What is custom healthcare software development?
With custom software development, the modern-day healthcare industry is being completely transformed. From administrators to patients, all stakeholders are benefiting.
EHR & EMR solutions, HIE & RPM systems, telehealth platforms, patient portals – the technology is evolving. Business leaders are harnessing expanded accessibility, greater efficiency and performance, and unobstructed data management.
This write-up is exploring how custom software development shapes today’s healthcare practices and services and why you should consider investing in personalization.
Understanding terminology
The debate on whether it’s better to invest in custom or off-the-shelf software integration is never-ending. Budget, deadlines, functionality, integration, scalability, security, and others – the factors worth considering are making the decision quite complicated.
But first things first, let’s distinguish between concepts:
- Bespoke solutions are designed to meet business-specific requirements, both functional and technical
- Commercial solutions are designed to provide generic features, thus meeting common requirements, which means the might not align with unique business operations
Market trends
Both during and after the recent COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare IT dynamics have witnessed rapid growth. With lockdowns and restrictions that obstructed face-to-face consultations and transportation, and others, digital healthcare has been gaining momentum.
The numbers are evident:
- The healthcare IT market is estimated at trimming $358.5 billion in 2024
- The global EHR market is forecast to increase by perceptible $54.7 billion in 2024-2028
Artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence is among those popular, permanently spotlighted custom healthcare technology trends, completely transforming everyday administration, diagnosis, treatment, and other mission-critical operations.
The algorithms can collect, store, analyze, and interpret unstructured information to automate data processing. The benefits are obvious – increased accuracy, decreased discrepancy, real-time insights, informed decisions, and more.
Cloud transformation
Cloud computing – also among continually sought-after custom healthcare technology trends.
The technology, by leveraging remote servers, is changing data processing and management across industries. The benefits might comprise data security and accessibility, data analytics, disaster recovery, greater scalability, and even regulatory compliance.
Custom healthcare software development: key features
Electronic health records (EHR)
Electronic health record software are solutions that contain digital versions of paper-based medical history. These comprise coordination details, multi-provider records and protocols, and other important information that accelerates data exchange between facilities.
But besides generic features, what capabilities can bring additional benefit?
| Off-the-shelf features | Custom capabilities |
| Patient history | Data mining |
| Patient demographics | Predictive analytics |
| Order entry | Image analysis |
| Results management | Personalized treatment |
| Immunization records | Fraud detection |
| Medication management | Risk stratification |
| Manual documentation | Automated documentation |
| Manual billing and coding | Automated coding and billing |
| Appointment scheduling | Disease detection |
| Appointment reminders | Genomic analysis |
With custom developed features, you leverage data-driven insights, accurate diagnosis, targeted interventions, and accelerated everyday performance.
Electronic medical records (EMR)
Electronic medical record software is similar, also containing digitized versions of patient’s medical documents. These comprise administrative details, single-provider records and templates, treatment plans, progress notes, and other intra-practice information that streamlines clinical workflows within facilities.
But beyond commercial features, what capabilities might facilitate competitive advantage and differentiation?
| Off-the-shelf features | Custom capabilities |
| Clinical summaries | Data harmonization |
| Diagnosis coding | Predictive modeling |
| Electronic charting | Real-time alerts |
| Progress notes | Nursing assistants |
| Lab results | Automated triage |
| Radiology reports | Symptom checking |
| Care coordination | Smart scheduling |
| Maintenance reminders | Data-driven pathways |
| Visit documentation | Intelligent Workflow Optimization |
| Prescription management | Dynamic Protocol Management |
Through custom developed features, you harness care consistency, increased efficiency, decreased no-shows, and streamlined patient outcomes.
Abto Software’s healthcare projects worth mentioning:
- A custom EMR solution for simplified practice management
- A tailored EMR solution for diagnostic imaging network
Health information exchange (HIE)
Health information exchange systems are designed to enable information transmission between organizations. HIE details typically include patient demographics, medical history, diagnoses, medications, reports, images, and other important records directly impacting healthcare delivery.
