EMR and EHR Medical Software Development

The future belongs to healthcare software solutions. Every tech insider, consultant, pundit, and software survey directly or indirectly points precisely to that. The healthcare industry is going to be disrupted in the next decade and not by one big platform but by many local ones. Smartphones and smartwatches allow 24/7 data gathering and also make it possible to monitor a patient’s condition remotely, including evaluating the data, drawing conclusions, devising treatment plans, etc. without actually coming into contact with the patient, which is especially valuable in the era of the coronaviruses. 

This data is priceless as it can be used by doctors and healthcare specialists to significantly shorten the time it takes to detect and consequently remedy health problems. Healthcare software allows hundreds of other exciting possibilities: 

• eliminating the need to visit your practitioner in-person merely to get a fresh medication prescription or a refill;
• virtual consultations;
• real-time assessment of patient’s data globally wherever he or she is;
• test results sent to your mobile device, etc.

All these benefits would be impossible without EHR software and its integration into every private or government-run medical facility to optimize the medical industry and thus revolutionize how we approach and handle medical treatment. The reality of the scope and scale of the benefits goes even further as AI programs can reportedly give better results when reading and interpreting patient’s scans and reaching diagnoses than can humans.

In the following blog entry, we are going to focus on the software side of things: how to develop an EHR system, how to integrate it, who is going to use it, how much it costs, what certifications must be obtained, what regulations followed, is it better to make your custom system from scratch or purchase/subscribe to the existing modules and libraries? 

Our goal is to help you understand where and how the healthcare industry meets the digital upgrade. 

There are tons of different abbreviations (you will see them even here further down the line) and endless amounts of articles available online whose sole aim, it seems, is to confuse the reader and make a possible client in need of medical software either feeling very stupid thinking “what the heck did I just read?” or make them spin their wheels trying to sift through tons of overcomplications just to eventually find the important information they actually need. 

For your sake and because we take pride in our work, we will tell you everything you need to know and will treat you like a human being. The true secret of successful engineering and efficient software development lays in not complicating things for complexity’s sake. That’s it. And this lesson applies and should be carried out further, even outside of the tech and IT world.

Everything should be as simple as possible but not any bit simpler (Einstein said that). It is hard enough as it is to understand how the software works and the process is already difficult enough, so making it even more difficult just because it is (behold!) medical software that we cover is not a viable option. 

Honestly, we had an easier time reading what programmers, coders, and real engineers have to say, even with graphs, pieces of code, and equations. You will ultimately need a consultation to understand it more than on a superficial level, and this article stands for that as well, though this article will not convince you of this by puzzling you into disarray, but rather because the information we share is going to make you come up with the right questions to ask, making everything clear in everybody’s minds. And that’s how it should work, really. 

You won’t feel confused, we promise you. And even though it is the medical industry we’re talking about, we essentially cover software development from a business point of view, so there’s no need to be a doctor or a scientist to understand it. 

What is Electronic Health Records?

Electronic Medical Records (EMR) or Electronic Health Records (EHR) is, first and foremost, a software product. You may ask what kind of software product it actually is. Most modern hospitals aim to implement EHR systems to provide more qualified communication and accurate patient treatment. Not all medical facilities in the rural areas adopted them but in Canada, America, and Europe the process of implementing these systems is now in full swing. 

The total global EHR market is predicted to reach some 40 billion U.S. dollars in 2024

Statista

EHR systems are designed to store data accurately and to capture the state of a given patient during the treatment course. It eliminates the need to track down a patient’s previous paper medical records and assists in ensuring data is accurate and legible. 

It can reduce the risk of data replication as there is only one modifiable file, which means the file is more likely up to date and decreases the risk of lost medical papers. 

Due to the digital information being searchable and in a single file, EMRs are more effective when extracting medical data for the examination of possible trends and long-term changes in a patient. Population-based studies of medical records may also be facilitated by the widespread adoption of EHRs and EMRs.

EHR systems are a very big and encompassing definition. They include dozens of different subsystems and came to be used when naming everything related to digital healthcare. Most importantly, EHR systems are a database of individual medical records in digital form with test results, scans, medical assessments, prescriptions, dates, photographs, personal info, physical measurements data, etc.

