Healthcare Software Development: A Comprehensive Guide to Follow in 2024

One industry that has widely benefited from the advancement of technology is healthcare. As digital health is a cornerstone of modern health systems worldwide, we are seeing a boom in healthcare software development. Technology has immense potential, providing companies with the powerful tools to remain competitive in healthcare. As AI, IoT, and Telemedicine are already ruling the roost in healthcare, there are plenty of other innovations that can take the sector to new heights.

In this article, we shall discuss some of the most crucial points, such as

Let’s discuss these points one by one in detail.

Healthcare software development is when any software or solution is built for healthcare, including pharmaceuticals, hospitals, medical, clinics, or MedTech. They are tailored software solutions that address the unique needs and challenges of the healthcare sector. These solutions range from electronic health records (EHR) systems to telemedicine apps, aiming to improve patient care, streamline operations, and enhance overall efficiency. Healthcare systems can improve overall healthcare practices and provide better and quality clinical services. For example,

Healthcare Software Development Market Trends

The global digital health market is expected to reach $660 billion by 2025. The digital health market size is set to grow by 19% (CAGR 2019-2025).

The market size is expected to grow exponentially, though the revenue in digital health has a different tale to narrate. According to Statista, 2023 is going to generate over US$170.20bn in revenue in the digital healthcare sector. The revenue generation will continue to show up with a growth rate of 10.07% (CAGR 2023-2028).

Simply put, the overall digital healthcare market is going to favor innovation. And, if you are looking to create healthcare software programs for any purpose, it will add value to your organization.

Types of Healthcare Software

If you just want a number, there were 41,517 mHealth apps available on the Apple App Store as of Q3 2022. But, the data is just for mHealth, a general-purpose application that anyone can download and use for their betterment. There are plenty of other healthcare solutions that healthcare professionals or hospitals can use to manage healthcare processes and patient treatment. So, we have a list of top types of healthcare software that add greater value to healthcare organizations.

If you are running a hospital, you can build custom Electronic Health Record Software (EHR) to manage and record patients’ health digitally. From patients’ medical history and treatment to test results, care conditions, and safety, EHR software provides you with a comprehensive view of all patients’ data. Doctors can easily check all details and provide better care.

e-Prescription Software

Handwritten prescriptions are long gone with E-Prescription software. Now, doctors and healthcare professionals can easily digitally send e-prescriptions to pharmacies or patients. With the advent, healthcare can reduce errors and enhance medication while streamlining the medication dispensing process. You can build this solution to provide better and improved care to your patients.

Healthcare CRM

Healthcare Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is crucial software for healthcare and has been one the trending in healthcare application development for many years. The solution helps them manage patient relationships, provide better care, improve communication, streamline healthcare processes, manage staff, and improve marketing efforts. It provides personalized patient engagement and even supports retention strategies.

Urgent Care Software

Picture this: a team doctor is in the operation theater to diagnose a patient, and there is no health record of the patient. Think about another scenario where a patient with urgent care needs standing in a long queue. In a real case scenario, we have developed one Care Plus mobile application for our clients that helps caregivers organize their schedules and manage events. All these scenarios call for a system or solution that addresses the needs of urgent care centers and clinics. With the software, a patient can check in easily while clinics can handle billing and record-keeping. Overall, urgent care software enhances the efficiency of urgent care operations, reducing wait times for patients.

Telehealth

Telehealth or telemedicine has already made a sensation in the healthcare sector. While doctors can easily provide remote medical consultation and monitor the health condition of patients, patients can connect with doctors anytime and get health advice. It’s instrumental in providing healthcare services to people living in remote areas or the countryside without proper healthcare facilities. It proves a boon during emergencies as doctors can easily connect with patients in remote areas.

Patient Monitoring Software

Software for wearable devices is creating magic just by allowing healthcare professionals to monitor patients’ health continuously. This is widely used when a doctor has to monitor patients remotely, especially post-surgery, chronic conditions, and others. Usually, remote monitoring through telehealth is possible through wearable devices.

Hospital Management Software

A hospital management software solution is a comprehensive solution that covers a broad range of functions within a healthcare facility. It can be many things, including patient admissions, billing, scheduling, and inventory management. Overall, custom hospital management software is designed to address the specific challenges of hospitals. In general, the software helps hospitals streamline hospital operations, enhances patient care, and reduces administrative overhead.

