How To Find A Perfect Custom Healthcare Software Development Company?

It should come as no surprise that the healthcare industry has experienced a grand shift in the past two years in the face of a global crisis. We have seen a dire need for innovation, change, and digitalization. As a result, many established companies and startups have presented us with new healthcare services or started looking for unique solutions. We’ve seen MedTech combined with robotics, healthcare neural network solutions, MedTech Machine Learning, genomics, 3D printing, and many more.

Naturally, the market has been growing exponentially. According to Statista reports, global revenues in the MedTech sector are estimated at 483 billion USD in 2020 and projected to reach 594 billion USD by 2024. Investments and research are on the rise accordingly, as many see business prospects and consumer demand in the development of the MedTech industry products.

Seemingly, you are one of the people planning on developing such a product too. On the hunt for healthcare software, or perhaps just full of ideas, interested in what a typical search for healthcare software development services looks like. As MedTech professionals, we’ll help you figure it out.

Healthcare software development services often come in a vast range. Today, you can rarely find companies that offer just one service, though many have specializations or even offer ready-made customizable products that can be adjusted according to your needs. 

However, if you want your healthcare product to stand out, it is likely that you will need unique features or distinct design choices to impress. Custom software development is your choice.

Here are just a few examples of the most popular healthcare software development products for you to choose from.

mHealth apps

Mobile applications for patients to keep track of their health, access services, pay medical bills. This is usually done through either MedTech mobile development.

Examples: fitness apps, apps that remind to take pills, healthcare result visualization apps.

Telemedicine

Software used in order to connect providers and patients through video and images. 

Examples: remote doctor appointments, doctor video and text chats.

Diagnostics and knowledge 

Apps and platforms used by patients to check symptoms, learn and research.

Examples: health knowledge platforms, news apps and websites, symptom checkers, interactive medical learning.

Smart medical devices and IoMT 

Equipped with sensors, these apps combine both measuring and analytics tools to allow self-service healthcare or augment checkups, care and curing processes.

Examples: sleep monitors, blood test apps, smartwatches, AI-powered healthcare apps for continuous body monitoring, drug effectiveness tracking, robot surgery software.

Precision medicine software

Precision medicine is characterized by personalization of treatment for a person or a small group of people. Software, therefore, is highly unique and personalized too. It caters to very specific needs.

Examples: cancer tumor lab growth to pan treatment, blood transfusion matching, genetics.

Clinical trial and clinical research software

Complex, high accuracy software used to find new drugs, record the investigation process, report, analyze and manage data. Today, it is very common to have MedTech AI or Machine Learning engineering as an essential part of research applications.

Examples: clinical trial software, AI-powered pattern seeking.

Medical practice management

This software manages day-to-day operations of small practices, clinics, laboratories or large hospitals. It provides easy business administration services, often carefully crafted and highly customized in order to seamlessly integrate the existing processes and data types.

Examples: medical billing and accounting software, treatment planning and scheduling, doctor appointment management, lab test results, patient information management.

Healthcare CRMs

Medical portals help manage customers, collect their feedback and communicate with them about hospital stays or visit experiences. CRMs are proven to improve patient satisfaction, monitor outreach pipeline and customer-provider relationship. CRMs are often used by larger practices, though recently have been utilized by smaller providers too.

Healthcare asset management

Software that helps effectively manage machinery, equipment or people. It removes human error from tracking and cataloging assets.

Examples: medicine delivery tracking, warehouse management, medical equipment and patient tracking.

General characteristics of MedTech software

Keep in mind that even with this variety of products, MedTech professionals offer a few key characteristics that are in common for all their software: 

• High security or security by design. Since you’re likely dealing with lots of confidential and sensitive healthcare data, this should always be a priority. The internal architecture must be built with additional security layers and protection in mind.
  
  
• Data protection. HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, medical app regulations. Your company should know about laws and abide by security data standards, maybe offer encryption or anonymization.
  
  
• Authorization management. Making sure only people who need the data can access it is a must for a custom healthcare software development company.
  
  
• Integrations. Medtech apps usually don’t work on their own. They integrate with other services, applications, EHR and EMR, and so on. Your company should have a proven track of MedTech product integration.

Before setting out for a search, you should understand your goals. What services do you need, what tasks do you want to delegate and what outcome you expect.

How to find a perfect company and software development partner? 

Once you have a product or service in mind, you should deep dive into a research phase. Look around, but look good. Your product and investments are dependent on it. 

Before contacting the custom healthcare software development company of your choice, there are a few things you should inspect.

Check for social proof: rating and reviews 

Google Search might be a lucrative place to look at, but algorithms and paid ads aren’t always the best indicator of a service quality. 

Clutch.co is almost always the best place to look for MedTech professionals and future partners. The platform offers the most trusted B2B ratings and reviews for IT and business service providers. Their filters are especially handy for finding a company right for your industry specialization, location, company size preference, hourly rates and project sizes.

TIP: As your MedTech advisors in this article, we’d recommended checking testimonials and actual client/partner feedback, not only ratings and stars.

Other great options include: Goodfirms, AppFutura, but also curated lists (make sure it’s a reputable source, and lists are not sponsored) and, of course, good-old LinkedIn. 

Depending on the deadlines of your project, you might want to explore MedTech conferences and connect with interesting and reputable companies there, too.

Check for technologies: what they use

If what you have found is satisfactory so far, it is time for the next step. Look at the company’s website. What technologies are they using? Do they have a limited tech stack? Or are they flexible in their software choices? Can they provide you with technologies fitted perfectly for your needs?

TIP: For MedTech projects, it is necessary to check certifications and data security standards of a company you’re planning to partner with.

Check the case studies: experience and relationships

Reading the company’s case studies is another step for finding a perfect match. Though seemingly trivial, exploring your potential partner’s work can help you understand their previous experience. It also helps you to see the ways they approach and solve problems, what software they use. This is important, especially for custom-made MedTech software, since developing one requires a very particular industry expertise.

Additionally, case studies can be an indicator for how the company develops relationships with their clients, what partnerships they have.

Check their blog and social media: presentation

Sweep their website and social media in search for some industry content. If you see the company write complex, relevant materials about MedTech topics, it is often a strong indicator of proficiency, but also an interest in working on new projects in the field. 

TIP: From their style of writing, you can also get a glimpse at the company’s culture and how they like to present themselves.

If all of it checks out, all this information will be helpful in establishing your first contact.

Now that the choice is made, it’s time to write to the company, or companies, you chose. It does not matter whether you start with a simple letter of interest, offer to schedule an appointment or tell them you are considering working with them. There’s no harm in getting in contact anyway. For your MedTech breakthrough idea, long-term partnership or potential other projects.

Ready? Send!

How to validate the partner? 

Since you’ve made the first step and contacted the company or companies you thought of working with, we have another few things to confirm. 

You have to examine the company’s communication and evaluate their culture. Talking to them, discussing ideas and solutions, communicating preference and errors will be something you do the most. Figure out if the picture in your head matched the reality. Check what they actually know, how creative they are and how much they care for your project and its success. 

The best possible approach is to visit the office in person. Though, to be fair, in today's globalized world with outsourced MedTech developers and cross-continent collaboration it can be tricky. As a result, digital communication is the most common option.

Next steps

As your search for a custom healthcare software development company is coming to an end, we have one last thing to offer you. Our own expertise. 

Due to our extensive work in the field, we have dozens of industry-experienced tech talent in our network ready to work on your MedTech product. We’re always excited to hear about new ideas, as well as resolve unique hiring challenges.

Get in touch with us today, and let’s have a chat!