Ever since COVID, healthcare software has been the talk of the tech town. It is growing and expanding like elastic, and it does not look like it is going to drop anytime soon.
It is said by the year 2030 the tech healthcare industry is going to generate USD 870 billion. The only brighter side of the dark COVID-19 days is the emergence of telehealth advancements. It has empowered the entire healthcare sector to fulfill patients’ needs. Since then, it has pushed boundaries and achieved milestones in leveraging the potential of technology.
If you want to dig deeper into healthcare IT systems, this blog post will tell you about the types of healthcare software and their uses so that you can hire healthcare software developers without a doubt and worry and run your healthcare business carefree.
- EHRs or Electronic Health Records
EHRs are primarily used to collect digital health records. Starting from clinics, hospitals to other medical institutes use EHRs to store their patients’ medical information. In the West, the government is even making EHRs mandatory.
EHRs are highly useful software which is often considered as a great source for Healthcare CRM. EHRs carry every information of the patient – their health condition, past health issues, even medicines they have taken for any of their past conditions.
Not just CRM, when doctors have their patients’ medical history it helps them to give them the required and custom treatment. It reduces the risk of data duplication or losing any crucial information. The best part is, that it doesn’t require any physical space to keep so much data of so many patients.
- Telemedicine Software
Telemedicine software is a remote healthcare facility that allows medical professionals to connect with their patients. You must have heard about online doctor consultations right? Instead of face-to-face assignments online consultations are more convenient and helpful for both the patients and doctors. It does not require the hassle of making space for patients neither the patients need to leave the comfort of their homes.
The most common kinds of telemedicine software are:
- Virtual Sessions – When a patient consults doctors or takes online appointments on a virtual portal through video call or text.
- Patient Database – Here patients can handle their medical records and keep everything updated for the doctor to check when needed.
- Chronic Disease Management – With the help of EHRs telemedicine apps help in chronic disease management with strategic and less expensive solutions.
- Hospital Management Software
Hospital management software is all about optimizing hospital facilities and operations. It includes scheduling sessions, generating invoices, payment processes, etc. The main purpose of hospital management software is to make the entire hospital facility automatic. Though we haven’t achieved that yet, the software has made the hospital processes seamless. At least the emergency care modules and ward and management have improved after hospital management software was invented.
It offers insights and strategies to manage healthcare situations. These solutions are accessed by administrations, doctors, nurses, and even patients. Usually, HMS has two portals one that is directly related to hospital management and the other one that is accessed by the patients for their healthcare management.
- Medical Diagnosis Software
By the name, you can imagine the intent of medical diagnosis software. These are often questionnaire types of software where patients fill up forms to help the medical personnel understand their health conditions better.
For example, you must remember there was a symptom checker app when the world was suffering from COVID and not everybody had the privilege to get a test kit. This was a government-implemented solution later to check for Covid-19 symptoms instead.
- Health Tracking Software
This type of healthcare software is versatile in nature. It can be like HealthifyMe where anybody can track their diets and calorie intake. Or it can be like Google Fit where you can monitor physical activities and movements. Or it can be like Headspace too where your mental health is in check. Health tracking software types are uncountable. They are an extra source of well-functioning EHRs.
Taking the focus away from healthcare industries for a bit, businesses focus on the healthcare of their employees. They offer several healthcare plans like meditation sessions, yoga sessions, etc. Other product-based companies focus on creating fitness bands, or water tracker bottles.
- e-Prescribing Software
A handwritten prescription is a cliché. Plus, most people find it difficult to read when it’s handwritten. E-prescribing software helps by availing e-prescriptions online instantly to patients right after a doctor’s consultation. Not only that, with doctors having access to patients’ past records (past prescriptions) diagnosis of their health conditions becomes easier. Also, in e-prescriptions, if something is written something mistakenly, doctors can quickly edit it.
Once the e-prescription is generated, the same can be sent to the pharmacy online and get the required medicines for treatment.
- Medical Image Analysis Software
This is a type of software that can scan and analyze data from medical images. This helps doctors to diagnose health issues quickly and efficiently. This also helps to read two reports and compare the improvements of the patient in care. With the advancement of imaging technology viz. the scanning technology the software is also getting upgraded, with the intention of developing analytical skills that are run independently to detect clinical issues in medical images.
- Patient Monitoring Software
The name tells a lot about the use of the software. It is used to monitor the health conditions of the patients. The process is done virtually using a medical diagnosis system. The EHR system gathers information on the patients and reflects on patient monitoring software to help medical professionals take required steps when the need be. RPM empowers the hospital units to tackle their patients remotely with real-time data. This is particularly required for patients in chronic care units who need round-the-clock health tracking.
- Medical Billing Software
Another vital custom healthcare software development services include medical billing software. This is not much different from the billing software of other industries. It includes invoices, receipts medical insurance, and related every expenses. However, most of the hospital management systems include medical billing software in them with reports of dosage calculations with name and number of medicines intake. However, it can also be used as standalone software. It is actually growing gradually. The size of the billing software market is about to grow from 2020 to 2027.
- Laboratory Information Software
Laboratory Information Software also known as LIS is another healthcare digital solution for chemists to manage and automate their medical operations. It is often run centrally to have a brief idea about the current state of the labs accessed by all the chemists in the institutions. This type of software not only provides data, test orders, and even remaining compositions. It helps to run the entire laboratory system that involves sample management too. In case you are wondering what sample management is, every medicine batch is sent for sample testing to check the right measures of the compositions required in the medicines.
- Pharmacy Information Software
Pharmacy information and management software is very similar to laboratory information software. Where the laboratory deals with the data of medicines that will be supplied to hospitals and pharmacies, the pharmacy deals with the medicines that have been supplied to them by the labs and will be supplied to the consumers directly. Here the operation is managed on a day-to-day basis as and when there is an update of the medicine stock.
Technology Has Transformed the Healthcare Software Market
With the rapid growth of technologies and their advancement, the healthcare software market has also transformed (and still transforming). These are the top most technologies that have evolved the healthcare industry especially in 2019 and beyond:
- Artificial Intelligence: AI helps in early disease prediction, medical image analysis and diagnostics, real-time prioritization, robotic surgery and assistance, drug discovery, and also AI-powered telemedicine.
- Internet of Things (IoT): IoT has made patient and doctor interactions seamless. Only EHRs are not enough to help the patients. For remote consultation, IoT has made engagement and communication possible.
- Cloud Computing: Another great invention that has transformed the healthcare industry is cloud computing. Most of the healthcare software consists of cloud computing technology for doctors and patients to access medical or healthcare records.
- Virtual and Augmented Reality: Now that robotic surgery is a thing, it couldn’t have been possible without virtual and augmented reality. It gives us a safe and controlled environment by stimulating surgical procedures.
In the End
No matter which healthcare software you are about to choose, keep in mind to choose an expert healthcare software development company that will understand your needs and budget. Because if the software development doesn’t go as planned even the greatest healthcare software idea can turn your business upside down with its malware and average user experience. Before hiring healthcare software developers make sure that you check their testimonials, and reviews and then go for the decision. You can also ask them for a demo if you like, this helps to make a better decision. After all, it is about your business and the well-being of people.
