or Java; and employ advanced technologies & frameworks suitable for healthcare development like Xamarin, React Native, React, Laravel, Swift, Vue, etc.
UI/UX is a driving factor for the success of any healthcare application. So, make sure that the healthcare app development company uses modern tools for building an exceptional and user-friendly UI/UX; and performs exhaustive testing during various phases to guarantee a sound app performance.

Compliance with Security Practices

Sensitive patient data is vulnerable to security breaches and so, most countries have mandated certain regulations on how healthcare data has to be handled by medical service providers. For instance, US medical organizations must comply with HIPAA guidelines. And, if there’s any data breach due to non-compliance with standard regulations, healthcare organizations will damage their reputation, will be fined heavily, and may even face legal charges in case of severe data leaks/breaches ending up losing their license. Hence, a healthcare solution without proper security measures is a threat to patients’ safety and privacy and will cause legal repercussions for providers.
Therefore, the healthcare app development firm should implement the necessary security measures within the app; using software tools such as Auth0 which is standard practice for ensuring healthcare data security and complying with HIPAA regulations.

Validate the Leadership Skills of the Company

If the healthcare app development agency is managed by experienced leadership, the company will be able to provide better clarity and suggestions. Moreover, the firm will have a better understanding of the clinical and administrative workflows of a healthcare organization and be able to devise the best-suited strategies for your facility. Furthermore, the firm will ensure adherence to delivery deadlines and be able to identify and pick talented healthcare developers who are the right fit for your project. An experienced development agency and proficient healthcare app developers can make a huge difference in enhancing the end-product quality, particularly when you intend to build a custom app for your medical services.

Information on the Project Cost, Resources, and Processes

Project cost is an important factor in the entire product development process. So, you must have a tentative budget in your mind before approaching a healthcare app development agency, for project discussion. Communicate your budget to them and clarify which expenses will be incurred by you and what the cost-quality ratio would be like.
Understand the proposed processes and resources allocated for your project to form an idea about the quality of services you’ll get. The standard steps executed by partner IT firms for custom product development include analyzing the requirement, freezing the scope, prototyping the software product, developing the product, QA& testing, deployment, and support maintenance post-deployment. And, the minimum requirement for software professionals include a project manager, UI/UX designer, requirement analyst, app developers, and QA testers.
Make an informed decision only after obtaining full clarity on the aforesaid factors.

Gain Insights on Project Management Process

The app development methodologies adopted by different healthcare software development vendors for building a customized product may vary. As such, ensure that you gather in-depth clear insights on the project management process offered by your vendor. The different processes include agile, scrum, waterfall, and Kanban. Agile means breaking projects into smaller iterative periods, making room for adaptive and simultaneous workflows. Contrarily, the Waterfall method is used for completing projects in a linear way, without any room for going back to the starting phase. Kanban deals with process improvements while Scrum involves speedy development. Your technology partner must explain to you each method in detail so that you are able to pick the most befitting approach that aligns with your product development objectives.
Today, most clients prefer picking a healthcare app development company that will follow an agile development methodology and manage the workflow in scrums. This way, the development teams will gain a better understanding of the uniqueness of your product and will provide flexible methodologies to accommodate the development cycle as per your project requirements. Also, medical end-products need to be scalable enough to meet the ever-changing demands of the healthcare sector. So take clarity on this aspect, at the project discussion stage itself.

Check out the Engagement Models offered and pick the Best Suited One

Check out the engagement models offered by the healthcare app development firm and select the one that suits you best. The prevalent engagement models include the dedicated resource hiring model, fixed price model, and the time & material-based model.
According to the dedicated resource hiring model, clients hire dedicated developers and pay as per the number of hours spent by resources on the project. This model is beneficial if you intend to extend your in-house team, need project flexibility, or there isn’t any clear requirement from your end.
Under the fixed price model, clients put forth their project requirements and the vendor provides a fixed-price quote for such services. Such a model befits projects that have a clearly-defined scope, are of short duration, and projects that involve hiring developers to perform the tasks.
However, if a client requires flexible product development cycles, the client’s requirement is unclear and subject to change, or it’s a long-duration project with dynamic costs, it is advisable to go with the time & material-based model. This model allows clients to hire as per the time taken and the material involved. Here, both parties agree on a mutually decided hourly rate that needs to be paid for the time spent by resources on different project-related tasks.

NDA for maintaining Confidentiality

It is important for you to choose a healthcare app development partner who will sign an NDA (Non-Disclosure Agreement) as this will prevent your product idea to be shared outside the company. So NDA ensures the confidentiality of your project and also enables you to own the code.

