Healthcare
Table of Contents
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) have become indispensable tools for healthcare providers in today's fast-paced landscape. Their value is undeniable. They streamline workflows, enhance patient care, and improve overall efficiency. How do you create EHR software for your organizations? Join us as we unveil the secrets behind seamless EHR software development.
Now, whether you're a seasoned IT manager in healthcare or more of a business side, we're here to guide you through the process of EHR development step by step.
EHR stands for Electronic Health Record, and the system's goal is pretty self-evident from its name — to record and store patient data electronically. The EHR represents a digital hub that helps both doctors and patients organize and manage data efficiently. More importantly, both parties can access it online whenever needed.
Within the last decade, the market of EHR software has boosted and is projected to reach a market value of $11.3 billion by 2034. As we stand in 2024, EHR software commands an impressive 70% share of the global market, a testament to its widespread adoption.
However, perhaps the most significant allure of EHR software lies in its ability to streamline workflows and truly deliver efficiency.
By digitizing patient records and automating tedious administrative tasks, EHR software banishes paperwork and minimizes errors. The result? A healthcare organization that operates like a well-oiled machine, with productivity increased by times. Specifically:
EHR systems and apps offer myriad benefits to healthcare organizations, providers, and patients, contributing to their growing popularity in today's healthcare delivery.
As a healthcare provider, EHRs empower you by:
For patients, EHR software allows to:
Overall, developing an EHR app is a great way to enhance your patient care, improve accessibility and efficiency, and engage patients. It helps you coordinate activities, support clinical decisions and automate processes and daily healthcare routines. Consider it a valuable tool for modern healthcare delivery.
Last but not least, EHR apps help healthcare organizations comply with regulatory requirements like HIPAA. The up-to-date EHR software implements security measures to safeguard patient privacy and ensure the confidentiality, integrity, and availability of health information.
Should your healthcare organizations opt for EHR software custom development or rely on commercial apps? The answer is — it depends. Let's explore the factors that you need to consider (and do it carefully) before you opt for one of the options.
Going the custom EHR software development route lets you tailor the EHR system to fit the specific needs of your healthcare setting. Whether you’re a local wellness center or established provider with multiple clinics across the country, a custom EHR software will work the way you need. You outline requirements for an EHR Software Development Company and have full control over the process.
A significant pro is that you can prioritize functionalities according to what your organization needs most. This ensures that the final product is exactly what you need and works smoothly within your workflows.
On the flip side, commercial EHR solutions offer plug-and-play platforms, which you can deploy out of the box. These off-the-shelf software solutions come pre-built with standard features. The market of commercial EHR software is rather competitive, with established players including Quentic, AdvancedMD, Practice Fusion, Epic Systems, to name a few.
With them, you get access to a set of features, often shipped in a bundle, meaning you can’t exclude those that you don’t need. You pay for a subscription or license fee, monthly or yearly.
Depending on the complexity of EHR software, the feature choice varies accordingly. Below, we list the most common features of the desktop EHR software suite for doctor-patient, administrative, and financial departments.
Patient record management functionality is the very heart of the EHR system. It lets you collect, store, and organize comprehensive patient health information in a single profile. The data includes medical history, medications, allergies, immunizations, and laboratory results. In fact, everything that used to be on paper in patient care flow can be easily transferred to a digital format.
This feature will be helpful to healthcare providers, letting them electronically create, edit, and manage documentation. It includes clinical notes, progress reports, treatment plans, and others.
Both doctors and patients appreciate E-prescriptions, which drastically speed up the medication prescription process. You can handle any aspect electronically, e.g., dosage instructions, refill requests, and medication reconciliation. No more back-and-forth visits and time waste — the medication management process is automated and takes a few minutes.
Most EHR software lets patients schedule appointments directly within the system. This eliminates the need for separate scheduling tools or manual entry of appointment details. The standard functionalities include appointment reminders, cancellations, and rescheduling.
By integrating decision support functionalities, EHR software empowers you to deliver evidence-based care and improve patient treatment. It includes alerts, reminders, drug-drug interaction checks, and clinical guidelines. By relying on software processing millions of data arrays in seconds, you can make informed decisions and avoid medical errors.
EHR software can be integrated with a patient portal. It allows for convenient access to health records, appointment scheduling, communication with healthcare providers, and participation in health plans.
Many EHR software provide text messaging or video chat functionality to streamline communication between patients and doctors. More sophisticated solutions also provide telehealth app functionality, letting patients access different aspects of healthcare on the go.
A part of EHR functionality can be transferred to mobile to make it accessible to more people. It can be a fully functional mobile app or a responsive web interface.
With EHR software, you can generate reports and analytics on patient outcomes, population health trends, utilization patterns, and quality metrics.
EHR software can be a simple several-step app, or it can be a complex platform with a bunch of functionalities. It can be a simple storage of a patient's medical history or encompass a diverse array of data, including diagnoses, prescribed medications, treatment plans, laboratory test results, and etc. You can store this data securely in one place and share it with the parties you need.