Some of the General Purpose Healthcare Software development you can consider, such as;

Common health monitoring software,like BP checkup machines, sugar checkup equipment, etc.

Fitness and medication tracking software that users can use to track and record health and fitness.

eHealth education software to help medical students learn about the treatment and other things.

Mental health software to help patients overcome their mental illness.

You can find hundreds of examples of healthcare applications. It will be overwhelming for you to choose one from the many out there for your idea. But, the list given below names some of the top-rated healthcare apps that are popular among users. We have selected the best healthcare applications with the highest positive reviews. Take a look at these applications.

Medscape

It’s one of the reputed examples of healthcare applications. It provides medical information for clinicians and medical scientists. It has plenty of resources for individuals, patients, doctors, hospitals, and other healthcare professionals. Apart from all these, the website also provides continuing education for physicians and healthcare workers.

Apple Health

Apple Health is the most popular app, offering a wide selection of healthcare data at your fingertips. Apple Inc. launched the app on June 2, 2014, at its Worldwide Developers Conference. It’s a good app for iPhone and iPad users as they can also track their health records, medications, labs, activity, and sleep using this application.

PEPID®

Strictly for healthcare professionals, the app sources a huge number of drug data for doctors, hospitals, and others in the healthcare sector.

WebMD

WebMD is popular among users who need healthcare-related information—another widely used mobile medical app available on Android as well as iOS. The app provides access to information and resources related to medication. It helps users check health symptoms, set medication reminders, learn about health conditions, explore various drugs, and research treatments and diagnosis.

HealthTap – Telehealth Doctors

HealthTap is the most popular telehealth app in the USA that enables patients to connect with certified healthcare providers anytime, from anywhere. They can take healthcare advice over text or video calls.

Fitbit

It’s the best app for fitness freaks for tracking health, setting goals, tracking progress, doing exercise, and planning diet. It can do a lot of things to offer you a healthy lifestyle.

Top Trends in Medical Software Development 2024

The healthcare sector is growing, and technologies play a crucial role in keeping this sector thriving. But, the winner in this sector is the one who keeps track of healthcare software development trends. We have made a list of top trending technologies that will make a big difference in healthcare sectors in the coming years. Here, we have mentioned the names, and you can explore the details just by visiting our previous article on the same.

The Role of Healthcare Software Development Company

Before we discuss the process, you need to connect with your tech partner. You must have a question —what role will your healthcare software development company play in building software? Well, they will not just help you build a healthcare application but help you, from planning to executing your healthcare software app development idea. For example, at Codzgarage, we help clients create project scope and even help you with research for your healthcare application.

When you opt for a software development agency for healthcare applications, you will get specialized support.

What is the Custom Healthcare Software Development Process?

When you want to build custom healthcare software, you need to follow a process to ensure you meet your goal and build the app that serves your purposes. You can go through the process to learn every step to make a high-performing and scalable healthcare application. Let’s explore.

Plan What You Want to Build

Having an idea for your healthcare project is nice, but it’s of no use if you do not execute it. So, you need to implement your idea into action. So, you have an idea of building a healthcare application. Now, you need to think about what you want to build. It will require research. For example, you can think about whether you want to build a healthcare solution, fitness app, or website for hospitals.

What Problem Will It Solve

The best way to give your idea the right direction is to think about the problem that you want to solve with the healthcare solution. Once you identify the problem, you can easily figure out the solution. For example, if you want to build something for your customers, it can be a doctor appointment app, telemedicine app, and more.

Define Your Target Audience

Once you decide what problem your product is going to solve, you must explore your target audience. You may create user personas for better understanding. You may need to hire professionals to get things done correctly. If you cannot create user personas, you can just go with exploring the target audience by understanding the market. For example, think about the project you are creating and then find out users’ pain points. What is that, the product is not solving properly. Besides, you must know who your target customers are and how many challenges you are going to solve with the products.

Select the Region

The region is important because the choice of your healthcare product will depend on the region you want to target. For example, if you are targeting the countryside region, you may have to come up with products that users from the particular region need.

Select a Healthcare Software Development Partner

You are done with the prerequisites. You need to select a healthcare software development partner. A perfect custom software development company is crucial to help you make high-quality healthcare products. If you are outsourcing your software projects, you need to explore how to choose offshore software developers. Besides, you can learn the negotiation process and hire the best one after going through their work portfolios. You can also consider looking at reviews and testimonials given by clients on third-party websites, Clutch, GoodFirms, and others.