Maintenance and Support post-launch

Choose a healthcare app development firm that offers end-to-end product development with maintenance and support post-launch. This is because healthcare software needs to be updated periodically as per the latest software development trends, mobile OS updations, and changing market requirements. Otherwise, an outstanding app today may become outdated next year. Moreover, bugs are likely to crop up post product deployment and the app might encounter runtime snags at any time. For resolving such issues, you need experienced and technically sound software programmers.
Discuss the bug fixing policies to be adopted by your technology partner and the approximate cost of rolling out new updates. Also, make sure that the maintenance policy is transparent from the very beginning of the product lifecycle and they provide formal service and maintenance agreements for the same.

Concluding Lines:

I hope you have gained clear insights on the right processes to follow and the necessary factors to consider while picking the best-suited app development services for your upcoming healthcare app development project. Remember to avoid mistakes like choosing the cheapest vendor available; the product quality is often compromised in such cases. And, you won’t like your healthcare solution to be rated below average or faulty, isn’t it? Also, ensure that you optimize your product for the app store and make adequate preparations well in advance for the app launch.

What are the Key Challenges encountered by the Healthcare Sector in 2022 and how to address them?

What are the Key Challenges encountered by the Healthcare Sector in 2022 and how to address them?
Healthcare App Development
The healthcare industry is ever-evolving to meet the dynamic and demanding requirements of changing times. Factors like emerging technologies, rising patient expectations, the latest healthcare trends, and the discovery of new avenues of clinical treatment are the major driving forces behind the need for transformation. However, this transformative journey brings in loads of bottlenecks that healthcare providers struggle to deal with.
I have penned down the major issues prevalent in the healthcare industry as well as effective measures to address those roadblocks. Here we go!

Key Healthcare Industry Challenges and Remedial Measures

challenges in healthcare

Demanding Patient Expectations

The healthcare service expectations of modern-era patients are sky-high and demanding indeed. The most popular demand that was fuelled up by the Covid19 pandemic is a healthcare service that combines both models – virtual and in-person doctor consultations – depending on the requirement/urgency of patients’ medical conditions. Today, most medical facilities offer the option of virtual consultation in real-time via video calling; but effectively integrating in-person and virtual services is quite challenging. The reason is healthcare professionals find it difficult to decide as to which patients need an in-person visit and which patients can be managed by virtual consultations.
Patients, these days, have got accustomed to the convenience of an elevated experience offered by other industries, particularly the retail sector. Needless to say, they crave a similar customer experience from their healthcare provider as well. Telehealth and telemedicine experiences are the most sought-after healthcare models. Patients prefer a streamlined experience including services like ePrescriptions, online prescription refilling, downloading lab results/immunization records, online appointment booking/rescheduling/cancellation, timely reminders via push notifications, online bill payment with multiple available options, checking of insurance status or account status digitally, etc.
Lastly, patients expect fast and flawless services from the practitioners as well as front-desk staff.

Remedial measures

Healthcare organizations need to employ patient-friendly and effective telemedicine/telehealth mobile apps and also integrate secure and HIPAA compliant software solutions/systems to record patient data and provide access to authorized users as and when needed. For this reason, it is advisable to create a centralized portal that consolidates all patients’ information and clinical data. The patient history should be updated regularly, and the portal must be made accessible to all medical staff to avoid unnecessary delays, clinical setbacks, and fatal diagnoses/treatment errors.

Appropriate Handling of Big Data

The digital tools and software solutions that are adopted by medical practices to record and process patient information and clinical data; generate humungous volumes of handy data known as Big Data. This data can be leveraged by the medical facility in the form of data analytics to obtain amazing patient outcomes – like-saving processes, epidemic control, etc. – and reduce operational expenses. Some of the implementations of Big Data in healthcare include EHR integration, predictive analysis, strategic planning, receiving real-time alerts during emergencies, integrated and personalized communication, advanced patient care/treatment, reducing fraudulent practices, and tightening data security. Big Data can bring a lot to the table for medical companies and provide them with a competitive edge.
But, most healthcare service providers are not able to fully utilize this brilliant strategy. It becomes challenging to capture and use Big Data due to the absence of productive methods for data governance. The data needs to be precise, clean, and formatted properly for effective usage. The hospital body needs to create a conducive infrastructure that allows effective data integration and collaboration amongst data providers. And, all these processes are not easy to implement.

Remedial Measures

In order to reap the benefits of data-oriented decision making and analysis, healthcare Services need to implement an online reporting software. The usage of Artificial Intelligence algorithms and Machine Learning methodologies including neural networks is also a highly workable option for the healthcare industry to handle huge volumes of data and gain fruitful outcomes out of it. For this, you need appropriate hardware and software support and technical professionals to drive the processes. This support system can be either built in-house or outsourced from a reliable and experienced vendor offering healthcare app development services.

