Every community requires a strong and capable healthcare sector. For this reason, great efforts are undertaken to advance this industry. We might still find parts of healthcare falling behind in this era of technical innovation and the digital revolution. Healthcare applications are meeting many needs, but there are still obstacles, like the need for confidentiality and privacy.
One of the main reasons healthcare falls behind is the requirement to protect patient information and records.
The information system is one of the sectors in healthcare that calls for quick technological intervention. Collaboration and communication among nurses, doctors, patients and other medical staff are essential to clinical operations. They, thus, need a system that makes it easier for information to move between the many parties involved.
Investing in technology
A report on technology innovation benefits in the healthcare industry published in Becker's Hospital Review noted that complications had decreased by 86% in one hospital after investing in ICU telemonitoring technology. This hospital's ICU mortality declined by 19%, while overall mortality dropped by 13%. Moreover, the amount invested in technology paid for itself in less than a year.
Implementing new technological solutions may often be tricky and time-consuming despite these advantages. Typically, the process starts with the definition of requirements and the release of a request for bids. After choosing a software supplier, the developer often begins by creating a pilot program which, after implementation, must go through at least one round of integrated testing before going live.
The entire procedure might take up to 18 months from beginning to end, and then by the time the new product is fully installed, your organization's requirements might have changed.
Traditional software development techniques have not solved the healthcare sector's IT issues. This is mainly the result of inadequate communication between the parties involved, a lack of adaptation and misunderstanding the demands of end-users.
One example is the website HealthCare.gov. Creating this website wasn't optimized, the developers didn't follow the deadline, and they skipped several crucial steps, like performance tests. The problems experienced during the web rollout were due to a lack of relevant experience, leadership and schedule pressure.
The website instantly had noticeable problems. Within two hours after launch, the website crashed due to high online demand. Although the website's capacity was first identified as the primary concern, additional issues arose, mainly due to the website's incomplete design.
In the end, due to the technical problems and choosing the wrong development methodology, the budget for this website amounted to $1.7B instead of $93.7M.
All parties involved must be willing to cooperate for software to launch effectively and maintain its functionality. A well-organized team is required to determine what went wrong throughout the app development process. Blaming a specific department won't help the situation when something goes wrong. It may be challenging to implement a successful information system in the healthcare business, and HealthCare.gov's failure is a prime illustration of how picking the inadequate development model can negatively affect the outcome of your project.
RAD Platforms Benefit Healthcare
In rapid application development, the development team can interact with the users from the beginning, so user requests can quickly be met.
During the development process, user feedback is incorporated into the prototypes, and the final result is delivered faster, with all requirements included.
The development process should incorporate all parties involved in the healthcare ecosystem. As a result, systems like patient portals and electronic health (EHR) are created where patient demands are given priority. Patients can participate in their care meaningfully, and healthcare professionals can work collaboratively towards a single objective. When creating healthcare applications, it is crucial to keep patient data security in mind.
Healthcare applications need to be rigorously tested because, in some cases, people can lose their lives due to small technology mistakes or bugs. Error-prone applications are forbidden in healthcare services. Because of frequent testing and numerous iterations, the RAD model is one of the best options for developing new and innovative healthcare applications.
Greater customer feedback integration is made possible by RAD. Since each prototype is evaluated separately, there is more room for ideas and enhancements. Because only the specific module is updated rather than the entire software platform, necessary changes are also simpler to implement. Developers don't have to go back numerous steps to make changes as they would with typical waterfall development.
When using mobile apps to connect with patients at home or work, or when applications concern the health and safety of families and employer groups, RAD is particularly beneficial in the healthcare industry. The intricate process of assessing interactions with non-medical professionals may go quickly, thanks to RAD.
Conclusion
Because the healthcare industry tackles the most sensitive information and matters, our health, there can be no space for errors.
RAD platforms are here to make mistakes redundant in the earliest development phase because of multiple feedbacks to application prototypes that are presented to end-users (doctors, nurses, patients, etc.). Constant information flow and access to every authorized person, be it a doctor, nurse, or patient, could make this platform important in clinical trials.
Software built on the RAD platform makes information easier to access to non-developers as its documentation is centralized, properly stored and taken care of. RAD platforms like FIYU also enable faster staff onboarding to the projects.
All of this, combined with frequent changes to one's situation and easy access to desired information, makes RAD platforms more convenient than other types of software.
