6 Examples of Custom Software Development for Healthcare

The healthcare IT industry is a complex beast that serves many stakeholders, from patients and doctors to administrators, pharmacists, and staff. Advances are made on a continual basis and technologies from AI and automation to telehealth and the Internet of Things are rapidly changing the way patient care is delivered and operations are managed. It’s incumbent that software development for healthcare be able to meet a diverse array of challenges and new priorities. 

The range of custom software development in healthcare is therefore wide. Medical practice management software is designed to address the day-to-day operations of a facility, from appointment scheduling to billing to tracking patient records, while software is at the core of managing electronic health records (EHRs).

Thanks to e-prescribing software, patients don’t need handwritten prescriptions that pharmacists then decipher. Urgent care software makes it easier for doctors to manage what often are chaotic situations, hospital management software automates record keeping, financial, and administrative tasks, and customer relationship management (CRM) software for providers and payers is a central tool for managing patient information, from medical history to prescriptions to patient communications. 

Digitization in healthcare will drive greater efficiencies, improve health outcomes, and let doctors spend more time doing what they do best: take care of their patients. With digitization, sensitive health data is better protected, and healthcare becomes more personalized. 

Custom software development for healthcare is elemental to all of this. The software is built specifically for the facility to address a need within or outside of its walls that cannot be met by off-the-shelf products.

What Software Development in Healthcare Can Produce 

So, what do we mean when we talk about software development for healthcare? Here are a few examples:

1. Appointment booking and scheduling software:

This software streamlines the scheduling process for both patients and hospital administration. It offers patients an easy and fast way to make appointments and to change or cancel them if necessary. For hospital staff, it means fewer calls, gives providers control over their calendars, and lets administrators plan staff allocation to reduce patient wait times, more efficiently run appointments, and minimize the number of no-shows.

2. Medical diagnosis software:

A common request for a software developer in healthcare is to create a platform that supports clinician efficiency. This solution uses automation to analyze copious amounts of data such as health histories, test results, and medical reports, driving precision of clinical diagnoses. Physicians’ decisions are made faster, the time to patient treatment is reduced, and health outcomes and patient experience are improved. 

3. Medical billing software:

This software is used to automate the complicated and time-consuming process of healthcare billing for medical practices and billing companies, which in turn can mean improved reimbursement rates and more optimized revenue. All of this is critical to a healthcare industry still regaining its footing after COVID-19, with 2022 being the most difficult financial year for healthcare facilities since the pandemic started in 2020.

4. Software-as-a-medical-device solutions:

Software is the star in the modern healthcare IT world; the infrastructure is there to run it. In software development for healthcare, solutions can serve multiple roles. They can be used for medical purposes – like software-as-a-medical-device – without being part of the hardware. Software that lets patients and doctors view MRI images on a mobile device is one example. Another is an application that collects patient data that a doctor then monitors to develop a treatment plan. There are also applications used as an integral part of a medical device (software-in-a-medical-device), like apps that control the delivery of insulin in an insulin pump. Software also can be used to manufacture or maintain a medical device. 

5. Clinical trial management software:

Along with treating patients and keeping a complex business up and running, conducting clinical research is a key part of what many healthcare institutions do. Software is a key part of clinical research, managing and tracking activities. It can improve the experience for patients in the trials, support reporting of the research, and make related billing and financials simpler. It also can help with managing the research itself, including implementation and timelines of the study. 

6. AI and robotics systems:

There’s no area of IT where AI isn’t wending its way into the ecosystem, and that is especially true in healthcare. It’s why the technology is such a focus in software development for healthcare. In consumer-facing mobile apps, AI and IoT are combining to help people develop healthier lifestyles. AI is also being used to detect and diagnose diseases earlier and more accurately. AI-driven predictive analytics can drive clinical decisions and help clinicians take a more comprehensive approach to managing diseases. Robots assist with end-of-life care by helping people remain independent longer and put off hospitalization and nursing care. And AI is being used in research and training programs. 

Software Developer in Healthcare is Key

These and other applications are increasingly critical to the operations of a modern healthcare facility. By choosing custom solutions built for their facilities’ specific needs, leaders can help ensure alignment between app functionality, organizational goals, and the end user experience. Partnering with a software developer in healthcare can lift the cost and burden of creating that custom software off the shoulders of the healthcare facility.  

Developers may focus on low-code software, which is deployed quickly to meet specific needs, or fully custom solutions, which are designed to solve more complex problems and should be flexible enough to be applied across multiple use cases. 

A partner like Elxo that also offers healthcare IT consulting services can deliver a comprehensive strategy, ensuring that the right software, hardware, and methodologies are in place, a crucial capability not only for enterprise-size facilities but also smaller medical practices.  

This can make an extraordinarily complex IT environment much more manageable and ensure that everything is lined up to improve the patient experience, health outcomes, and the healthcare organization’s operations. 

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