How Healthcare IT Solutions are Changing the Industry

Everyone talks about advancements in healthcare technology, but do they really realize the scale to which technology is remodeling the medical sector? Just think about this for a moment. Smart insulin pumps that automatically adjust insulin levels and alert to dangerous blood sugar fluctuations or fitness trackers with the ability to call emergency services are already saving peoples’ lives. Healthcare IT solutions today play a critical role in making medicine more efficient and accessible. And even more fundamental changes are yet to come. 

Digital transformation, whatever the meaning you put in it, accompanied by mobile apps, telemedicine platforms, and electronic health records (EHR), is critical to hospitals’ survival. You don’t need to be an IT expert to see how much value even a simple digitalization of health data can deliver, not to mention more advanced IT healthcare solutions like AI chatbots or digital twins. Delivering healthcare software development services for over a decade, we have witnessed firsthand the profound impact these technologies have on patient outcomes, administrative burdens, staff productivity, and so on. If you, too, want to know more about how healthcare IT solutions may help you fix inefficiencies and achieve gains, just keep reading. 

200+ companies from 25 countries outsourced software development to Relevant

We provide companies with senior tech talent and product development expertise to build world-class software. Let's talk about how we can help you.

Contact us

Key Areas of Healthcare IT Solutions

IT solutions for healthcare encompass the use of technology in different aspects of healthcare administration with the primary goals of achieving:

• Improved patient care
• Streamlined workflows 
• Quality service delivery
• Automated administrative tasks

Generally speaking, we can divide healthcare IT solutions into two main categories:

Healthcare Software Development

Suppose you need a concrete software solution like an ERP system or scheduling system, for example, but existing options don’t perfectly fit your unique workflow. In that case, you will need to look for healthcare software development services. In a nutshell, it’s the creation of software applications specifically designed to meet the needs of healthcare providers, patients, and insurers. It includes a broad range of services:

• UI/UX design 
• App integration
• Custom development of healthcare IT solutions

Custom vs. off-the-shelf solutions

Here, we want to stop for a moment and clarify the difference between custom software and ready-made tools available on the market. 

The development of bespoke software allows for tailored functionality to perfectly match your workflows and organization’s needs. Such systems are flexible and can easily scale to accommodate your practice. Plus, custom tools seamlessly integrate with the systems you already use. 

Off-the-shelf IT solutions for healthcare industry offer a quicker and potentially more cost-effective option. They are pre-built and ready to deploy and use, which means faster implementation and lower upfront costs. Yet, you may find that such healthcare IT solutions don’t offer the features you need but have ones that are of no use to you. This means you might have to compromise on functionality or end up with a cluttered system that doesn’t fully meet your requirements.

Healthcare IT Consulting

When you want to implement new technology to improve your practice but don’t know where to start, then you will need healthcare IT consulting services. Qualified specialists understand the nuances of healthcare operations and can guide you toward the most effective IT solutions for healthcare providers. These services can help you

• Assess your needs. They will identify your specific challenges and goals to determine the most suitable healthcare IT solutions, particularly for your case.
• Plan implementation. Their dedicated team of experts will create a roadmap for the successful integration of new technologies into your infrastructure.
• Select vendor. They will help evaluate and create a list of potential software vendors to find the perfect fit for your needs.
• Change management. They’ll guide you through the whole process of new technology integration into your workflows to ensure smooth adoption by your staff and patients.

Healthcare Technology Trends

As we move into an era defined by precision medicine, personalized patient care, and digital services, new IT solutions for healthcare providers powered by the latest technology emerge. Those who embrace the current healthcare technology trends will be the architects of a healthier tomorrow. After all, these trends don’t only shape the future of the industry, they are already a reality and changing it as we speak. 

Generative AI

Unlike previous AI models that were mainly designed to analyze and interpret information, generative AI is capable of producing original text, video, photo, and audio content. With this context, generative AI can accelerate various health functions and activities: 

• Drug discovery. Generative AI can identify new drug candidates up to ten times faster than traditional methods, as it can generate and test millions of molecules in a fraction of the time.
• Clinical trials optimization. AI driven healthcare IT solutions can improve clinical trial design, recruitment, and patient selection. As a result, it reduces costs and accelerates the development of new treatments. 
• Medical imaging analysis. Generative AI’s examination of medical imaging data (X-rays, CT scans, MRIs, and others) proved to be incredibly precise. It helps doctors automate and enhance the accuracy of image interpretation and detect better early disease signs. 
• Precision medicine. AI’s capabilities to analyze patient data, genetic information, and medical records make more targeted and effective therapies possible.
• Disease diagnosis. With information such as patient data, symptoms, and medical images, if any, AI can spot even the most subtle anomalies that may escape the human eye. 
• Administrative support. Automation of insurance claim processing and billing, certain operations, and administrative burdens increases productivity and reduces burnout of healthcare providers and medical staff. 