Digital transformation meets the medical industry, and EHR systems are the ultimate crossroads here. The simplest systems range from app functionality that allows one to book 1-on-1 doctor-patient chats/appointments to facilitating the actual appointments by providing phone number information. The most complex system can be connected to patient wearables to extract data and even allow video streaming when connecting patients with their physicians or providers for consultations. 

Learn more about EHR systems and their workflows within healthcare organization from the video here.

When you come with the idea of developing a custom EHR solution, initially you can develop a simple MVP and then add layers of the functionality on top of it. Whatever option you choose, you should have clearly outlined specifications at the very beginning of your project. 

Among the common features that the EHR system should include that we would like to mention are:

• capability to schedule appointments;
• application for patients connected with clinical applications;
• notification about confirmed reservations, consultation summaries or conclusions, prescription details, and upcoming visits;
• ability to reschedule via the platform.

The app will undoubtedly distinguish your clinic from those of your competitors. The app itself will remind the user to come back in case they need the services again. It not only optimizes the whole user experience but also increases patient retention rates. 

But there are much more complex systems. Let’s take a small rural clinic with a personnel of 50 employees as an example. Let’s say they felt the need for workflows digitalization for the first time. They have outdated internal software systems that provide no connection with the patients.

Most of the time, the patients can only make a good old-fashioned phone call or in-person visit to discuss their concerns with a specialist. Local residents will have EHR or EMR profiles to indicate who they are, where they live, detail their whole medical histories and prescription medication lists as available. 

The newest kind of system will allow measuring health by providing the following abilities:

• key indicators for patients with chronic conditions ( monitoring their heart rate, breathing, cardiovascular metrics) outside the hospital;
• using data from their smartphones;
• doctors can keep track of what patients eat, how much they exercise, walk, sleep, etc.; this data is valuable for both patients and doctors. It can be further used to conduct research and gather statistics;
• the system identifies the patient’s records;
• redirects the patient between the family doctor and specialists;
• releases prescriptions;
• sends notifications to doctors and nurses;
• connects with insurance providers, etc.

The whole process is fully automated. Now that is not just your average booking. The functionality of such a system will save tons of time and may even save lives while at the same time reducing the effort it takes to serve each patient. 

Internet of Things (IoT) in Healthcare Market to Hit USD 352.88 Billion by 2027.

Fortune Business Insights Report

Custom vs. ready-made ERP

One of your main tasks is to decide whether you could use some ready-made solution or if you should make your custom EHR system from scratch. Before making a decision you should weigh all the advantages and disadvantages of both options. Our company’s policy is that a custom decision is always better because it suits your individual needs better, providing the specific functionality that is required. 

Ready-made ERPs

Ready-made solutions are third-party modules that you can integrate into your system. They require maintenance and even though they are much easier to develop and also less costly, you still need a development team to integrate them.

Custom ERPs

When you go with a custom solution, you get a perfectly suitable EHR system that is tailored to your needs. You and the development team decide on all of the project`s intricacies and peculiarities, how the user is intended to and going to benefit from the system, how it’s going to be designed, etc.

It is much better because little details matter and when you choose to use a ready-made solution, you may be limited by the functionality and features that are included. You also trade your ownership for a dependency on the integration.

There are tons of ready-made options out there but the majority of hospitals and medical practitioners decide to develop their own in order to have complete command and control over it.

Information the ERP system should include

ERP systems include all vital health data about each patient that is updated in real-time. This data helps to monitor the patients` health state and provide assistance in cases of emergency. 

Now we would like to note what health data should be included in personal health records to use it effectively:

• Administrative and billing data
• Patient demographics
• Progress notes
• Vital sign readings information
• Medical histories
• Diagnoses
• Medication lists
• Immunization types and dates
• Allergies
• Radiology images
• Lab and test results

How to start: formulate your idea and your needs

Before proceeding with development you should prepare a set of questions (make a list). Project managers and Business Analysts are going to ask what problems you have and what pushed you towards development. In other words:

1. What tasks is the system going to solve?
2. Does it provide the ability to book appointments?
3. Is there a cloud data storage of patients’ records?
4. Will it be available on mobile, desktop, or both versions of internet browsing?
5. Will both patients and practitioners have access to the system or will it only be used internally? 

