What Are The Main Factors That Have To Be Kept In Mind While Developing Healthcare Software?

Things have drastically changed due to the pandemic and there is an increase in the number of healthcare applications and software coming on the market. Obviously, this is the Peak Time of most active customers who are willing to buy this software and applications and take their services. Due to the hurry in developing a software or application, many business owners are not taking proper care of the development process and the key points are missed. The consequence of this Hurry behavior leads to a complete technical and marketing failure leading to a huge loss. Therefore, you have to focus on every element of it while the Software is developing and proceed step by step. For your help, here we have covered almost all the points that you need to make a checklist of and ensure the all-round quality of the development process. 

1. Determine your Target Audience

Defining the target audience is a crucial factor for the success of Healthcare software, as this factor will be responsible for the wellness and safety of many patients. Hence, Before planning to build software for healthcare, it is essential to know more detailed target audience behavior.

While choosing a target audience, keep such points in mind:

• Demographics-It include age, gender, education, nationality, and income group of your target audience
• Psychographics- It includes identification of repetitive health needs of the target audience 
• Behavior- You should identify whether the audience you are targeting trust software for health-related issues or not.

2. Find the Sustainability of your idea

If you start working on Developing Healthcare Management Software without prior research about the sustainability of your idea, you may lose the market. 

Here is the checklist to identify whether your idea is sustainable or not:

• Does your software solve any common problem an average person can face regarding healthcare?
• Imagine a person has come to you with this idea, Are you willing to pay for this particular product or service? How much would you expect to pay? Answers to these questions will help you in realizing the potential of your idea to earn money.
• Is your idea scalable? Here scalability means the number of customers you can reach. Is your product or service reachable to more people if you want? 

3. Determine the type of Application

Healthcare software offers a range of benefits, from improving health administration to delivering good quality care for patients. If you want to create feature-rich healthcare software that has accurate and required features then you need to determine the type of healthcare software you want to develop. 

• Electronic Health Record
• Online Appointment Scheduling
• Remote Patient Monitoring
• Hospital Management Softwares
• Medical Research System
• Diagnosis Software
• Medical Equipments or Medicine Marketplace

4. Define the primary and secondary functionality

According to the type of healthcare software, you need to decide the primary and secondary functionality of the software. If you want to create an online appointment scheduling software, features like User Registration, Doctor’s availability, appointment book, Payment options will be the primary functions of your software. Sorting filter based on availability, booking amount and more comes under secondary functionality.

Some beneficial features for healthcare software like notifications, reminders, calendars, and activity trackers help in improving the overall experience of the user to improve user experience.

5. Create a User Guide

After creating a healthcare software there might be some features that you want customers to understand easily, for that you need a User Guide.  Healthcare software solution service providers have a deep understanding of software and you must consult your dedicated development team or company while making a User guide.

Here are some important points to take care of-

• Manual should be in a task-oriented format, explain every feature in easy language
• Emphasize on the end-user and create in their language and symbols they understand
• Make sure you specify how to use software functions to make their job easier.

6. Consider the Differences for Locations

If you are planning to launch your software for different countries then you must take care of the differences such as:

• Time Zones
• Languages
• Healthcare protection standards
• Unit system(Currency and other measuring standards)

6. Decide Functional Structure:

As you decide the primary and secondary functions for the healthcare management system, you can construct the functional structure of software. The functional structure represents the hierarchy of modules. You can decide what are control modules, sub-modules, and how to connect these modules. Also, It helps you in determining a clear view of Control flow, Data flow, and operations carried out by each module in healthcare management software development.

7. Interactive UI/UX designs

UI/UX designs play an important role in developing healthcare management software to deliver better usability of functions. Since you choose Healthcare software designing, you need to decide UI/UX designs very carefully because a typical user for your software is a person with some health issue.

Use colors for meaning, readable fonts, text-alignments, and icons to build attractive User Interface. When it comes to UX, all the elements should be visible and easy to use.

8. Data Synchronization

Based on the type of software, you need to integrate an efficient system for data synchronization for real-time updates of the necessary information. 

If you are creating a medicine marketplace then the system should constantly update the information about the current stock of medicine. Also, the same relates to changes in patient data like adding new prescription or test results data.

9. Data Security

Patient’s personal information, medical history, test results, or prescriptions are highly confidential. Hence, Security assurance will be a priority while collecting patient data through digital healthcare software. Processing and storage of information poses a significant risk of confidential information leakage and cyber attacks. So, Healthcare software solution providers must satisfy the standard released by Government Medical authorities for security purposes.

Healthcare software developers should recognize various methods and encryptions techniques to ensure data protection from any external malware.

10. Integrate Payment Systems

If your healthcare software includes pre-payment options, market place, or operates on a subscription basis, you need to integrate a secure payment mechanism with custom settings and features. 

With the help of healthcare software developers, you can integrate and execute an automated payment system to help users to minimize time spent on the hectic payment procedures. Make sure the payment method you will use in your software should be reliable and secure.

11. Don’t forget about Testing

Testing is always a crucial part of any software but in the case of Healthcare Management Software Development, you have to be extra cautious and accurate. Quality of Healthcare software not only impacts your reputation but also the risk of a patient’s life in some cases.

Testers must be aware of government regulations to ensure that test strategy and execution methods accommodate them. The more features and functionalities a healthcare software solution has more it needs to be tested.

12. Reporting

A report format that clearly shows the expected outcomes in a clear way that is understandable for even laymen are needed in the Healthcare Industry. Doing testing at this step is preferred to understand the terminology and see the reactions of the audience for this format.  The Report Format or the dashboard of the report should be different for different tests conducted by the doctor. The report feature should be connected with the lab of the hospital and should be visible to the patient but with only information that is understandable by him.

13. Data Analysis

The data collected through so many patients, their disease reports, and recovery data should be stored in a protected and structured format. This is very valuable data that can help the hospital management prepare for the increased cases and also to do research over the same.

Data is said to be the oil for technology and many chronic illnesses have been treated easily with the help of technology. The apps and Software are an essential part of this complete technology system.

14. Modifications to improve the user experience

There are multiple levels of testing involved while developing a mobile app or software. The development team should be in good sync with the Software Testing team to do the modifications required after the initial level of testing. Quick modifications and then rigorous testing until the software or app is fully functional to be launched in the market, is very important. You can add new features or modify existing features on the basis of the reaction received during different levels of testing. The critical part is to not miss even a single bug and prioritize the bugs.

Recommended Reading- How Much Does It Cost To Develop A Website?

These points are the comprehensive checklist that covers your software all in every perspective and makes you ready to take the next step. These are the best Tips for Healthcare Software development you will find anywhere. The next step will be to find someone suitable for the Development of Healthcare App. The best solution is to hire a Healthcare App development Company because they will take care of every aspect and have developed many apps before this too. So, don’t forget the above points while looking out for your Development Partner.

MavenCluster is one such company that has successfully developed and deployed numerous apps for the healthcare industry and software for hospitals that are working efficiently and helping the doctors work in a better way. With 10+ years of legacy behind the custom software development industry, MavenCluster has become the favorite of their clients in all company reviewing sites with 5 Star reviews filling the buckets.