Overall, if you seek automation solutions or a technology that will future-proof your operations, you should definitely stick to AI.

Chatbots and Virtual Healthcare Assistants 

Conversational bots and similar virtual assistants are the most popular healthcare IT solutions that can change patient-provider communication. They can respond to basic medical inquiries, book doctor appointments, and even provide triage services. So, one AI conversational chatbot can free a lot of time for the medical staff and doctors alike by handling a number of low-value tasks that take a good part of precious time to complete. On top of that, you can build a chatbot that provides personalized health reminders and educational resources for your patients to motivate them to take a more active role in their health management.

Gamification in Healthcare 

Patients often find treatment plans monotonous, which decreases their motivation to stick to them and results in missed medications. Gamification in healthcare injects a dose of fun and interactivity to keep patients engaged. 

Today, there are already hundreds of mobile apps and healthcare IT solutions that reward users with points for completing daily exercise goals or healthy eating challenges. These playful rewards better motivate patients to stick with treatment plans. Who would resist taking medication when your reminders are gamified into quests or battles against a virtual monster that represents the illness? Not only children with chronic conditions but people of all ages find this way of their health management more fun and interactive.

AR and VR in Healthcare

Surgeons who use AR headsets overlay critical patient information onto a physical surgical area during surgery, which enhances precision and reduces the risk of errors. Meanwhile, psychology found more use in VR technology, which creates simulated environments used for different therapeutic purposes. Thus, phobia and PSTD treatment can include VR therapy to help patients confront their fears in a safe and controlled virtual environment. 

VR-powered IT solutions for healthcare also help physical therapists make recovery more interactive and potentially more effective with the help of immersive rehabilitation exercises. One more field that gets a boost with AR in healthcare apps is education; as such healthcare IT solutions let students interact with 3D models of the human body.

The Metaverse in Healthcare

The metaverse is a shared virtual space where enhanced physical reality and persistent virtual reality converge. It allows users to interact with both computer-generated environments and each other in real time. And how difficult it may sound, it’s just another tool on the horizon that adds value to medical staff training and remote patient consultations. 

The metaverse in healthcare IT solutions lets medical students not only practice surgeries in realistic virtual settings but collaborate and participate in complex scenarios that simulate real-world team-based medical practices together. Similarly, doctors can arrange virtual support group sessions where the participants can use avatars to keep anonymity and comfort while discussing sensitive health issues.

Key Technologies in Healthcare IT

Any healthcare professional would agree that access to health records and proper resource management are the two fundamental components of any successful practice. That said, let’s see how healthcare IT solutions for independent practices can make those daunting tasks that require careful attention to detail a breeze.

Electronic Health Records (EHR)

Medical specialists are the ones who can see the true value and impact of electronic health records (EHRs). Let’s be honest: before active industry digitalization, health records were cumbersome paper files that could easily be lost, damaged, or misfiled. Hospitals often suffered from fragmented data silos, where critical patient information resided in different departments, which hindered care delivery and wasted valuable time for specialists trying to piece together a patient’s medical history. 

The digitalization of patients’ records or EHR healthcare IT solutions has unified and centralized data, dramatically simplifying the lives of healthcare providers. So, if you adopt EHRs, you can:

• Improve patient care. With all the critical patient information at hand, you can make more informed treatment decisions and, at the same time, reduce the risk of medication errors.  
• Enhance communication. It’s much easier and more secure to share digital information between healthcare providers, discuss patient cases with colleagues, and ensure continuity of care across different healthcare settings.
• Reduce costs. With EHRs, you streamline administrative tasks, reduce paper waste, and potentially improve billing accuracy.
• Empower patients. Some EHR systems allow patients to view their health information, track their progress, and participate more actively in their own care.

