Healthcare applications have become a vital part of the healthcare industry as a whole as the patients become more interested in receiving care at a more convenient time and location. The pandemic has finally made us realize that there are lots of services and tasks that can be performed remotely, and healthcare is not an exception. That is exactly why the industry has seen an extreme surge in the popularity of healthcare-related apps and why healthcare mobile application development has become so sought after.
Developing a healthcare app is not just a matter of technical prowess. It takes an experienced custom software development partner, a healthcare app development company that can guarantee your solution’s compliance with all the relevant regulations. The results of cooperation with such a partner can bring immense value to healthcare organizations and benefit both patients and doctors. Let us take a look at how you can benefit from developing a healthcare app with a reliable partner and why it is critical to ensure your product’s compliance.
Types of healthcare apps a reliable partner can develop for you
There are different types of solutions a healthcare app development company can help you with. From healthcare website development to the creation of software used in clinical research, you would deal with varying complexity of solutions. Naturally, the type of healthcare application you develop would depend solely on the needs of your target audiences. Some healthcare apps are targeted toward healthcare organizations, the others are intended for individual use. Here we have some examples:
Clinic apps
There can be a wide variety of applications used in a clinical environment: appointment scheduling, patient data sharing, medical history sharing, real-time screening, billing, prescription sharing, lab data access, and more. A professional healthcare app development company can help medical organizations develop applications for sharing training and educational materials for clinical staff. These solutions can help you cut manual labor and automate numerous processes within a clinical environment.
Remote monitoring apps
The pandemic did change the healthcare industry in more than one way. Telemedicine or remote healthcare mobile application development has taken center stage in the modern industry. According to the article by Forbes, the remote patient monitoring (RPM) market is expected to reach $117.1B in 2025. For many patients that do not require emergency care, it is simply easier to reach out to their doctors through a mobile app or a website than to drive to the clinic. RPM apps can help alleviate the pressure on the clinics, reduce the risk of infection in patients, cut the wait for patients who require emergency care, and simply reduce the gap between patients and doctors.
Wearable devices
There has been a huge increase in the popularity of wearable devices, and their role in the development of the modern healthcare industry has been growing steadily. Right now, these devices can already monitor some of the wearer’s vitals, such as the heart rate. A healthcare app development company that works with wearables can help you create applications that maximize these devices’ efficiency and allow the doctors to track the patient’s vitals in real time.
Software for embedded healthcare devices
Most modern healthcare equipment utilizes high-quality hardware and software to run smoothly. The development of embedded software and hardware for healthcare equipment is rather complicated and requires professionalism on the part of the healthcare app development company you partner with. Such hardware and software must comply with the healthcare standards and regulations of the area you operate in, which only the best healthcare app development company can guarantee.
Websites, portals, and web apps
Web platforms also play a significant role in bridging the gap between clinics and patients. Many healthcare facilities already run websites that help with appointment management, so healthcare website development can also greatly benefit clinics. A healthcare website development company can help you develop a web platform to connect your clinical staff with the patients more conveniently.
These are just some examples of the different types of applications a reliable healthcare app development company can create for you. See the diagram below for more types of healthcare solutions N-iX can help you develop.
The benefits delivered by software applications
An experienced healthcare mobile app development company can design and create feature-rich applications that address the needs of your organization. Different healthcare apps have different features, serve different purposes, and offer different benefits.
1. Health tracking
Tracking the patient’s vitals is critical for quality care. The doctors must understand the patient’s condition and its progression over time. For instance, monitoring and tracking the blood sugar in diabetes patients can help in optimizing medication prescriptions.
2. Electronic health record
Electronic health record (EHR) contains the info on the patient’s whole history allowing the doctors to assess the patient’s condition concerning the previous record. The main goal of a healthcare app development company here is to make the EHR available to the right users via different devices.
3. Scheduling and appointment reminders
Appointment scheduling is critical for the uninterrupted functioning of the clinics. Giving the patients access to doctor calendars and letting them select the most comfortable time for an appointment is a huge part of the user experience. Reminders also reduce the chance of missed appointments, saving time and money for the clinics.
4. Real-time chats and calls
Mobile apps can help you bridge the gap between patients and doctors. Apart from the ability to receive doctor’s recommendations from a convenient location at any time, the best healthcare mobile app development company will also have to encrypt these conversations.
5. Payments and billing
Secure and properly encrypted payment and billing features add another layer of security and convenience to healthcare service providers. Adding secure payment gateways as a part of the healthcare mobile application development process will prove to be a valuable feature.
Define the your healthcare app’s specs with a technology consulting partner
Healthcare software can have a whole slew of features depending on the needs of your organization. Not limited to the ones we’ve listed above, a healthcare mobile app development company can help you integrate such features as reporting and advanced analytics. Integrating your application or a website with the Cloud can also extend your capabilities for storing and managing patient data. You can also have such features as knowledge bases and training for the staff. If you work with a reliable healthcare website development company, your options for creating feature-rich websites and applications expand vastly.
At the end of the day, it all comes down to making the clinic’s functioning more efficient and improving the quality of care. Each healthcare solution must be approached from a unique angle, and that is where technology consulting comes into the picture. Each healthcare organization has a set of specific needs, and a healthcare app development company you partner with has to consider those needs.