EHR system development involves several steps, such as requirement gathering, design (UX, UI), frontend and backend development, database setup, testing, deployment, and the following support. Overall, it's a complex endeavor that requires careful planning, coordination, and execution across various stages of development. Let's see what each step implies in practice:
In the very first step, it's important to document functional and non-functional requirements for your EHR development. Data management, security, interoperability, and user roles should be clearly stated. While the list of features may be pretty extensive, it's important to prioritize them, starting with only essential ones. A feasible option is to consider an MVP and scale over time.
Based on the feature choice and business requirements, you choose the technology stack.
Some questions to answer:
Before you kick off the development, you need to define clear milestones, deliverables, and timelines to track progress and ensure project accountability.
Next, working closely with the development team, you create interface drawing mockups to show the workflows, key screens, and the structure of the EHR software. You can iterate on designs based on feedback from end-users and stakeholders to ensure alignment with user needs and expectations.
Like any other healthcare software or app, your solution should target people with different levels of tech-savviness. Therefore, an intuitive user experience is paramount. After all, what good is powerful functionality if users find it cumbersome to navigate? Make simplicity your priority.
When the primary requirements are in place, you kick off the project and go to the development stage, which includes your EHR system's front and back components.
The database component stores and manages data, including patient records and system information. Consider selecting a database technology that aligns with your EHR system's scalability, performance, and security requirements. The most common technology choices are SQL (e.g., MySQL, PostgreSQL) or MongoDB.
When adding the database component, you configure database settings, indexes, and access controls to optimize performance and ensure data integrity.
Testing of EHR software is essential to ensure its functionality, usability, security, and regulatory compliance. Depending on the complexity of your EHR application, the testing may include a single QA specialist to detect bugs or extend to a separate team that creates comprehensive test cases covering functional, integration, performance, and security testing scenarios.
The goal of this stage is to identify bugs, vulnerabilities, and fix them.
The deployment and initial setup of the EHR software is where you integrate with other healthcare systems, test interfaces, and ensure interoperability. Once you go live, you monitor EHR software performance and manage organizational change.
Typically, support for EHR software is handled through a dedicated QA team or specialist who will address technical issues reported by users and offer guidance and assistance in navigating the software.
Conduct routine maintenance tasks such as software updates, patches, and system optimizations to ensure your EHR software's stability, security, and performance. Dedicated support specialists will also ensure this.
The technology stack for EHR development can vary significantly based on its type, complexity, deployment environment, and others. Here’s a table summary listing its key technologies and layers.
In addition, you may consider third-party integrations to enhance your EHR system/app's functionality. Developing it from scratch is like reinventing the wheel so you can power your software by integrating other ready-made systems. Third-party Integrations
Development Team StructureA well-rounded team is crucial if you’re considering a software development project for healthcare. Here's a breakdown of the common roles and responsibilities within the team, along with the approximate number of specialists needed for each role:
The number of specialists needed for each role may vary based on factors such as the size and complexity of the EHR software project, organizational requirements, and project priorities. Some of these roles are optional and can be blended if you start with a simple EHR app or its MVP.
The cost for an EHR software solution depends on the development destination, the feature set, complexity, platform choice, and other requirements. Development rates in the chosen outsourcing destination is a primary factor determining the final cost. While Eastern Europe typically offers lower development rates than Western Europe, both regions have highly skilled developers capable of delivering quality EHR solutions.
Basic EHR system development for a small clinic with a mobile app for appointment scheduling, patient records access and medication reminders. Developing this app in Eastern Europe may cost from $60,000 to $90,000, while in Western Europe, it could be from $90,000 to $120,000.
Suppose you’re considering a complex solution, like an enterprise-level EHR system with advanced functionalities like real-time patient monitoring or integration with medical devices. In that case, the development cost will increase respectively. It may cost around $250,000 to $350,000 in Eastern Europe, while in Western Europe, it could range from $400,000 to $500,000.
Different components of the EHR system development generally compound the core budget or may be outsourced to multiple vendors to reduce the overall project cost.
EHR software development is a journey filled with challenges and opportunities. You can unlock success in this rapidly evolving landscape by prioritizing compliance and security, embracing interoperability, crafting exceptional user experiences, and future-proofing your solution.
EHR software digitizes clinical workflows, simplifying charting, documentation, and prescription management tasks. This automation not only reduces paperwork but also boosts efficiency, allowing healthcare providers to focus on what truly matters — delivering top-notch patient care.
The most critical stages in EHR development are the first stages of planning, requirement analysis and team assemblement. These early stages lay the foundation for the entire EHR development process. Consider choosing a reliable EHR Software Development Company to start your project and lead it to success.
In the US, electronic health record system development is regulated by laws such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act. In Europe, regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the European Union's Medical Device Regulation (MDR) govern EHR system development.
Among the types of electronic health records software, you can consider web-based EHR systems, mobile EHR apps, simple EHR and enterprise solutions.
Electronic Health Records (EHR) encompass comprehensive patient health information from multiple healthcare providers, whereas Electronic Medical Records (EMR) contain records from a single healthcare provider's practice.
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