Modern healthcare is growing at a fast pace globally. Have you wondered how big it is? Well, the healthcare industry makes up more than 10% of the GDP in most developed countries, such as the US ($10.224 expenditure per capita), Switzerland ($8.009), and Germany ($5.728), respectively.
The pandemic forced healthcare and health tech providers to pay more attention to recent technology and reimagine how they operate. It's no longer a novelty for patients to receive medical services outside brick-and-mortar medical establishments, enhancing convenience and accessibility.
The challenge
However, many healthcare tools and platforms are outdated legacy systems incompatible with modern technologies. Add to the equation the downturn of 2022, mass layoffs, and the upcoming recession, and it's a no-brainer to realize that healthcare providers need a robust yet intuitive solution to keep up with the changing business environment and regulations.
Plus, it is commonly known that building custom applications with traditional coding is time-consuming, not flexible, and expensive. In this regard, the low-code approach in healthcare app development may be your best bet. Such builders make the whole custom software development process faster, cheaper, and more accessible to citizen developers and project teams alike.
Definitions
In this article, we’ll find out what benefits low-code platforms can bring to the table. Before we dive straight into details, let's make sure that everyone's on the same page regarding the glossary.
What is healthcare technology
Healthcare technology or “healthtech’’ refers to the use of technologies that improve the healthcare system with recent technology. From telehealth to robotic-assisted surgery, the world of healthtech has so much to offer to both patients and doctors.
What is low code
Low-code development is an approach to software creation that requires little coding skills. Instead, non-techies can create applications using pre-made components and graphical interfaces. Low-code/no-code platforms allow healthcare organizations to stay ahead of regulations and industry changes while adhering to high-security standards like HIPAA or GDPR. Such platforms help financial entities to respond to market changes faster with in-house development teams.
Why is low code popular among healthcare professionals
Now we’re on the same page regarding definitions. It’s high time to discuss what this buzz that low code generates in the media. Without further ado, let’s discuss the benefits of low-code platforms, shall we?
Speed
It’s all about speed and automation: healthcare organizations resort to low-code builders to speed up clinical testing processes and automate stages of documentation and analysis. Besides, you can build fast, customizable, and highly scalable apps to test clinical trial performance and manage documentation flows.
Optimization
Healthcare institutions also use low-code builders to revamp various administrative and supply chain processes. Powered by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), low code streamlines routine processes such as distributing hospital resources, managing supplies, or delivering drugs to providers and patients.
Reduced costs
Reduced costs is one of the most tangible benefits that low-code platforms offer. In fact, building solutions with low code is way more cost-effective than building solutions in-house or connecting multiple different systems to achieve an enterprise solution.
Less hustle with maintenance
Apps’ maintenance, bug fixes, and updates used to be really cumbersome and time-consuming processes. With low-code tools, it is possible to maintain applications and digital channels without compromising efficiency and productivity.
Scalability
The majority of low-code tools integrate with well-known cloud computing providers such as Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. These services allow healthcare organizations to manage resources wisely in accordance with uptime and costs.
More involvement from citizen developers
Low code erases boundaries for non-technical people, aka citizen developers. A citizen developer is none other than an employee who develops business applications without writing much code. In other words, physicians and nurses can take a bigger part in the design, development, and deployment of a healthcare solution tailored to solve a specific need.
Working prototypes
You can create a working prototype with low code to validate your idea and gather customer feedback. Talking to clients is the first step to uncovering precise user requirements before investing in a full-fledged solution.
Low code use cases in healthcare
Healthcare experts consider all these benefits as a crucial reason behind low code popularity. But what about actual business cases? Let's discover some of the healthcare-related projects done with low code.
The first one is FocusOn. Medtronic, one of the biggest global medical device companies, resorted to the popular low-code builder OutSystems to create a remote monitoring and triaging platform for cardiac conditions.
FocusOn analyzes data from patients’ implanted devices to find out and report any abnormal cardiac rhythms, device diagnostic issues, or any other heart-related concerns. Whether there’s an abnormality, the platform triggers an automated workflow that notifies the patient’s healthcare provider in an instant so they can proceed with treatment.
