5 Elements to Building Successful Healthcare Systems

Healthcare applications and systems

Healthcare web and mobile apps are hot in demand across the world, close on the heels of the new generation’s fitness passion. The healthcare industry is undergoing the transformation in the wake of dynamic markets and new and everchanging Government rules that have been keeping

healthcare providers on their toes. Add to it, the need for compliances and burgeoning competition that leave healthcare providers vying with one another to come up with the best-in-class solution in healthcare systems.

The way things stand, healthcare providers need to create a high-quality, sustainable system with a unique positioning that is backed by an intuitive design and supported by the robust architecture.

5 Key steps in creating a winning healthcare applications and systems

 

1. Discovery

Every corporate sponsor of a healthcare solution needs to ascertain the objective of the application and the process of use by its user. It is extremely important to also know and understand how the app will benefit all its user segments.

At Vatsa, we go through the following steps as part of the discovery process:

  1. Understand the business and process in depth
  2. Study the business processes and flow
  3. Identify and understand the pain points in the process
  4. Know end-user feedback about the processes and how the company intends to resolve pain points and bottlenecks.
  5. Know the company’s objective for creating the application and what behavior/process transformation the sponsor intends (in the above case – it could be ‘easy appointment booking, cancellation’, ‘patient access and doctor access’ to ‘access to patient history of X number of years’ and so on and so forth.

2. Detailing and Feature Decisions

This is a very critical and tactical step that one cannot miss out on. Before designing an application, the features need to be detailed out. Is the application going to have:

  1. A dashboard(s): How many dashboards and what should the dashboard ‘do’? Doctor dashboard; patient dashboard, etc.
  2. Will it have a portal for the patient, doctor, administrator or any other stakeholder? What should the portal do and what should it provide as a goal? What should the features of the portal be?
  3. Advanced analytics and reporting: What should be the analytical parameters and what type of reports should the app generate?
  4. Real-time chat and video, does the app need this; how will it help in improving performance and user benefits?
  5. Wearable integration: Should the application be ‘wearable integrated?’ A lifestyle mobile app might fall under this category

3. Design thinking

We at Vatsa have found this to be a critical step that establishes the dialogue between functionality, performance, design, and integration. While the overarching design has to be attractive and appealing, it also has to be simple and easy to use. UX plays an important role- that of providing an intuitive user interface that allows maximum user satisfaction

4. Robust standards-based Architecture that supports the design and performance of the application and the system

As important as design is to the success of a healthcare app, so is the architecture and adherence to various global healthcare regulations, compliances, and standards such as HIPAA, HL7, Qualified Clinical Data Registry (QCDR) and more. The architecture must also safeguard sensitive data against breach, as it needs to be well-equipped to handle and process huge sizes of sensitive patient medical data across millions of users around the world and multiple locations.

Integration of the application with the entire system is another critical aspect to be considered. How well the app integrates with the system will tell on how well the entire system performs and delivers.

5. Getting started

Once you have all the above information in hand, you need to decide on:

  1. The SDLC Model: Between the two, Waterfall and Agile methods, if you are working on a very critical, highly regulated application, the choice has to be the Waterfall model. However, the newer generation of applications see more value in adopting the Agile model and most go for a combination of SCRUM and KANBAN with a variation in sprint intervals. Each has its merits and demerits and the best one suited to the project on hand is chosen.
  2. Tech platform: Every application will have an overarching play across different technology platforms; making it future-proof is important. The decision of whether the application will be used in future as a cloud or a web app, or mobile app built as native, hybrid or a progressive web app, needs to be taken.
  3. Choosing the right development partner: It helps to go with an experienced development partner when you want to create a successful healthcare app. The partner must be experienced not only in any app development across different technology platforms but should also have adequate experience in developing standards-based healthcare system right up to advanced healthcare analytics.
  4. The development partner should be knowledgeable about healthcare best practices, safety norms, processes and standards in the world.

If you need to move on how to develop a successful healthcare app, write to us

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