Software might be seen as a luxury to many people — a little added bonus to living in the 21st Century.
But sometimes, software can be a lifesaver — the difference between life and death.
Some sobering statistics from the medical industry have found that, on average, an estimated 250,000 to 400,000 patients in the US die every year from preventable medical errors.
And hospitals are under immense pressure to boot: by May 2023, there were over 34 million patient admissions to 6,129 US hospitals.
As a result, hospitals are under ever-mounting strain to provide the best care to existing patients while managing the constant influx of new patients.
And they need as much help as they can get.
That’s why it’s more important than ever to look to software as a better way to identify and prevent medical errors. Using hospital, clinic, and medical spa software programs, it’s possible to better support staff to improve practices for better patient care.
In this article, we take a deep dive into what healthcare software is, as well as its wide-ranging uses in hospitals to streamline and improve health services worldwide.
What is healthcare software?
Healthcare software is any computer application used for purposes in the healthcare industry, designed to improve patient care and user experience for providers and patients.
Some examples of what healthcare software is used for include:
- Streamlining communication between healthcare providers and patients, pharmacies, and other suppliers
- Digitizing patient record storage
- Scheduling and managing appointments
- Ordering and delivering prescription drugs
- Managing hospitals and clinics
But don’t confuse this with medical software – a type of software designed to help diagnose, treat, and manage patients.
Medical software programs are used to monitor, analyze, and interpret patients’ medical states, with a range of functions to help medical professionals provide the best treatment possible.
Types of medical software used in hospitals
Electronic Health Records (EHR)
Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are digital versions of a patient’s medical history, letting medical providers access important medical information like lab results, immunization records, and allergies.
Using medical software for EHRs means managing patients’ private records in a compliant, transparent, and effective way that allows easy communication and access.
Medical billing software
These software programs are designed to manage all aspects of medical billing, including claims processing, insurance reimbursements, and patient payments.
In short, medical billing software streamlines the billing process, facilitating patients’ payments for billing that’s accurate and timely.
Medical imaging software
This software assists healthcare providers who use digital imaging tools to visualize outputs like X-rays, ultrasounds, and CT scans more accurately, providing more precise diagnoses.
Medical diagnosis software
This type of software can be used by both patients and doctors. Most commonly, it’s used to help medical professionals accurately diagnose medical conditions by looking at medical records, patient histories, and medical images to detect any abnormalities.
For doctors in particular, this allows for easier collaboration on diagnoses by sharing anonymized patient data that can be quickly analyzed by their peers.
Medical database software
A medical database is an integrated database to store medical information collected from medical institutions and patients.
Examples of medical information stored in these databases can be expenses and invoices, prescriptions, and other medical institution data.
Health tracking apps
Typically, health-tracking apps let users track their physical health by recording data such as exercise, diet, and sleep to help monitor and improve health.
These apps can also let patients and users track specific characteristics of their health – such as monitoring blood sugar in diabetics – to help them take action if and when something goes wrong, such as seeking medical advice from their doctor or admitting themselves to a hospital.
Remote patient monitoring
These software programs let doctors keep track of patients no matter where they are.
This makes treatment more flexible, gives doctors better access to their patients, and removes the need for physical proximity to get treatment.
Healthcare software leads to improved medical care
While healthcare software and medical software serve different purposes, they co-exist to achieve one goal — improving the quality of care to patients.
Healthcare software is increasingly becoming an integral part of modern medical care.
And these software tools can help in a variety of ways — whether it’s logistical tasks like processing payments and updating prescriptions or medical records, or tasks that help to improve treatment.
By harnessing the power of healthcare software to take on more manual, time-consuming tasks, these tools improve overall medical services and give patients better transparency and user experiences around their own healthcare.
All while helping doctors offer better treatment with more visibility.
Ultimately, healthcare software improves medical care by providing accurate and timely information to help providers make the best decisions for their patients.
Incredibuild for developing better healthcare software programs
With such life-changing repercussions, it’s vital that medical practitioners and patients are able to gain access to better healthcare software. And fast.
At Incredibuild, our cloud-based computing systems can accelerate application development for medical services.
In fact, Incredibuild reduces your compute time by almost 90%, thanks to its advanced cache technology.
In addition to speed, cloud computing means you can easily scale up your application development to suit your needs – whether you’re a community hospital or one of the biggest healthcare providers in the world.
Thanks to our suite of tools, our developers can test for and quickly fix critical issues — ones that could result in life-or-death situations if left unattended — while also finding better solutions for treatment and operational software.