Why low code, though? FocusOn harnesses vast amounts of data collected from heart implants to provide doctors with quick insights into patients' status. Seams like projects of such complexity require a lot of time and effort, right? However, with OutSystems, the company could put version 2.0 of the application into production within six months.
Karel Nouwen, senior IT Director, Digital Business and Digital Health, at Medtronic commented: “We wanted a secure platform that would allow us to build the capabilities we needed quickly and easily—and that’s what OutSystems offers.”
The project’s outcome: 50% IT budget saving, 80% fewer data for healthcare professionals to review, and more than 450.000 sessions triaged.
Another business case is Kermit, an analytics application that delivers insights into the fragmented spending category of physician preference items.
Built with low code, the platform manages contracts and invoices, plus it also monitors supplier compliance. The entire process is clear at all stages: from unpacking the material during the treatment to sending suppliers invoices and various bills. The data-driven platform maps trends to optimize processes, provides buyers with information about fraud and prices and gives specialists information for treatment choices.
The project’s outcome: as of 2022, the platform runs in 23 hospitals, saving on average 30% of medical implant-related costs.
Another case is Saga Healthcare, one of the leading healthcare providers in the UK. Using a popular low-code builder Mendix, the company managed to develop an agile home-care scheduling system called SACHA that is flexible and able to respond quickly to customers´ needs and a changing regulatory environment.
“Our ability to quickly make changes and adopt new technologies with Mendix allows us to quickly grow the business across the UK. We use Mendix technology to offer our customers cutting-edge technology and improved service. It helps us be leaders in this regard,” says Matt Smith, Head of Information Technology at Saga Healthcare.
The project’s outcome: the Saga IT team was able to develop SACHA in just six months for less than £250.000.
Finally, here’s one of our own projects done with low code. Meet Nutrisense, a solution that optimizes your metabolism with data insights and personalized dietitian support. Our team has transferred their website and blog using Webflow, a popular no-code builder.
What to expect in 2023
Just like in many other business domains, the biggest industry trend is customer-centricity. In today’s digital world, a personalized healthcare experience is no longer something unusual, it’s rather a new industry standard. Proper low-code platforms provide an unprecedented level of flexibility so that healthcare organizations can quickly adapt to this new way healthcare is delivered and create solutions built around patients.
Low-code application platforms are synonymous with lightning-quick application development, especially when compared to traditional coding methods. With low code, healthcare organizations can develop secure and HIPAA-compliant applications internally and without spending much on IT talent and maintenance.
As of 2022, healthcare organizations use more and more technologies to develop complex systems and automate various business processes fast. Low code builders can help your healthcare organization significantly improve its services by facilitating scalable clinical testing, expediting application testing processes, establishing digital administrative systems and automated supply chain management, and developing user-friendly scheduling systems.
Industries and low code forecast
The new year is just around the corner, so it's time to analyze trends. We've covered two other business domains, e-commerce, and fintech. Take a look at these articles here:
- Ecommerce and low code: trends, business cases, tools, an what to expect in 2023
- Fintech and low code: trends, business cases, tools, and what to expect in 2023
Low-code Hall of Fame
Being curious low-code advocates, we love analyzing the market to review the most powerful low-code/no-code platforms. If you are interested to know all the pros and cons, discover our curated list of available builders:
Hire low-code fintech experts
Just like any other industry in the world, the domain of healthcare is increasingly adopting recent advances in technology. All in all, this advent of technology results in efficient, accurate, and productive patient care. The domain of healthcare is getting increasingly interconnected, and receiving proper healthcare services online is affordable for more and more people worldwide.
However, on the path of digitalization, you might need a reliable partner to get the maximum result out of your efforts. What about partnering with low code/no code development experts? With 8+ years of low-code development experience, our team helps companies deliver robust applications that cater to specific business needs. Our seasoned consultant team provides expert advice on low-code platforms for companies willing to innovate. We’ll help you define your very first steps so you can start implementing your low-code strategy from day one.
P.S. As you might have already guessed, we love making content about trends in low code (and Healthtech too). What about subscribing to our blog to get the latest insights and tips?
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