Software engineers can only resolve those tasks that are formulated clearly and precisely. In the development specifications, every feature like payment gateway, file attachments, comments, and notification is going to be outlined and estimated. This is done for you to have a clear and precise vision and understanding of what is going to be developed and how.

What are the reasons behind your request?

You should also consider the marketing side of your project. Why did you decide to develop it now? Is it because of your competitors or maybe because you now have more clients and more staff, so it is harder to track and monitor everything? Are you going to sell the end product or use it in your medical practice, and your medical practice only?

The more you know before you start, the better. A clear vision of what you want to have in the end will guarantee that the EHR system that will be is going to satisfy all your needs and wants. Some of our clients already have systems and decide to upgrade them to, for example, include a mobile application. Others have small practices that they want to expand and they develop newer and faster EHR systems to keep up with the racing speed of change that underscores all kinds of business evolution processes. 

How fast do you need the solution implemented?

Speed to market matters. Do you have a strict deadline? The faster you need your EHR system to be ready, the more expensive it will be. To complete a project faster means adding more people to the team. In case you don’t need it that fast, the usual timeframe for the development of an average EHR or EMR system is 3 to 6 months. Consider what mark your project can be delivered at. The bigger team will deliver it faster, though the price will be higher. Time is money and so you must define what is more critical for you: adhering to a tight budget or a strict deadline.

List of client requests and needs

You have a final say of what goes in your system and how it is going to work. But all successful products have one thing in common: they arise because their creators deeply care about the well-being of end-users as they try to improve their experience. Therefore, you should do the research yourself or let the team prepare everything for you. As part of a research survey, the patients and doctors should outline the features they would like to have in the EHR system you are going to deliver.

Any proper EHR system is only as successful as the amount of value it provides to the end-users. If it’s not going to solve real problems and bring real value, then what’s the point? The more input the end-users have, the better, and if they have a say in how the final product is going to look like, your EHR software will be much more useful. Lack of user feedback results in a system that is developed from top-down. But it should be developed bottom-up.

Often, though, EHR systems are designed very ugly and User Interface and User Experience (UX and UI) lack simple features like a certain field, some button here or there, some necessary tab, etc. Remember Windows Vista? That was one disaster of a project because it didn’t deliver what the users needed. It delivered what the development team thought users needed and such logic resulted in some of the worst software products that have ever been created. 

EHR systems for medical practitioners

So, let’s assume you are a medical practitioner or an investor, or both. For example, a dentist. You have a base of loyal patients who consistently use your services. You have an office with assistants, an accountant, a nurse, many doctors, tons of medical equipment, suppliers, etc. You also have patient records. All this is data. We make this data digital. Many small clinics or practices still use phones and google sheets. This needs to go if your business is to survive and jump to the next level, right? 

The EHR system will keep track of all your patients. You are going to access the system from your mobile device or desktop computer. Your patients are going to do the same. The system will recognize you as admin and your patients as users. It can also be shaped to allow special access to your doctors. There will be a distinction between two roles: a doctor and a patient. The patient will see the doctor’s info, his schedule, experience, name, education, etc. Doctors will see patient’s histories in the profiles with attached scans and photos, medical assessments made in the past, perhaps even by different doctors, etc. 

The most modern system will allow not only to keep a record of what happens inside the clinic and when. Imagine virtual visits. Nowadays, smartphone cameras are so perfect that a doctor can oftentimes make a judgment even without seeing a patient in person. It will a lot of the time be enough to prescribe medications, painkillers, or suggest medical testing or procedures. This also happens inside the EHR application on your desktop computer or a mobile device. 

The availability of patient records 24/7 online is an ultimate digital advantage. These records cannot be lost or destroyed. Data can be transferred from doctor to doctor and every photo, scan, prescription, physical parameter info can be instantly accessed. This saves tons of time and is very convenient for patients and doctors alike. Medications can often be efficiently prescribed online without a need for a physical visit and a consultation can be given virtually.

What else? Mobile health systems can be integrated with smartwatches to keep track of the patient’s condition outside of the hospital as he or she goes about their life. Your doctor can see how many calories you burn daily, how much you sleep, eat, walk, run, etc. This data is priceless. 24/7 monitoring of chronically ill patients can save their lives and it allows for a more detailed diagnosis and a better, more accurately targeted treatment course. Mobile health apps can remind patients that they need to take a pill or eat a certain kind of food in the morning, exercise, sleep more, etc.