Healthcare ERP Systems

A well-functioning healthcare organization is a complex structure where each department, from billing and insurance to lab testing, plays its role in the seamless delivery of the best care.  But without a central control system, chaos can ensue. Healthcare enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are the backbone that ensures all departments have the resources they need, materials flow smoothly, and patient care runs efficiently. That’s why it’s one of the must-have healthcare IT solutions every hospital needs to manage properly and with ease:

• Financials:  ERPs integrate all your financial processes and streamline billing, claims processing, and inventory management.
• Human resources: These systems can manage payroll, benefits, and employee records.
• Supply chains: Healthcare ERP can track medical supplies to help you ensure optimal inventory levels and facilitate ordering.
• Patients: Some ERP tools (custom-built, for sure) integrate with EHRs, which gives you a holistic view of patient care and streamlines appointment scheduling. 

Data Management and Security of Healthcare IT Solutions 

The healthcare industry relies heavily on data—patient records, medical images, and research discoveries—all crucial and used for diagnosis and treatment. However, managing and, more importantly, protecting the constantly increasing mountain of information presents serious challenges. Here, we want to review what IT healthcare solutions have to offer in this regard. 

Handling Unstructured Data

A large portion of healthcare data is unstructured. This includes:

• Clinical notes: Physician observations, progress reports, and discharge summaries.
• Medical images: X-rays, MRIs, CT scans, and digital pathology slides.
• Patient feedback and surveys.

While structured data like demographics or lab results fit neatly into rows and columns, unstructured data in healthcare is messy, text-heavy, and difficult for traditional computer programs to analyze. So, medical staff often face challenges with limited insights. Since unstructured data is “unseen” for healthcare IT solutions and analysis, it remains untapped, which may hinder research and personalized medicine efforts. Storage and retrieval of huge amounts of unstructured data is another logistical nightmare.

How Relevant experts solve these challenges:

• Natural Language Processing (NLP) is an AI technology that allows computers to understand and extract meaning from clinical notes and data in any format.
• Image recognition is another AI-powered technology, which, when employed in medical facilities helps identify patterns in medical imaging and aid in diagnosis or treatment planning.
• Data lakes are central repositories that store unstructured data of all types (images, audio, text). They simplify data management and let healthcare organizations extract valuable information from large volumes of unstructured data.

Cloud Security in Healthcare

The cloud offers clinics and hospitals a scalable and cost-effective way to store and manage data. IT solutions for healthcare industry built in the cloud are extremely scalable and adaptable to hospitals’ needs. Post-pandemic, a lot of healthcare organizations started to embrace cloud computing as they saw firsthand the limitations of their decades-old IT infrastructures and due to some benefits of cloud solutions:

• Improved accessibility. Authorized healthcare professionals can access patient data from anywhere, which is a key enabler of timely and coordinated care, especially in emergencies or remote locations.
• Scalability. Cloud storage can easily adapt to accommodate your data volumes.
• Disaster recovery. Cloud providers offer robust backup and disaster recovery solutions, so your health data remains accessible even in case of emergencies.

However, cloud security in healthcare, the industry that has always been strictly regulated by a number of laws and bodies to protect patient’s sensitive information, raises concerns. The most widespread risks of cloud infrastructure usage are data breaches that may compromise personal patient and health data, security misconfigurations, data control, and loss. 

Although the cloud provider handles everything for you and security as well, it doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t care about it. No matter where you store and manage health data, there are some basic security best practices Relevant experts advise everyone to follow to guarantee decent information protection:

• Always encrypt data at rest and in transit to add a layer of protection. Even if malicious actors managed to steal some data, they wouldn’t be able to decipher it, and it would remain uncompromised.
• Implement strong access controls to restrict access to patient data to only those who absolutely need it.
• Regularly assess cloud security posture to identify and address any possible vulnerabilities.
• Provide regular training to employees on the importance of cyber hygiene and best security practices.

Standardization and Interoperability 

To understand the importance of healthcare data standardization and interoperability, let’s imagine a scenario. John, a patient with a chronic heart condition, visits a cardiologist for a routine checkup. John has previously seen an emergency room doctor for chest pain and a primary care physician for a follow-up. However, each healthcare provider utilizes a different EHR system. Without standardization and interoperability, John’s cardiologist may struggle to access his complete medical history, past diagnoses, medications, and test results. Data standardization and interoperability were invented to fix it.

So, standardization refers to establishing common formats, protocols, and definitions for data exchange. In healthcare, standardization ensures different healthcare IT solutions can “speak the same language” so they can exchange patient information easily and securely.