Here at N-iX, we work with different types of clients – some of them come with a precise idea of a solution they want to build, the others come with a problem they need to solve. Our technology office can help you develop healthcare software that corresponds to your requirements and specs and conduct a Product Discovery to find the best solution to address your challenges.
Read more: Healthcare software development in 2020: How to make it work?
The key challenge of healthcare app development: regulations and compliances
Healthcare organizations deal with extensive amounts of sensitive patient data, which is directly related to an individual’s safety, private life, and overall well-being. The pressure to protect patient data gets especially high as the industry grows increasingly digitized, and that is specifically why there are regulations that impose certain data security rules upon healthcare organizations.
Each region has its regulations regarding the functioning of healthcare organizations, specifically ones concerning the security of data. Depending on your region of operations, you will need to partner with a healthcare mobile app development company that can guarantee the app’s compliance with such regulations.
How failure to comply with regulations may hinder your organization
Each region has its standards for maintaining patient data. For instance, in the US, HIPAA is the major regulation that keeps healthcare organizations across the country accountable for data security breaches. Failure to comply with the HIPAA standards may result in fines that in 2022 ranged from just $127 up to $1.9M, depending on the severity.
Suffering such considerable fines may deal a devastating blow to any kind of healthcare organization. You need to partner with a reliable healthcare mobile app development company that knows everything about the relevant regulations acting upon your organization. That way, you can take every possible measure to ensure the security of data. Of course, HIPAA is not the only regulation that may act upon healthcare organizations in the US, and other regions such as Asia and the EU have other unique regulations that must be taken into account by the healthcare mobile application development company you work with. Check the table below for examples of regional regulations:
Important: If you operate in a region with specific healthcare regulations, you will need a development partner who is proficient in developing healthcare software compliant with these standards. N-iX sets up training sessions for the development teams to get our experts acquainted with the specific regulations your software has to comply with. That way, we can deliver flexible dedicated teams of developers with the right technical expertise and a precise understanding of relevant regulations.
How N-iX delivers successful healthcare applications to clients worldwide
Over 20 years on the market, N-iX has worked with hundreds of clients across numerous industries, and healthcare has always been a domain of special interest for our experts. We have a vast experience as a healthcare mobile app development company, but we have worked on different types of solutions for our partners in the medical domain. This experience includes healthcare website development, firmware development, mobile applications, and more. We have worked with such recognizable companies as Brighter AB, Cure Forward, WEINMANN Emergency, Think Research, and other clients. Here are a couple of examples of successful healthcare solutions developed by our team.
Embedded firmware for WEINMANN Emergency defibrillators and monitoring devices
WEINMANN Emergency is a German company that specializes in the development of medical devices. The company creates portable medical devices used in emergency vehicles, helicopters, and airplanes worldwide. Emergency devices developed by WEINMANN have been saving lives since 1874, and the company needed a reliable embedded software development partner for its new line of defibrillators and monitoring devices.
N-iX software development team developed embedded firmware for the WEINMANN defibrillators and other devices. For instance, together with the client’s team, we’ve implemented a number of new features, such as the instant printing of electrocardiograms.
When it comes to regulations and compliances, N-iX worked on the new version of the MEDUCORE Standard2. Our team also took responsibility for the product’s compliance with healthcare industry standards and security regulations. The MEDUCORE Standard2 by WEINMANN and N-iX complies with Medical Devices Directive 93/42/EEC. The product also complies with other industry standards related to network access and telemetry: EN 1789, EN 60601-2-27, RTCA DO-160, MIL-STD 810 G, EUROCAE ED-14G, and more.
Clinical software development for Think Research
Think Research, a Canadian healthcare software company, develops knowledge-based solutions that help healthcare practitioners deliver the best care to their patients. The company distributes its products to over 1,000 healthcare facilities in Canada, the US, and the EU. The N-iX dedicated team has helped Think Research with step-by-step software product development providing deep domain knowledge and technical skills to achieve the client’s objectives.
N-iX helped Think Research develop the following set of solutions:
- Virtual B2C platform that connects physicians and patients for real-time appointment creation and tracking;
- A platform for referrals that helps in connecting patients with the right healthcare specialists;
- Ensured the security of the patient’s data and the product’s compliance with the healthcare regulations.
Throughout our partnership with Think Research, the N-iX team has also developed an online care platform called Virtual Care that connects clinicians with patients. The solution offers a comprehensive library of clinical protocols and decision-making tools. Virtual Care allows healthcare practitioners to choose between different formats of online consulting (chat, video, audio, secure messaging) depending on the patient’s requests.
Final thoughts
Healthcare application and website development are unlike any software development project. Here, it is not enough to simply put the best talent and the best tools to use. In healthcare software development, you should pay extra attention to regulations and compliance. You need to work with a partner who can design and develop software that corresponds to the relevant regulations that apply to your region of operations. Also, you need a partner with the technical expertise to develop a feature-rich app that runs smoothly and addresses your audience’s needs.
With your needs in mind, N-iX offers both technology and industry expertise to accomplish both the technical excellence of your healthcare app and its compliance with relevant regulations. Our technology office will run a Product Discovery for your product, define its architecture, map out its UI and UX design, and plan its tech specs. The development team will consist of experts with training and experience in developing software that complies with the necessary regulations.