EHR medical standards

Implementing an EHR solution into any medical entity is quite a complex undertaking and process as it is not just s custom business software. EHR systems have to be developed and integrated in accordance with all medical standards that are set and enforced by local governments. We would like to highlight the key extracts from the EHR official standards:

• ISO/TS 22220 Demographic – which implies identifying a person by location, to provide this standard the EHR system should embrace interoperability considering its main standards too as to imply a connection between the EHR and e-government systems;
• ISO 18308 – EHR should have a suitable system architecture;
• ISO/HL7 10781 – EHR should include functions that provide a private health data exchange;
• ISO 13606 – this standard is responsible for accurate and efficient communication of EHR systems with other medical software systems, including governmental.

Privacy regulations

Privacy standards require separate attention as it is incredibly important when we talk about personal health data. Your EHR system must comply with all the necessary regulations ISO 27001. First of all, it needs to comply with GDPR in case your users will be from Europe and if you’d like to register your product as European. If you are going to operate in the United States, then your business model should consider HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) to know how you should manage the patient’s health data protected by this law. 

In recent years some big development giants like Google faced a bunch of media scandals that featured violations of the privacy of patients and their health data. Without any doubt, the data in question is very private and patients’ medical histories should be handled with maximum care and precision.

Good publicity and a guarantee that user’s data is safe in your EHR systems are the best way to retain your patients and make sure they will use your EHR system. HIPAA regulations are specifically designed to ensure that patients’ info is handled in a quality manner and that it is safe for whoever uses it. Living in the age of cyber warfare, that is beyond important for every company that gathers and puts patients’ data to use in their EHR and EMR systems. Otherwise, providing this data is breached, it can hurt not only your company’s image but your patients as well. 

Scrum methodology

What is Scrum? It is a methodology used by software development agencies for the most smooth and precise, clean, and fast project organization. It means that the project is divided into sprints and blocks of code are shipped bi-weekly or weekly. It allows introducing changes on the go (if the need arises) it makes it possible to update the investor on every stage of the development.

Scrum guarantees that at every point in the software development cycle all team members know what they are doing, what the plan is, and how they’re going to proceed further. Most of all, Scrum is about communication. Project managers and business analysts work with a client, and the development team understands precisely what the client wants with BA and PM as middleman messengers.

Such an approach eliminates the possibility of miscommunication (the developer does what shouldn’t be done) and delays (the developer doesn’t do what needs to be done). Scrum is the most popular and widely used software development methodology with daily meetings and sometimes even hourly updates if the product is about to be released. Developing a complex EHR system is impossible to do with the Waterfall process (the usual engineering methodology).

What more features the Scrum methodology contain – learn from the video below.
https://youtu.be/9TycLR0TqFA

Choose an experienced development team

How to ensure the success of your project? The EHR system is not just another app. People’s well-being depends on it. Therefore, you should be absolutely sure that you work with a team of experienced developers who know exactly what to do. How to make sure of this fact? Conduct research about the agency of your choice and find out whether they can be trusted.

Outsource software development companies put a lot of effort into building trust with their clients. Therefore, look for the reviews of former clients, look at the company’s portfolio, etc. The development of EHR and EMR systems is rarely easy to make as they require a lot of skill. Look for senior developers you can trust and rely on because experience is everything.

Our company has a lot of experience in building medical software solutions and even though we cannot disclose the information (because of NDAs), we are glad to share some of the specifics as part of a free consultation. Please give us a call to find out more about all the ins and outs of EHR software development.

In-house team

In-house development team means that you as a business owner are tasked with finding suitable specialists like Business Analysts, Project managers, HTMLCSS specialists, frontend and backend developers, designers, QA engineers. The list looks really long and complex. Creating a reliable development team is a complicated task as it is important to properly check:

• what types of software they’ve developed;
• what industries they have experience in;
• the previous cases;
• level of skills;
• feedback from previous companies/clients. 

This process can take a long period of time that you could have spent instead of on the actual development process. Additionally, this type of cooperation is not cost-efficient at all as you need to provide regular payments to each team member, even if the development process will be finished. 

