Guide to Healthcare Software Development in 2024: Know Types, Costs Life Cycle, and More
Healthcare software development is at the forefront of transforming medical and healthcare services. Hospitals are increasingly adopting healthcare IT solutions, spurred by continuous service improvements from industry players to meet growing consumer demands.
Cleveland Clinic is already using AI and continuously ramping up its technology framework to offer the best patient care. Many others are moving ahead on similar lines.
The adoption is soaring and so too is the healthcare IT market, as reflected in its impressive projected size of $663.08 billion, with a robust CAGR of 15.8% from 2024 to 2030, as Grand View Research found.
As a healthcare provider, you must be very keen to be part of this growth. However, you must know what it takes to build healthcare software. Get all your questions surrounding healthcare software development in 2024 answered below before you start building a software product for your needs.
As we see, rapid adoption of various healthcare systems is contributing to continuous growth of the healthcare industry size. (Image Source: Grand View Research)
What is Healthcare Software Development?
Healthcare software development is the process of designing, developing, and maintaining digital solutions specifically for the healthcare sector. It starts with detailed requirements gathering to understand the specific needs of healthcare providers against the regulations such as Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) prescribed for the healthcare sector.
Types of Healthcare Software
Healthcare software comes in many forms, each designed to address specific needs within the healthcare and medical field. Types of Healthcare Software includes; EHR Software, EMR Software, Telemedicine software, Medical Billing software, ePrescribing Software and Laboratory Information Management Software. Working together, these software types create a comprehensive healthcare technology ecosystem that prove beneficial to healthcare providers in many respects.
EHR (Electronic Health Record) and EMR (Electronic Medical Record)
EHR and EMR systems serve as digital versions of patients’ paper charts because they provide real-time, patient-centered records, which, however, are accessible to authorized users. A notable feature of EHRs is that they are designed to share information with other healthcare providers and organizations, while EMRs are primarily used within one organization.
These systems revolutionize the way healthcare data – medical histories, diagnoses, medications, immunization dates, allergies, radiology images, and laboratory results are maintained. These systems improve the efficiency of care as comprehensive patient information is easily accessible to healthcare staff. And while there are chances of errors in manual data maintenance, these digital tools eliminate those chances, and improve overall healthcare quality.
Hospital Management Software
Hospital management software integrates various modules to handle tasks such as patient registration, appointment scheduling, billing, bed management, and inventory control. It is a basic kind of a software application used by healthcare facilities these days. The sophistication in the software depends on the peculiar needs of the facility.
Technically, hospital management software centralizes all data and automates routine operations like patient registration and admission, appointment scheduling, billing and invoice, medical equipment and pharmacy inventory management. So, it brings all these diverse activities under one umbrella and improves process efficiency.
Telemedicine Software
Telemedicine software makes possible remote consultation between healthcare providers and patients. Equipped with features such as video conferencing, secure messaging, and digital file sharing, it allows doctors to diagnose, treat, and monitor patients without the need for in-person appointments.
Experiencing an increase of around 38 percent post COVID pandemic, telemedicine software has become a good option for patients in remote areas, those with mobility issues, or those in situations where physical distancing is required or for post surgery consultation. To healthcare providers it helps manage time more effectively and expand access to medical care.
Medical Billing Software
Medical billing software performs the important task of submitting and tracking medical claims. It handles the entire billing cycle, right from patient registration and insurance verification to claim submission, payment posting, and offers analytics and reporting features, thus improving revenue cycle management.
Around 91% of people prefer electronic medical billing, which highlights why these tools are essential. A Large healthcare organization where thousands of patients visit every day (Reportedly, Mayo Clinic handles more 3500 patients per day across its facilities) not adopting these systems will find its billing operations in a disastrous state, causing inconvenience to patients.
ePrescribing Software
ePrescribing software allows healthcare providers to electronically send prescriptions directly to pharmacies, thus replacing traditional handwritten prescriptions. While eliminating the need at the end of patients to carry the prescription, it improves prescription accuracy, reduces medication errors, and speeds up the fulfillment process for patients. Notably, ePrescribing has shown to reduce prescription error percentage to 6.6% from 42.5% per 100 prescriptions.
These systems integrate with EHR systems where medications are automatically added to a patient’s medical record. Other functionalities that ePrescribing software provides include alerts about potential drug interactions, allergies, and other contraindications, which enhances patient safety.
Laboratory Information Management Systems
Laboratory Information Management Systems (LIMS) support the operations of laboratories by managing samples, associated data (sample source, sample type, collection data and time, storage conditions, results, reagents used, stock levels of various lab equipment), and laboratory workflows.
LIMS tracks samples from receipt to disposal, manages inventory, and schedules equipment maintenance. It plays an important role in supporting regulatory requirements and quality assurance in laboratory environments and is an essential tool in the healthcare ecosystem.
Digital transformation in healthcare is occuring fast, contributed by these tech trends. (Image Source: Grand View Research)
Types of Custom Healthcare Software Development
Custom healthcare software development caters to diverse needs of healthcare organizations and addresses requirements from both patients and healthcare professionals. There are two main categories of custom healthcare software development: Software Development for Patients or General Users and Software Development for Healthcare Professionals.