Custom features worth considering:
- Data standardization – data conversion to established, consistent formats to ensure data uniformity, thus improving clinical decision-making
- Data normalization – data organization, which means breaking down datasets into related tables, thereby enhancing data management
Remote patient monitoring (RPM)
Remote patient monitoring systems are designed to enable patient management by using connected devices. RPM details typically include blood pressure and glucose, physical activity, body temperature, sleep patterns, and other health indicators.
Custom features worth implementing:
- Health assessments – data collection and evaluation against established health metrics and standards
- Disease management – data integration and monitoring to suggest proactive interventions
Telehealth platforms
Telehealth platforms are platforms healthcare providers are utilizing to interact with personnel and patients. Telehealth software is integrated for remote healthcare consultations and follow-ups, disease management, emergency consultations, specialist referrals, and other basic services.
To accelerate business efficiency and performance, you should go beyond generic features and implement:
Real-time translation
How can healthcare professionals responsibly provide remote consultations when facing language roadblocks? By leveraging artificial intelligence, in particular – real-time translation.
The concept is simple:
- Language detection – the system first detects the languages being spoken by doctor and patient
- Speech recognition – the system then converts the speech into text
- Machine translation – the algorithm instantly translates the conversation
- Text-to-speech conversion – the system finally converts the text into speech in the target language
Virtual triage
How can healthcare personnel correctly prioritize incoming requests when confronting inadequate workload? Once again, by harnessing artificial intelligence, more specifically – virtual triage.
The concept in brief:
- Initial assessment – the patient first interacts with the virtual assistant to provide the symptoms
- Symptom analysis – the system then processes received information to categorize those symptoms
- Decision support – the program applies algorithms to determine the patient’s condition severity
- Informed recommendation – the system will provide data-driven recommendations and guidance
Patient portals
Patient portals are also among applications healthcare providers are leveraging to facilitate better interaction. Patient-centric software is integrated for navigation through records, medical histories, requests, summaries, and other healthcare-related documentation.
To streamline user satisfaction and loyalty, you should forget about general-purpose features and implement:
Predictive alerts
To illustrate an example: a patient that suffers cardiovascular complications is having a startling cardiac pattern. By applying machine learning, the solution can identify potential implications and generate predictive alerts and advise the patient to consult a doctor.
Virtual assistance
By way of illustration: a patient is looking for advice on managing diabetes symptoms, but can’t reach anyone. By applying machine learning and other advanced algorithms, the solution can retrieve essential information and provide personalized advice – dietary recommendations, medication schedules, and more.
Custom healthcare software development: key benefits
Data accuracy
One parameter you should definitely consider before choosing your strategy – data accuracy and consistency.
Data accuracy is important to ensure healthcare assessment, diagnosing, treatment, and feedback are reliable. Entry forms, validation rules, data syncing and retrieval, error detection, role-based access, training modules – with custom healthcare software, you eliminate data discrepancy.
Data analytics
Another parameter that might entirely transform your operations and outcomes – data analytics and integrity.
Data analytics are essential to benchmark healthcare outcomes, protocol adherence, and other critical factors. Data visualization, real-time processing, predictive analytics, patient tracking, trend analysis, risk stratification – with custom medical software, you facilitate informed decision-making.
Patient engagement
Patient engagement goes beyond appointment scheduling, payment processing, and other healthcare features. Custom healthcare software solutions might provide tailored functionality for improved patient satisfaction – customizable interfaces, language translation, and more.
In particular, mature organizations might implement advanced technology to accelerate patient engagement:
Regulatory compliance
Regulatory compliance – another attribute worth considering speaking about healthcare operation and safety. Custom medical software development might provide on-demand functionality to enhance generic measures going beyond security policies, firewall, antivirus, and similar.
Strategic companies are treating regulatory compliance as their foremost priority:
- 35% of risk professionals are adopting innovational technology to meet regulatory requirements
- 80% of risk professionals acknowledge compliance among valuable business functions
How we can help
Abto Software – a custom healthcare software development company with proven, domain-specific expertise. Preliminary discovery, requirement documentation, design, engineering, quality assurance, and deployment – our company covers everything, and that with respect to established healthcare standards.
Why not embrace custom healthcare software development services handled professionally?
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