Outsource team

Outsourcing to a development team is always a win-win situation. Compared to in-house teams, it has a range of benefits that will save you time and money. Outsourcing implies hiring the full team of developers that will be required for your project. The main difference between outsourcing and an in-house team is that you as a client pay only for the development hours, meaning there is no need to pay each team member if one of the specialists has already finished a particular project part. Taking everything into account, the key benefits of choosing the option of using the outsourcing development team are:

• cost-effectiveness;
• the team fully concentrates on your project and industry specifications;
• improved services with the possibility of maintenance team;
• improved risk management;
• you as a client run your business without any interruption and losses.

Sharing is Caring

You will work with a team of Business Analysts (product owners), project managers, senior software engineers, and testers. Thanks to scrum your team is going to update you constantly. Your SaaS project will be estimated to give you the price and time it will take to complete it. You absolutely must consider market trends and the demands of end-users. The features you decide to include in your EHR software should definitely solve concrete problems and save time/increase revenue (your ROI). 

The future belongs to medical software. It can save millions of lives. Just think about it: live monitoring of people with conditions and instant medical assistance for them, medical alerts (Apple smartwatch saved lives believe it or not), no queue when you come to a doctor, practitioners in different states and different countries can access your health history, availability of digital records of all your shots and injections, the list of tests and results, integration with insurance companies and payment gateways, virtual visits to your doctor, emergency medical assistance 1-on-1 via live streaming, etc. 

EHR systems upgrade the communication process between hospital staff and patients. Your family doctor in your pocket is going to monitor you even when you’re outside the hospital. It is already happening and the world is invariably moving towards such systems. Catch this train to be the provider with modern cutting-edge software that improves human lives, safeguards our health, and makes medical assistance much more accessible, for instance, to disabled people. 

Whether it is a 500-staff hospital or a one-person practice, such EHR systems with rich functionality promise to deliver the next level of medical care. This is the future and the future is here. Don’t let anybody tell you it is complicated or difficult because it is quite possible.

Market trends

Always consider your target audience and market trends. Older people are less likely to have a smartwatch. Moreover, they are very skeptical about sharing their health info. But if advised by a figure of authority like a doctor, they most definitely will install the app and allow them to monitor their health daily. It is enough to tell them it will make them healthier.

Younger people are the majority of smartwatch owners, although they are rarely chronically ill and don’t need monitoring. Nevertheless, you can develop an EHR system for certain niches of chronically ill people like patients with diabetes or those that have a heart condition.

The lives of these kinds of patients can be significantly improved if they are digitally involved in being medically treated with help of the most modern and updated technology. And more and more software development companies indeed move towards the development of EHR and EMR systems.

Do you want to use the product or sell it to a potential buyer, do you have investors? It is beyond important how you monetize your product. Will you be the owner? Do you have co-investors? You can rent your product on a subscription basis or you can use it for your own clinic. A product is a product but if you’re going to sell it, you should know precisely who you sell it to and why. These considerations must be followed during the development. Ask your sponsors what they’d like to see in the final version of the EHR system. 

We also recommend checking the latest tech trends that are expected to be implemented into most health facilities in 2021 by the following link.

Define your project`s goals and estimation

So, how much is it going to cost you? It depends. Before you request an estimation, check out our blog post related to this topic and get prepared. We can say that the average range is $45-75K. But a lot depends on the functionality you’d like to have in your app. The more functions there are, the more costly your EHR system is going to be and the longer it will take to develop one. Keep in mind that you must develop MVP first.

Choose absolutely crucial features that you need to have in your EHR system. Then, start developing a prototype. This is going to be your core functionality ready to be released and used by end clients. Then, you can do updates and gradually upgrade your EHR system, adding features that are not crucial but nice to have. Usually, these features become clear when you receive your first real user feedback. Testing your system on real users provides precious feedback and allows you to correct the course of your final development stages.

Updates are shipped to make the ready system better and to see how users react, whether they are comfortable enough with what they get. Most of the time incremental changes are absolutely necessary because you cannot know the end user’s motivation for sure, especially if thousands of people are going to use the app. 