Software Development for Patients or General Users
These applications are designed to provide a user-friendly interface so that even individuals can handle their healthcare tasks efficiently. Features include appointment scheduling, prescription management, access to medical records, and remote consultations.
Patients benefit significantly from having a centralized platform where they can easily view and share their health information. These tools also integrate wearable device data to offer a comprehensive view of a patient’s health metrics, such as heart rate, physical activity, and sleep patterns. Additionally, it supports chronic disease management by providing requisite tools.
Software Development for Healthcare Professionals
On the other side of the spectrum, custom healthcare software development tailored for healthcare professionals addresses the complex needs of medical practitioners, administrators, and support staff. These applications are built to digitize physician-centric processes like clinical workflows and patient care.
Features like e-prescribing, lab result integration, and clinical decision support tools are integral to these systems and are given attention while building these tools as they aid clinician decision making.
Practice management software is developed as part of this process. It handles all administrative tasks such as patient registration, billing, and scheduling. Automating these processes reduces administrative burdens, allowing healthcare professionals to focus more on patient care. Telemedicine platforms also form an essential part of this category.
Understanding the Healthcare Software Development Process
To successfully convert an idea into a product, a healthcare software development life cycle takes it through a series of following steps.
Step 1: Planning and Analysis:
Determining the specific needs of a healthcare facility is the first step in the development process. Start by conducting a thorough needs assessment to identify the requirements that the software must fulfill. Analyze the process for which the software has to be developed.
Preliminary analysis is followed by a feasibility study that assesses the project’s technical and financial viability and defines its scope and sets realistic goals. Regulatory compliance is another critical consideration. Know which regulations you will have to adhere to throughout the development process, and align the development plan to it accordingly.
Step 2: Design
Designing is a broad step where multiple activities are carried out. The architecting team crafts the software architecture, specifying both hardware and software requirements. Then the design team, creating interfaces keeping user-friendliness in mind by collaborating with various stakeholders – doctors, nurses, and administrative staff.
The design phase focuses on ensuring that the software’s layout and navigation are intuitive, accessible for all intended users, and promotes ease of use and efficiency. Flexibility must be observed in designing, allowing for necessary changes in the design in future.
Step 3: Coding and Building
This is a step where the actual process of development begins. After having received the requirements from business analysts and architecture from software architects, the development team begins the implementation process. Healthcare software developers leverage diverse programming languages and tools that aptly suit the project’s needs.
The development team needs to possess not just strong programming skills but also have exposure to the healthcare industry. They need to understand how various healthcare processes work as any loophole directly impacts patient care and can result in disastrous consequences for a healthcare institution. However, not many developers bring strong knowledge of healthcare processes, as a result of which healthcare staffing shortages remain one of the biggest healthcare challenges.
Step 4: Testing
Various tests are performed to validate the effectiveness of the developed software. The first is unit testing where each module is tested in isolation to confirm it performs accurately and reduces the likelihood of errors during integration. Testing will focus on whether the medication management module correctly updates patient prescriptions and alerts clinicians to potential drug interactions.
Next comes integration tests, how each component interacts within a larger system. For instance, modules like electronic health records (EHRs), lab systems, and billing must communicate seamlessly. This step is followed by system testing, where the entire software system is tested under real-world conditions. Acceptance testing comes next to validate that the software meets the needs of users – doctors, nurses, and administrative staff.
Step 5: Deployment
The rollout begins with a phased approach, starting with a pilot deployment in a single department or clinic. The initial phase is used to identify unforeseen issues in a controlled environment before a full-scale implementation. Technical teams configure the necessary hardware and software infrastructure so that the implemented system will be compatible with existing software applications. They adjust network configurations to support secure and efficient data transmission, and rigorous security protocols are implemented for data protection.
Training is important in deployment. It covers different modules for doctors, nurses, and other staff that will be using the software. Training sessions cover essential functions, such as data entry, patient management, and report generation, and provide troubleshooting guidance for common issues.
Step 6: Maintenance and Updates
Software Maintenance is a regular activity that addresses issues that arise and ensures the software continues to function smoothly The tool is periodically updated by bringing new features, enhancing security, and improving performance.
Automated diagnostic tools will be employed to continuously scan the system for potential vulnerabilities or errors in data processing. When issues are identified, these systems perform prompt patching and bug fixing and maintain the reliability of functionalities. A healthcare application will be required to be updated not just for performance reasons but also to meet the regulatory needs, as changes in regulations will require you to bring changes to align with the procedural changes.
Step 7: Evaluation
Last comes evaluation that assess whether the software meets the intended goals and supports effective healthcare operations. Collecting feedback from users provides valuable insights for future improvements or changes.
A robust feedback loop ensures that the software evolves in response to user needs and maintains its relevance and effectiveness in the dynamic healthcare environment.
Features To Add in Custom Healthcare Software
When building a custom software application to meet your healthcare needs, you must be keen on having these features in your software, so that it can work as a comprehensive healthcare software solution.
