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Healthcare software development in 2022: Key Trends
The past two years since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic have changed the world, but in a sense, they have accelerated processes and validated trends that were already tangible. Given the circumstances, healthcare has naturally been at the forefront of innovation.
There are a number of key trends in the industry that are very hard to ignore if a medical organization really wants to remain relevant at the very least, and we have selected the areas to address in 2022.
Telemedicine
Remote Patient Monitoring, Interactive Patient Care, and Store and Forward methods are all parts of Telemedicine – the ultimate form of remote communication between patients and medical professionals.
Telemedicine proved crucial during the COVID-19 pandemic. Remote care, online appointments, and video conferencing contributed more than just sparing resources to medical organizations. They granted all patients equal access to healthcare services and increased their quality. Those challenging times changed healthcare forever, and remote contact between patients and physicians has quickly become the norm.
Such a trend has greatly been helped by the expansion of Electronic Medical Records software and the process of medical records becoming digital to connect all data that is still separated. Self-care, online communication, and medical treatment and examinations only if essential – such characteristics of patient behavior are here to stay well beyond 2022.
EHR, HMS, PHR Software
Healthcare software solutions build the foundation of future-proof health technology. They facilitate the interaction between patients and medical institutions and provide medical organizations and professionals with a fluent workflow.
Electronic Health Recording (EHR) collects patient data and history, digitalizes and stores it. It facilitates data sharing across healthcare systems, minimizes the volumes of paperwork, accelerates all processes in the organization, and improves service quality.
Hospital Management Software (HMS) handles different aspects of the medical facility workflow to provide smooth communication between co-workers, automate routine tasks, and manage human and financial resources.
Personal Health Record Software (PHR) enables patients to assess their physical condition and manage treatment remotely. PHR is accessible from any device and contains the entire history of medications, immunizations, allergies, etc.
Other healthcare software solutions include E-Prescribing Software, Appointment Scheduling Software, Medical Imaging Software, Medical Diagnosis Software, and Medical Billing Software.
Blockchain
Blockchain technology can potentially revolutionize healthcare by pushing the boundaries of HealthTech. It increases supply chain transparency and guarantees secure online financial operations. The number of blockchain-related healthcare applications is rapidly growing as forward-thinking organizations have recognized the technology as a primary innovation driver for the industry.
Blockchain integration is projected to save billions of dollars within the next couple of years as it optimizes substantial costs related to software development, operations, personnel, and health data breaches. Future-proof, data-driven, and patient-centric solutions – progressive companies already know what is worth exploring in 2022 and beyond.
According to Statista, in 2021 AI systems in healthcare generated almost USD 7 billion in revenue compared to 2 billion in 2018 and 10 times up from 2014.
Infographic source: https://www.statista.com/statistics/938775/global-healthcare-artificial-intelligence-market-revenue/
Artificial Intelligence
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is becoming indispensable for the remote treatment of patients, new drugs development, and improving diagnoses accuracy. It is dramatically changing the way patients and healthcare providers interact. What is more, it is yet to play an even more crucial role in diagnostics healthcare, as it enhances human insights into care processes, treatment variability, and patient outcomes.
In oncology, AI analysis helps early cancer detection companies create mobile apps that evaluate the risk of cancer. This allows them to detect the illness years earlier than traditional methods. Quick and precise diagnostics combined with optimal anti-cancer drug combinations means AI now technically saves lives.
The Internet of Medical Things
IoT and Wearables (also known as IoMT – the Internet of Medical Things) include the likes of smartwatches, bio patches, smart hearing aids, and smart pills, and make healthcare more connected than ever. Physicians not only receive real-time information on the patients’ health state but use precise statistics on their sleep and nutrition habits or average activity level to perfect their treatment programs.
Self-care is becoming ubiquitous, as patients would rather contact medics remotely and get medical treatment only if necessary. Fitness trackers record and monitor their daily behavior to detect tendencies or anomalies and address improvements required to the routine. Healthier lifestyles and disease prevention are currently trending like never before, and IoMT is a suitable addition to this modern mindset.
Scalefocus worked with a global biotech company to develop and implement an innovative software solution that manages automation hardware to accelerate cancer diagnostics. The process leads to a proper treatment of affected patients as early as possible and eventually will help reduce women's mortality rate worldwide.
Big Data and Analytics
Data analytics devices and methods improve health prevention, intervention, and patient experience, increase healthcare efficiency and reduce costs. Big data allows businesses to base insights on numerical evidence and make data-driven decisions. It also enables researchers to combine historical, real-time, and predictive metrics in order to detect the new vaccines and medications’ weak and strong points.
Processing the amounts of information available today is technically impossible without big data, and it helps healthcare organizations to identify trends and anomalies, develop treatment plans and predict at-risk patients. It is indispensable for strategic planning, cybersecurity, and telemedicine and accelerates the time to market of new medical products and services.
Cloud Transformation
Healthcare organizations struggle to understand the significance of long-term cloud strategies – what steps to take, which types of data to migrate, and when. Adequate planning of cloud migration would optimize resources, leverage tech stacks, and reduce costs. These have been pain-points for many years, and the focus needs to turn to a complete overhaul of cloud infrastructures.
Scalefocus has established a number of remote development centers for our customers around the globe. This way, we help companies develop holistic strategies and transform outdated software solutions in compliance with their business models and needs. We have developed and deployed numerous software solutions, including a recent one for a significant US healthcare organization. As a result, cost savings surpassed 40% while doubling the speed to market with the help of private cloud-based platform. You can read the entire story here.
Security
According to a recent IBM report, the average cost of data breaches in healthcare is fast approaching the USD 10 million mark. Besides severe sanctions, medical organizations risk losing patients’ trust and business. That is why healthcare privacy and security will remain crucial for the industry beyond 2022, as protecting patient data will always be a top priority.
Infographic source: https://www.ibm.com/security/data-breach
Healthcare devices that process any patient health data must observe strict security standards and regulations, and this is merely a foundation to build upon. Scalefocus cybersecurity teams go beyond the security minimum – we utilize modernized platforms where compliance updates can be executed constantly and always upgrade them with advanced digital operational resilience testing.
Remote Software Development
Finding the best software solution provider is key to success in your digital transformation journey, and many healthcare organizations are turning to remote software development centers for cooperation. This way, they can concentrate on their core competencies while getting the level of flexibility and scalability any in-house team would struggle with.
For example, one of our clients, a global company fighting diseases on many fronts like oncology, immunology, infectious diseases, etc., benefited from enhanced operational effectiveness, reduced training and overhead costs, and expanded their R&D capabilities. You can find more about our mutual journey here.
Areas like Eastern Europe provide access to a formidable talent pool, and companies can cherry-pick top developers, engineers, or project managers.
Furthermore, cutting-edge technologies accelerate time to market, and different time zones extend business coverage, so the region’s popularity and especially its EU members Bulgaria, Romania, and Croatia, is only expected to grow.
Conclusions
Telemedicine, Blockchain, and AI might have been perceived as sci-fi only a few years back, but they have become the norm in modern healthcare and are improving it radically and at an extremely rapid pace, too. HealthTech has proven it can be more than beneficial to humanity by playing a major role in developing medicines and vaccines, providing high-quality patient care and diagnostics, and generally saving lives.
Scalefocus has extensive experience in healthcare and life science that has helped leading medical organizations in the US and Western Europe to excel in their digital journey.
Contact us today, we will be happy to discuss your projects and how we can help you scale them.
Krasimir Kunchev
Senior Content Writer