Project specifications

When you already decide to start the development process, you will start with the first stage, which is called the pre-development or discovery stage. It implies analyzing your organization and existing application to find out the weak sides and turn them into strengths. Then, the Business Analyst will discuss the main goals of this solution for your organization that will help to create the list of project specifications. 

With the ready list of project features, our specialists will provide a detailed estimation of your project’s costs. As for the features, BA and senior developers will advise you regarding how to better implement the functionality that you want in your EHR app. BA connects the business logic of your EHR system with technical nuances and software abilities. In other words, whether it can be done and how to do it.

Give a detailed description of what you want

It is necessary to have a vision because, even though our team can give you any kind of advice, it is, essentially, your project and you are its visionary. Your objectives and our implementation. The ultimate goal is for your aims and is to correspond with our abilities but we are always more than willing to do extra work and make sure that you get what you truly need and want. 

Communication

Great communication is one of the pillars of every great project. Building a proper, effective, efficient, and valuable EHR software is impossible without quick updates done daily. In Altamira we specifically add extra time to make sure that all communication aspects of the development process are handled on time to avoid misunderstandings, disconnects, and delays.

The price of miscommunication is high and when team members have a lapse in communication the problems that arise may result in days or even weeks of lost time. It can unnecessarily delay the release and even sabotage the whole project since all features and integrations must work properly and to do that every aspect should be reported in great detail consistently with a teamwork approach.

Back-end part of the development

We have experienced back-end PHP developers ready to work on your EHR system. We have, in previous blog posts, covered the many benefits of PHP and we still think that it is one of the best programming languages for commercial purposes. PHP allows very fast coding with quick sprint releases.

It is also very easy to find PHP developers, so in case there will be a need to expand the team, it can unquestionably be done. Since PHP is easier to learn than many other programming languages and thanks to the vast open-source community that supports it, PHP has a wide range of ready-made libraries and code modules available online for free. With the help of that, your project can be developed and released pretty fast, which comes in handy if you have strict deadlines. 

Front-end and design

Like many other software development agencies, we use the following technologies: Javascript, AngularJS, Yii, and React Native for front-end needs. Our experienced designers will also provide you with a custom design that is going to make sure your product sticks out of the wide range of similar products available on the market. We are going to make sure that the unique and original palettes, as well as novice UI and UX design features, are all integrated into your EHR system for the sake of intuitive navigation and overall performance.

MVP – Speed to Market, Release ASAP

You must consider the release of your Minimum Viable Product first for the aforementioned reasons. But also in order to find out what works best and what doesn’t work while testing the product in conditions of the real environment it is critically important to make sure you have a working prototype before working on the final complete version of your EHR system.

MVP allows making important upgrades and adding improvements that make your EHR system just perfect. On average, the MVP of your project costs around 65% of its final price. Depending on the features, your MVP is going to cost around $55K but, again, a lot depends on the features you’d like to include. The more features there are, the more expensive the final product will be. 

Custom EHR features 

At this stage, your task is to know which exact features you are going to need to have in your EHR system to benefit your patients. Are you going to integrate virtual 1-on-1 patient consultations? Do you want only a booking platform or you’d like to eliminate paperwork and have a system that connects with all medical data of your patients? 

Keep in mind that you should come up with all the core features in the beginning. These are the features that your project just won’t do without:

• ability to communicate with doctors 1-on-1;
• chatbot for improved communication with the doctor;
• sending reminders to patients via email or smartphone app notification;
• integration of healthcare insurance provider plan details;

Our Business Analysts are ready to provide deep research in the industry to define project specifications according to your medical entity. We offer an individualized approach to each project as we know that each organization has certain needs and requirements for software systems. 

Open-source ready-made modules benefits

You can use the following Open Source medical software modules in your project development cycle. However, their integration is itself a software development process in spite of the intuition that it saves much time. That is since you need to know what modules to use and how to properly integrate them in your project.

You will be helped by Business Analysts and Project Managers as well as Senior Developers before you know exactly which modules are going to work for you and which are not going to work. Custom development clearly means that some if not all parts of your final EHR software system are going to be written from scratch. Nevertheless, there are ways to cut the development time down, using shortcuts for certain processes that are all alike in different medical systems. 

