5 of the Biggest Healthcare Tech Questions

Technology moves along at a rapid pace, and all sorts of different industries are scrambling to keep up. Every industry has questions about how to use technology to its advantage. Issues of client security and user-friendliness have jumped to the forefront of everyone’s mind. This is especially true in the case of healthcare industry software. Not only does healthcare industry software have to keep up with the rest of the tech world, it also has to consider other issues. For example, healthcare tech must remain HIPAA compliant, a consideration that other industries simply don’t have to deal with. Below you’ll find some of the other big questions in healthcare industry software.

Interoperability

Until very recently, most healthcare industry software focused primarily on data collection through electronic medical records development (EMR integration). The healthcare industry has no shortage of data. In fact, it has plenty of data available for developing medical mobile apps and considering HL7 integration. Now the healthcare industry has to consider the interoperability question: Now that the industry has so much data, how does it normalize that data? Today, the key to healthcare software development is side-by-side comparison. When healthcare industry software can make effective comparisons in patient history, it can evaluate the potential success or failure of different procedures.

Predictive Analytics

All of this data that healthcare industry software has collected won’t do much good if it can’t provide predictive analytics. Machine learning and artificial intelligence have been wonderful for the healthcare tech realm. Because healthcare literally deals with life-or-death situations on a regular basis, it leaves no room for human error. The availability of machine learning can save lives. The healthcare industry has to ask itself how it can best use machine learning capabilities. Can it make predictions in patient health? Can it spot patterns that could help a physician to make decisions? What about recommending courses of action or bringing up testing for rare diseases? Healthcare industry software must consider these questions and think about how to overcome potential limitations.

Healthcare Industry Software Security

The existence of healthcare industry software has brought about Protected Health Information (PHI) and diagnostic algorithms. When the original HIPAA laws were drafted, the internet had barely gained any traction. Now that cloud computing has become so widely available, healthcare industry software has a major responsibility to protect its patients. This responsibility brings up questions about balance. How can we use data for diagnostics while simultaneously protecting patient security? Can we ensure encryption of PHI? What about ongoing consent to incorporate de-identified patient data into diagnostic algorithms? With the lifesaving potential of healthcare industry software, developers and physicians will have to learn how to balance tech advances with patient privacy.

Personalized Medicine

Technology has provided people with more access to their own family histories than they’ve ever had before. Websites such as Ancestry.com allow people to comb through generations of historical records. Genetic testing services like 23 and Me allow people to learn about their genetic makeup. So far, people primarily use this information to connect with history or even just to satisfy curiosity. However, the information’s availability does have healthcare implications. With genetic information, users can gain a better understanding of their susceptibility to certain diseases. Surely the healthcare tech industry can also use the information to help patients prevent illness and make better healthcare choices. Once again, however, the issue of balance emerges. How does the industry use the information while maintaining privacy and security? Furthermore, what are the best practices for using this information in a clinical setting?

Medical Wearables

Wearable medical technology grows more and more sophisticated every day. These devices have grown from glorified pedometers to elite health software. New materials and sensors result in more accurate data. New software algorithms can incorporate augmented and virtual reality. Users can monitor everything from their food choices to heart rate to sleep patterns. This information empowers users to make better healthcare decisions for themselves. Now the healthcare tech industry has to ask itself how to handle that information. How can this information be used with evolving government policies and regulatory compliance? Once again, how does healthcare tech software maintain the balancing act? (For more information on this topic, see the Medical Wearables Conference from May 16th and 17th in Santa Clara, California.)

Ayoka is With You

At Ayoka Systems, we understand these healthcare tech questions because we regularly ask these questions ourselves. We use these questions to fuel our own research, stay at the forefront of the healthcare tech industry, and maintain HIPAA compliance and other patient security concerns. When you need a third party involved in your healthcare software development, you need absolute certainty that you have made the right choice. That’s why we’re committed to only the best custom software solutions with elite encryption options. If you want to know more about our healthcare technology solutions, feel free to contact us through our website or call today at (817)-210-4042. We look forward to working with you.