Interoperability builds upon standardization. It’s the ability of different systems to share and utilize exchanged data. When systems are interoperable, a specialist can access a patient’s complete medical history, regardless of which EHR system the data originated from. This “invisible” yet tangible element encourages better care coordination, reduces duplication of tests, and ultimately improves patient outcomes.

How to achieve standardization and interoperability in your numerous IT healthcare solutions? The best way is the adoption of standard formats. 

Understanding HL7 Standards

One of the most widely adopted standards for healthcare data exchange is HL7 or Health Level Seven International. HL7 is a non-profit organization that develops a suite of standards and specifications for electronic health data exchange. Think of HL7 standards as a common language for healthcare data that allows different systems to communicate and share information seamlessly. For more information on HL7, check our recent article about What is HL7.

Here are some most widespread HL7 standards used by clinics and hospitals:

• HL7 v2 is the most widely used version that focuses on administrative and clinical data exchange.
• HL7 FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) is a newer, web-based standard designed for easier and more flexible data exchange. In the HL7 vs FHIR comparison guide, you will find the differences between these two standards.
• HL7 CDA (Clinical Document Architecture) standard specifies the structure and format of clinical documents, such as discharge summaries and progress notes.

Innovative Applications in Healthcare IT

The healthcare industry is at a crossroads. Traditional methods are being challenged by a wave of innovation fueled by IT solutions in healthcare. While some companies hinder their IT infrastructure modernization due to the fear of the unknown and cardinal changes, forward-looking organizations embrace innovative healthcare IT solutions with open arms. Process automation is just one of the numerous positive changes they can bring. Some advancements are so groundbreaking that can fundamentally remodel the healthcare industry we know. Here are some of them:

Nanotechnology

Nanotechnology deals with the manipulation of matter at the atomic and molecular levels. Tiny nanoparticles or nanobots used in medicine can perform incredibly precise tasks at very small scales. The most popular and proven to be valuable usage is drug delivery directly to the affected area while minimizing damage to healthy tissues. Overall, this way of drug delivery reduces the side effects and increases treatment efficacy. 

Other nanobots are engineered to enhance medical imaging techniques and give doctors more details on the patient’s body’s inner workings. There are also nano biosensors that healthcare providers implant in the patient’s body to monitor their vital signs, detect diseases in their early stages, and track how effective certain treatments are for a particular patient.

Predictive Analytics

Some hospitals may not even assume how many insights their data keeps unless they implement predictive analytics in healthcare. It allows you to unlock the potential within this data and not-so-obvious trends and transform it into actionable information. Healthcare IT solutions for predictive analytics use large sets of data and machine learning algorithms to identify patterns and predict future health outcomes. With this technology, you can

• Better manage diseases. With a deep analysis of a patient’s medical history, lifestyle, and genetic data, you will be able to identify individuals at high risk for certain diseases and take preventive measures.
• Personalize medicine. Predictive analytics can help tailor treatment plans based on an individual’s unique response to medications and genetic makeup.
• Reduce hospital readmission. Predictive models can identify patients at high risk of readmission after hospitalization, so you can implement targeted interventions to keep them healthy at home.
• Predict health risks. Go beyond identifying high-risk individuals for specific diseases. IT solutions healthcare organizations use for predictive analytics can assess a patient’s overall health trajectory and flag potential issues (heart disease, diabetes, or mental health concerns) before symptoms arise.

Healthcare Scheduling Software

Recent researches suggest that nearly 37% of healthcare provider’s time is spent on administrative tasks. That’s a lot. Administrative burdens include various time-intensive and routine activities, and doctor appointment scheduling is one of them. If you want to devote more time to patients, improve the quality of care, and ultimately improve your ROI, healthcare scheduling software systems are what you need. 

These IT solutions for healthcare industry simplify appointment management for both you and your patients. Modern users won’t call your office to book an appointment, they are more likely to use an app or a chatbot for these purposes as it’s quicker and more convenient. Plus, you can enjoy additional helpful features like:

• Appointment reminders. Automated reminders minimize missed appointments and improve patient adherence to treatment plans.
• Telehealth integration. Scheduling software can integrate with telehealth platforms, which makes it very comfortable to schedule and attend virtual consultations from one app.
• Patient self-scheduling. Patients can book, reschedule, or cancel appointments themselves through an online portal, which reduces administrative workload on your staff and drives patient satisfaction.