Design Your Product

Get your healthcare software project designed first. This is the very first beginning of your new healthcare app. You start small and create software architecture and system design.

You can use the information you have gathered during the research phase. Those pieces of information are very crucial as they will help you create appealing, user-focused interfaces. Think about every feature and functionality, ensuring it helps you provide a better user experience.

Develop Your Healthcare Software Product

Now, develop your product by turning the design into code. Your software development team for the healthcare project will form a team and start developing the project. Make sure they use MVP, albeit it can be skipped if your project timeline constraints. An MVP model is a method of creating software products with limited features for your early customers. They will use your product and give feedback. Based on the users’ feedback, you keep modifying the existing feature and creating new features side-by-side.

If you are skipping this MVP phase, you can develop your healthcare project with comprehensive features, ensuring all features and functionalities are intact and supporting users interacting with the app.

Test, Work on Bugs

Once the healthcare software is developed, it’s time to test your project for quality assurance. Make sure the project is tested and fixed if any bug is found during quality testing. Testing is a crucial part of the software product development life cycle that ensures your product is as per the project scope. There are various types of testing; you just have to confirm with your software development partner the testing process is correctly followed.

Deploy Your Software

Once you are done with development and testing, you need to deploy your software to the server. If you have developed a desktop application, you can install the software into your system. Once deployed, your software system is ready to use. If it is for users, let your users use it and focus on their feedback.

Review the Improve

Once your project is deployed for users, you and the software development partner need to review the outcome of the healthcare software project. Constantly review your project and improve if any loophole is found or occurs. Even though your software development firm will provide free post-development support, you need to affirm if it is included in the package. Or do you need to pay additional charges for the support?

Cost to Build Healthcare Software Development

The cost to build custom healthcare software may range from $50,000 to $388,000, depending on the type of healthcare software you want to build. The hourly rate, in this case, is no different from the cost of custom software development. Now, the cost of the range for each application will vary depending on various factors. It primarily depends on two factors. For example, whether you hire dedicated developers in-house or outsource your healthcare software development projects. In both cases, the cost will differ. Let’s explore them in detail;

When You Hire In-House Engineers

Hiring in-house developers costs you a fortune. But it ensures stability. From timely communication and transparent process to increased control over the project and no cultural and language barriers. So, if you are budget-friendly, this option is suitable for you. Let’s calculate the software development costs for your healthcare projects in this scenario.

Note: This is a rough estimate for healthcare software development, not the final one. We have calculated the costs of healthcare software development in the USA. The price for custom software for your healthcare project will differ depending on the complexities of the project.

When You Outsource Healthcare Software Development

When you want flexibility in terms of healthcare software development costs, a vast pool of talents, and get the app built according to the new market trends. But, the primary reason why people outsource is ‘cost.’

Again, when you outsource, the cost of healthcare software development will differ based on the following factors. For example;

Let’s understand them through an example: if you outsource your projects within the USA, you may have to pay between $80-250/hr, depending on the skills and expertise of the developers.

If you outsource your project to Eastern Europe, the cost will be anywhere between $40-70/hr. Similarly, if you outsource your project to a South Asian country like India, the cost of software development for your healthcare project will range from $15-80/hr. You can even estimate the cost by exploring the cost of hiring full-stack developers based on the regions. Let us help with the approximate cost of outsourcing. The following is the cost estimate, in which we have included the total hours contributed by the team of engineers (developers, designers, QA, project managers, DevOps) over the duration of 6 months.

Based on this calculation, you estimate the cost.

How Can Codzgarage Help in Healthcare Software Development?

We are the top-rated custom software development company, offering a wide range of software development services to various industries, including healthcare. We have worked on various healthcare projects with clients from across the region. We can help you build high-quality and affordable healthcare software solutions. Whether you want to build a solution, website, or healthcare app, we are your one-stop destination for your healthcare needs. We have vetted a pool of engineers with diverse backgrounds. They are skilled in various technologies that give our client flexibility to choose the right team for their projects. Besides, we also help you with consultancy to decide the right fit options for healthcare software development.

Conclusion

We hope this healthcare software development guide helps you clear your doubts regarding healthcare software development. Now, hire dedicated engineers for your project and start your project. You can also connect with us to discuss your project.