Across the healthcare landscape in the US, there is a challenge to achieve improvements to patient care and overcome increasing demands, disjointed systems, staffing and complex compliance. While off the shelf software can help solve individual issues, it may not be the best fit for your specific hospital, medical centre or healthcare network.
HealthTech software can help by being tailored to the healthcare sector. This can reduce inefficiencies and provide greater access to information.
How has custom HealthTech software improved patient care?
Electronic health records, telehealth, patient monitoring and automation can all be used to help solve problems.
What is Custom HealthTech software?
Custom HealthTech software can be designed or built to meet your healthcare organisation’s specific needs.
This could include things like patient portals, booking systems, decision support tools, analytics tools, billing systems or integration.
Custom healthcare software can be tailored to meet the needs of your organisation. It can be based around the types of patients you see, your specialities, processes and technology.
For example, if you have a multi-specialty clinic you may want to have one system to handle bookings, lab results, prescriptions and billing. Whereas if you provide home healthcare you may want a system that helps you manage your patient visits, documentation and patient monitoring.
Both organisations will benefit from using new digital solutions but they will have completely different needs. Using custom software will help meet their unique needs.
How has custom HealthTech software improved patient care?
1. Greater Patient Engagement
Patients are expecting a more convenient way to manage their healthcare. They want to book appointments, get reminders, view test results, communicate with providers and manage their aftercare.
Custom patient engagement software can help.
With a patient portal, patients can book appointments, securely message, see their medications and receive aftercare instructions. If it is well integrated, patients will not have to re-enter information.
However, if the portal is not easy to use or not accessible to patients with disabilities this can become an issue.
Healthcare organisations should ensure the software is easy to use, mobile friendly, includes language support and clear instructions.
2. Personalised Care
To provide effective care healthcare professionals need to know a patient’s medical history, current symptoms, medications and any risk factors.
Custom HealthTech software can help to collate information from compatible systems so those providing care can have a clearer view of the situation. This can be accessed by those with the appropriate access.
For example, if a patient has diabetes and sees multiple healthcare professionals, having a good integration can help to easily view relevant lab results, prescriptions and care plans.
Although the software will not decide what the best treatment is for a patient, it can help to provide the information needed for healthcare professionals to make professional decisions.
Data should be carefully managed to ensure it is accurate, up-to-date and shared appropriately.
3. Telehealth & Patient Monitoring
Telehealth provides new ways for patients to interact with healthcare professionals. Custom software can help by providing virtual appointments, online forms, aftercare communication and patient monitoring.
If a patient has a long term condition, patient monitoring can help the care team to review key metrics, for example blood pressure or blood sugar levels.
A care team can set up a process to review the data coming in and identify what needs to be reviewed. They can then contact patients according to their care plan.
However, to ensure the best outcomes the devices should be reliable, there should be a clear escalation process, patients should be well informed and there should be sufficient capacity to review the data.
You should also consider patients that do not have reliable broadband, the correct device or confidence to use digital solutions. It is important to ensure you still have the correct options in place for them.
How has custom software improved healthcare?
4. Reduce Administration
Healthcare professionals can spend a lot of time completing documentation, booking appointments, claims and general administration. Disjointed systems can cause this to be quite challenging.
Custom healthcare automation can help to streamline repetitive processes, such as sending reminders, referring patients, checking eligibility and passing on documentation.
For example, a medical practice could set up their booking system to send reminders, highlight cancelled appointments and help staff to offer patients new available appointments.
Automation should be used to help staff but should not remove the need for human involvement. Many situations will require judgement to be made, for example billing issues, complex referrals and sensitive communication with patients.
The best place to start is looking at what repetitive processes are causing delays or errors and automating these.
5. Improved Data Integration
Healthcare data tends to be stored in multiple systems, for example EHRs, labs, pharmacies, imaging and insurance. If the systems cannot communicate this can cause incomplete records, duplicate tests and extra administration.
Custom HealthTech software can help by integrating with the current applications. This can be done using the correct APIs, standardised data and secure integration.
Using standards like HL7 FHIR can help systems communicate effectively. However, just because the systems can talk to each other does not mean the data will be accurate, easy to understand or readily available.
Before integration you should consider whether the data is of good quality, patients can be matched, there are the correct permissions and the systems can be integrated reliably.
The aim is to ensure the right information can be accessed by the right person at the right time. You do not want to create another silo.
6. Better Analytics
Healthcare organisations will have different information relating to patients, staff, readmissions, appointment cancellations, resource usage and revenue. Custom analytics can help to create dashboards to help with decision making.
For example, a hospital may look at ED arrival times and staff rota to see if there are regular busy periods. A primary care network may look at appointment attendance to see if there are issues with reminders, transport or appointment times.
To get useful analytics you should identify a question you want to answer. Ensure leadership are looking at key metrics. Verify the data is of good quality. Be aware of correlation vs causation.
Using predictive analytics and AI can help but you will need to validate the outputs, monitor and ensure it is reviewed by the correct people.
Security & Compliance
As the software will be handling sensitive information, security should be a key part of the design.
In the US, organisations will need to consider HIPAA. This includes the Security Rule which outlines how electronic protected health information should be protected.
You can find guidance from the U.S. Department of health and human services on the HIPAA Security Rule.
Key considerations include:
- Role based access and strong authentication.
- Encrypted data during transmission and at rest.
- Audit trails, secure backups and recovery processes.
- Vendor responsibilities documented and corrected business associate agreements in place.
- Regular security risk assessments, managing vulnerabilities and training staff.
AI should also be considered. If you are using a system to summarise notes, help with documentation or highlight any risks, you should ensure it is accurate, unbiased, private and will not cause issues with workflows. Where it could impact diagnosis, treatment or patient safety, there should be human oversight.
How to successfully implement custom HealthTech software
- Start by identifying an issue you wish to solve.
- Identify current processes. Ask clinicians, admin, IT and patients what issues they are facing.
- Set clear goals. Identify baseline metrics, for example how long it takes to complete documentation, how many appointments are completed or how quickly referrals are done.
- Identify key features. Focus on the most important features.
- Consider integration and security. Identify what legacy systems you have, who owns the data, what access is required and what compliance is needed.
- Pilot. Test with a sample group and gain feedback. Resolve any issues with usability.
- Monitor. Continuously monitor how well it is performing.
There can be some downsides to custom software. If you have not identified clear requirements the cost, complexity of integration, training and ongoing maintenance may outweigh the benefits. However, you may be better using a hybrid model. Only customising certain processes and ensuring you have reliable systems in place.
FAQs
1. What are examples of custom HealthTech software?
Common examples include patient portals, telehealth, EHR integration, patient monitoring, clinical dashboards and automated billing.
2. Is custom healthcare software HIPAA compliant?
No. It will depend on what your organisation’s responsibilities are, how the software is designed, what security measures are in place, policies and risk management. The development team will need to consider your HIPAA requirements.
3. How can custom software improve patient outcomes?
It can help provide the right information, improve care co-ordination, reduce administration and help healthcare professionals monitor patients. The outcomes will depend on how it is implemented.
4. Should healthcare organisations use custom software?
This will depend on how complex your processes are, your budget, integration and maintenance. If you have standard requirements, you may be able to use existing software. However, using custom software can help fill key gaps.
Conclusion
Custom HealthTech software is helping to transform healthcare by improving patient services, streamlining processes and providing more useful information to healthcare professionals. The real value comes from solving clear issues whilst ensuring privacy, helping healthcare professionals and keeping patients engaged. When software is designed around the real needs of your organisation it can provide a practical foundation to improve your care processes, making them more co-ordinated, efficient and patient focussed.