Digital Twins

Digital twins are virtual representations of real-world objects or entire systems. In medicine, this technology is commonly used to recreate organs or the whole patient’s body. To build accurate virtual simulations, this type of healthcare IT solutions uses patient data like scans, medical records, and genetics. But unlike simple 3D models, digital twins are not static. They continuously update as new data is received and reflect the current state of the patient or system they replicate. 

In practice, a digital replica of a patient’s heart, for example, lets you test various treatments to find the most effective in a safe environment before you apply them in real life. Certainly, it reduces risks and improves outcomes. Digital twin in healthcare can also be used for:

• Surgery planning. Surgeons can virtually rehearse complex procedures on a digital twin to optimize surgical outcomes while lowering risks.
• Drug development. Medical professionals who develop and test drugs benefit from digital twin healthcare IT solutions as they can simulate the effects of new drugs on a virtual patient. Firstly, it drastically accelerates drug development, and secondly, it reduces the need for tests on animals.
• Medical education. Doctors can practice procedures and test different treatment approaches in a safe, virtual environment.

RFID

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) uses radio waves to track physical objects wirelessly. So, how it works? Tiny healthcare RFID tags that store data like ID codes and location are attached to items you want to monitor (medications or medical equipment). When you scan an RFID tag with special readers, the stored information is transmitted to a computer system, allowing you to instantly locate and identify the necessary item. No more time-consuming manual searches or lost medical equipment, especially at times of emergency when every second counts. 

A simple scan of a vial’s tag lets nurses verify its authenticity and ensure the correct dosage. Thus, you not only improve efficiency but also reduce the risk of errors. And RFID attached to wristbands allows you to track the location of patients at risk of wandering or falls within a facility. Finally, these tags can store critical medical information. So, if a patient is unconscious or experiences an emergency, healthcare providers can access vital data with a quick scan.

The benefits of healthcare IT solutions that support RFID technology are numerous. It streamlines workflows, enhances patient safety, and reduces costs through improved inventory management and asset utilization. 

Our Healthcare Projects

We believe that the best way to understand how healthcare IT solutions can transform businesses is to check real-world case studies. Here are some of our clients’ success stories from the healthcare industry that demonstrate how valuable software tools can be.

Mobile apps for Ossur prosthetics and orthopedics manufacturer

Our client, Itera, a Norwegian software development company, sought our staff augmentation services to build mobile apps for Össur, a leading manufacturer of prosthetics and orthopedic equipment. 

We built for them two apps: the SmartMeasure app, which helps doctors select and measure knee brace, and the Össur Custom Solutions App, which simplifies lower-limb prosthetic sockets ordering with the help of a 3D scanner for measurements. Our iOS developers enhanced the old applications and ensured smooth data migration, even in offline mode. As a result, these mobile apps for 3D scans and e-orders streamline the workflows of the Ossur staff and save days compared to traditional casting.

The platform for Return2Play sports medicine service provider

Relevant Software tackled a complex challenge for Return2Play, the UK’s leading sports medicine service. We built a feature-rich web application (with mobile compatibility) that streamlines player management, injury reporting, appointment scheduling, and user administration. 

This easy-to-use platform provides coaches, players, and doctors with a centralized system for injury management, ultimately boosting overall athletic performance and reducing administrative burdens. With this solution, Return2Play reported reduced administrative burdens and improved injury management.

Healthcare IT Solutions: Final Thoughts

Significant changes to your workflow and practice that promise healthcare IT solutions might frighten healthcare providers. After all, the medical industry is one of the less tradition-bound compared to others. Physicians have spent years honing their skills within a well-established system, and understandably, the adoption of a whole new way of practicing medicine might feel scary. But whether you like it or not, you can’t stop technological advancements nor it’s wise to resist it. 

What you need is to make a first step and find a reliable healthcare software development company that will support you through the process, build custom software strictly following your business needs, and help with the transition to a new system. A professional tech firm will help you develop and implement custom IT solutions for healthcare without disrupting your current workflows, so you shouldn’t worry about any setbacks for your practice. 

Are you ready to join the movement but need a guide? You can rely on Relevant experts who have hands-on experience in consulting healthcare professionals and developing medical websites. We have 10+ years of working in the market and specifically in the healthcare domain so we’re well aware of industry-specific issues you may face and the best ways to solve them. We can help you assess your needs and identify the right healthcare IT solutions for your needs to achieve the best outcomes. Don’t wait for the best time to come because it won’t. Contact Relevant Software to learn how we can help your business.