Cybersecurity Threats posed by Smart Healthcare Systems

Today, the healthcare ecosystem of hospital spaces has become all the more complex and prone to cybercrimes due to the adoption of a technology-infused digital approach powered by automation, data analytics, and interoperability. Dealing with cybersecurity woes has become one of the key challenges in healthcare.
Check out these alarming data breach statistics as reported by the online portal techjury.net:
  • Healthcare providers invest only 6% of their budget in implementing cybersecurity practices.
  • 24% of the practitioners were not able to identify the commonest signs of malware attacks.
  • 39% of healthcare firms came to know about the data breach several months after its occurrence.
  • 60-80% of healthcare data breaches are not reported at all.
  • The penalty for data breaches in healthcare is approximately $ 408 for each record which is much higher compared to other industries.
Modern hospitals integrate various third-party systems and different types of connected devices into their environment like IoT-powered wristbands for remote tracking, software tools for crash cart tracking, vital-sign monitors, portable X-ray machines, ventilators, etc. These systems and devices interact with the entire network of the medical facility to generate valuable medical data and patient information to be stored in the EHRs. This data helps in patients’ life sustenance, clinical decision making, data analysis, research, and so on.
But every integrated device makes the hospital infrastructure vulnerable to cyber-attacks and data breaches. Such incidents pose a big threat to patients’ health/safety and the security of sensitive healthcare data and medical systems. Take a look at the type of cyberattacks existing in the healthcare sector and their grave consequences.

Different kinds of Cybers Attacks

  • Malware: Attackers block a network, service, or system.
  • DoS (Denial of Service) DDOS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks: The healthcare devices or systems become unavailable for use.
  • Ransomware: Hackers encrypt data and demand a hefty amount as a ransom for reviving the data.
  • Phishing Attacks: Phishing links or websites are used for misleading the targeted user; if the user clicks on malicious attachments/links, confidential information can be accessed.
  • Cloud Storage Breach: Attackers can access insecure APIs and improperly encrypted PHI and PII data stored on the cloud; they can even misconfigure cloud storage altogether.

The Consequence of Cyber Attacks

Cyber-attacks can lock patient care as well as back-office systems and stop their functioning for a certain period. Whenever any life-sustaining equipment is tampered with, the lives of patients are endangered and can even lead to the death of critical patients. Moreover, hackers can invade information networks and access medical research & clinical trial data, patients’ health information, billing details, etc. This data is then sold on the darknet for carrying out fraudulent practices. Medical facilities can be heavily penalized or fined for security breaches and healthcare information leaks, specifically if they have violated the standard regulatory compliances mandated for the healthcare sector. Such incidents tarnish the reputation of healthcare brands, and they start losing customers.

Remedial Measures

Healthcare Providers must secure their infrastructure, databases, networks, and endpoints and protect the private and financial data of patients. So, make sure that every third-party technology integrated into your system is secured and is HITRUST certified, adhere to all regulatory compliances including HIPAA, encrypt data, restrict access to systems without proper authorization and authentication, follow a multi-factor authentication procedure, and implement a strong password policy. Also, regularly update systems to patch security threats, train hospital staff about cybersecurity risks, strictly monitor digitally connected devices to identify intrusions, and be equipped to promptly resolve security breaches. Practices like duplicate encryption, network fragmentation, firewall, risk scans login testing, etc. are also highly effective in maintaining data security.

Issues in Processing Invoices, Payments, and Insurance Claims

The healthcare industry is struggling to streamline payment processing; several medical providers still follow time-consuming and error-prone manual processing cycles. This leads to late payments, missed payments, added operational expenses, and claim denials by insurance firms due to minor errors. Patients also miss the chance to use digital payment alternatives such as virtual cards that enables them to avail of cashback discounts.

Remedial Measures

Healthcare providers need to automate and streamline the entire invoice and claims processing system. Automated capturing of data and coding will speed up the process, minimize errors, lessen claim rejections, and reduce the workload of medical staff.
A feature-rich billing system built in collaboration with the billing firms will ease things for patients. A patient-centric billing system usually comes with handy functions like an online patients’ portal, a flexible dashboard for managing invoices, separate queue screens for IP and OP billing, eStatements, multiple payment alternatives, latest payment processes like text-to-pay, etc. An efficient mobile solution will also send auto payment reminders to patients through push notifications.

EndNote:

Automation and technological innovations in healthcare are a double-edged sword. While technology and digitalization are a boon to the healthcare sector and can solve endless roadblocks, it is challenging to integrate such solutions, and myriad bottlenecks crop up if this software is not properly implemented.
Does that mean that healthcare providers should stay away from digital transformation and lag behind competitors? The answer is a big “no.” Medical service providers must embrace a technological approach, but follow the best practices, regulatory compliances, and security measures to eliminate challenges.