Popular EHR Systems and Third-Party Modules

• Open Dental
• HealthKit
• ERPNext
• Odoo
• FreeMED
• GNU Health
• Vista EHR
• Bahmni
• OpenMRS
• One-touch EMR
• HospitalRun
• CottageMed
• OpenClinic
• WorldVistA
• GNUmed
• DoliMed EMR
• Nosh EMR
• FreeMedForms
• ZEPRS
• LibreHealth EHR
• OpenEMR
• Docmein
• Care2x
• EncounterPRO
• Caisis
• Solismed
• RemoteClinic
• HL7 API

If you are interested in discovering more information about healthcare APIs, how to integrate and test them, and whether they are suitable for your clinic, then read our blog post. 

Hosting

Hosting your project is handled by your software development provider. We take it upon ourselves to deal with every bit of the hosting process to guarantee that the release of the final product is going to be as smooth as possible. That is important for the overall health and robustness of your EHR system and we provide maintenance and support on the initial stages of the product release cycle. 

Our back-end developers oversee the final implementation of the EHR system in your business. They also take care of the submission of your final product to the AppStore and Google Play Market. That is done to ensure your product can also be advertised as accessible via the most viable distribution channel. 

More about EHR functionality

System functionality and cost were the two largest deciding factors in switching vendors. Shifting regulatory standards require additional functionality to fulfill quality reporting measures including the Meaningful Use and Physician Quality Reporting Systems standards and many physicians and health systems have decided to switch vendors in order to accommodate these requirements. Despite the costs that are associated with switching, many physicians and health systems have decided to switch vendors in order to receive the additional functionality, reporting, and platform benefits associated with a new vendor or records system.

Many of these “out-of-the-box” EHR implementations, which were often fast-tracked to meet meaningful use requirements, typically restricted providers from realizing a clear return on investment (ROI). Healthcare leaders understand that developing and implementing a post-EHR implementation strategy under the auspices of a change-management model has become a pressing need.

KPMG researchers

When organizations work under a change-management model such as lean, they can continually leverage technology to create more value. Lean – is a long-term approach that seeks to achieve small, incremental changes in processes in order to improve efficiency and quality.

This approach also enables organizations to fine-tune their EHRs in response to changing healthcare regulations, new technologies, evolving patient needs, and a growing aging population. Without change management, however, the EHR operates in a silo and doesn’t align with the way clinicians practice medicine or with new industry demands, which creates dissatisfaction and underutilized technology.”

The EHR system is all about distributing the information between the vendors who provide medical care and the patients. Even if your users change the clinic, the data format is universal, so your system is going to have information stored in widely accepted formats. 

Why now is the best time to develop and release your EHR system?

As was highlighted above, the year 2021 is going to be very fruitful for all kinds of Mobile Health apps integrated with IoT devices and connected to EHR systems all over the world. Healthcare and medicine are among the most conservative industries out there. Therefore, now is finally the time to disrupt, since the widespread distribution of IoT devices, the proliferation of the 4G and 5G across the globe result in higher adoption of digital technology in the sphere of medical services.

The previous decade exhibited a lower barrier of global access to medical help. That means that even countries like Mexico, Brazil, and Argentina are looking forward and ahead, to the digitalization of medical service business and healthcare insurance agencies in the years to come. So yesterday was the best time to start the development of your EHR solution. But today is an absolute must, especially if you’re in the medical business yourself and would like to keep the competition at bay.

FAQ

Conclusion

So, what did we learn today? First of all, don’t be afraid of the complexity. In case everything is done right, there will be none of it. And many problems can come out of your imagination because, of course, you put your money in it, you may not understand how some back-end systems work, etc. Do you need it? No. Does flying a plane require you to know how the aircraft is designed and how it works? Does the absence of this knowledge stop you from flying it? No. Therefore, don’t get spooked if you don’t know something.

Keep in mind that you should follow regulations and have all the proper licenses if you are the owner or manager of medical practice. In case you are an investor your project should be GDPR- and HIPAA compliant. The way for you to proceed is to build a custom EHR system from scratch and make it encompassing enough to include all required internal communications, analysis, tracking, etc. We recommend you contact our Business Analyst to discuss your project specifications as Altamira offers an individual approach and full engagement to each project. Don’t waste your time and contact us as soon as possible.