- Patient Scheduling and Management
- Messaging and Communication
- External Integration
- AI-based diagnostics support and Patient data analytics
It is a comprehensive system that handles the booking, rescheduling, and cancellation of patient appointments. It manages resource allocation, such as assigning rooms, equipment, and medical staff, efficiently organizes appointments and helps in optimal use of all clinical resources.
Through encrypted messaging, secure file sharing, and video conferencing capabilities, the system maintains compliance with HIPAA and other privacy regulations. These features support effective care coordination, timely patient updates, and improved patient engagement by providing access to care instructions and healthcare information.
Interoperability between healthcare software and other platforms like EHRs, laboratory information systems, and medical imaging devices is made possible by external integration capabilities. By employing standard protocols such as HL7 and FHIR, the software integrates with various systems getting access to patient information, test results, and imaging data that are stored across disparate systems.
Artificial Intelligence-based diagnostics is based on machine learning algorithms that analyze complex data from imaging scans, pathology reports, and patient records. These tools predict potential diagnoses, identify disease patterns, and suggest personalized treatment options. Patient data analytics provides deep insights by analyzing extensive health data through predictive modeling, data mining, and visualization techniques. Demographic data, medical histories, and treatment responses form input for predictions. Through these features, a healthcare application helps build personalized care plans. They are used to benchmark performance against clinical standards and identify areas for enhancement in care delivery.
Cost of Healthcare Software Development
The cost of healthcare software you are developing would depend on the type of software and its magnitude, meaning whether it is small-scale, medium-scale, or large-scale software. We offer a breakdown of these three types to give you an idea of what cost you can expect.
- Small-Scale Healthcare Software
- Medium-Scale Healthcare Software
- Large-Scale Healthcare Software
Creating a basic healthcare app for patient scheduling or simple health tracking, typically costs between $20,000 and $50,000. These solutions often require fewer features and less complexity. Development time is usually shorter, and a small team of developers can handle the project.
Medium-scale healthcare software, which include comprehensive patient management systems or telemedicine platforms, generally requires a budget ranging from $100,000 to $300,000. Intricate features like video consultations, secure messaging, and integration with electronic health records (EHR) are part of these applications. Development takes longer, often necessitating a larger team and more extensive testing to meet industry standards.
Fully integrated EHR systems or hospital management systems cost anywhere from $500,000 to several million dollars. These solutions are complex and require robust security measures, extensive data handling capabilities, and compliance with numerous healthcare regulations. Development often spans many months or even years, with a substantial team of developers, designers, testers, and compliance experts working collaboratively.
Factors Affecting Cost of Healthcare Software Development
Cost of software development in healthcare is affected by various factors. We discuss major factors that may affect cost. However, the peculiarities of your project may bring diverse factors along with these common ones. Take into account every single factor that is expected to affect your cost to arrive at perfect estimates, while first considering these main factors.
- Scope and Complexity of the Software
- Project Duration and Team Size
- Integration with Existing Systems
- User Interface and User Experience Design
- Regulatory Compliance Requirements
- Security Measures
- Technology Stack
The breadth and intricacy of the software directly influence costs. Comprehensive systems with multiple features, modules, and intricate workflows require more development time and resources, thereby increasing expenses. Simple applications with limited functionality generally cost less.
Longer projects necessitate sustained labor, driving up costs. Larger teams often mean higher expenses due to increased salaries and coordination efforts. Conversely, shorter projects with smaller teams can be more cost-effective but may lack extensive capabilities.
Seamless integration with current systems is critical. Compatibility issues, data migration, and synchronization tasks demand specialized skills and extra development time, which can significantly escalate costs. Simple standalone solutions tend to be less expensive.
A polished and intuitive UI/UX design is essential for user satisfaction but adds to the development cost. Crafting custom designs, conducting user testing, and iterating based on feedback require substantial effort and investment compared to basic, template-driven designs.
Healthcare software must adhere to strict regulatory standards like HIPAA in the U.S. Compliance mandates additional features for data protection, auditing, and reporting. Meeting these standards necessitates extra development and testing, increasing the overall cost.
Robust security protocols are vital for safeguarding sensitive health data. Implementing advanced encryption, multi-factor authentication, and regular security audits requires specialized expertise and additional development time, thereby raising the project’s cost.
The choice of technology stack impacts both development and maintenance costs. Cutting-edge technologies might offer superior performance and scalability but often come with higher initial investment. Conversely, older technologies may reduce upfront costs but can incur higher maintenance expenses over time.
To Wrap Up
Innovations are occuring at a rapid pace within the healthcare industry. As new trends are emerging, mere adoption of software applications by healthcare providers is not enough. To build a successful healthcare technology ecosystem, they must be proactive in embracing the latest healthcare technology trends.
We realize how a professional healthcare software development company plays an important role in building a digital healthcare ecosystem, as it brings strong exposure to the industry and expertise of building process-specific solutions. There is no right time to start, rather a provider must start building solutions right away and those who have a technology ecosystem must scrutinize their setup and look for improvement opportunities so as to take efficiency to the next level.