Healthcare SaaS: The role of developers in healthcare
The healthcare SaaS market is predicted to reach $51.8 billion by 2028. Where does such growth come from and how do developers contribute to it?
Although healthcare has been one of the slowest adopters of new SaaS technologies, it has seen a steady growth of 20% year over year since 2013.
Why this increase?
In addition to the fact that an increasing number of industries decide to switch to SaaS technologies for practical reasons, the main benefits that the healthcare industry has from SaaS technologies are:
- Faster flow of information between healthcare workers and easier collaboration
- Impact on transparency in healthcare - they can more easily track the course of patient treatment
- Security of patient data
- Ease of adoption of new technologies, as well as connection with other databases
- Reduced system maintenance costs (an entire IT team is no longer needed to maintain the software)
Of course, we must also mention the impact of the pandemic on the faster adoption of new technologies in healthcare - such as telehealth applications that enable "remote" treatment, which has been of great benefit to healthcare professionals in the last two years.
What is the role of developers in the further development of this industry?
With the growing need for HealthTech solutions, such as wearable devices and telehealth, the need for different technologies and knowledge that will improve these solutions also grows.
Just some of the technologies necessary for the further expansion of SaaS technologies in healthcare are AI, PaaS (platform as a service), API development and data security - which is one of the most important items when developing SaaS healthcare solutions.
What do developers working in this industry face and what are its specificities?
In order to get answers to these questions, together with colleagues from Vicert, which develops healthcare SaaS solutions, we prepared this text.
Vicert was founded in 1995 in Belgrade with the aim of developing technological solutions for various industries, until in 2002 they received their first client from the healthcare industry - when they saw the potential of this market and decided to fully devote themselves to the digitization of healthcare in America.
Since then, they have worked with over 30 clients for whom they have developed over 300 solutions and 30 products for the healthcare industry.
Why is the IT healthcare industry specific?
There is no education to enter this field
There is no formal (nor informal) industry education for IT healthcare. Therefore, entering the HealthTech industry itself is not easy, but it provides an excellent upgrade to engineering knowledge that is highly valued and sought after.
Shortage of people with domain knowledge
Due to the lack of education in the HealthTech industry, there is a large deficit of people who have the necessary domain knowledge. Those who possess it have earned it solely by working in the industry.
It requires specific skills
There is no set skill set you need to have to get into HealthTech – but you do need to be willing to learn skills you wouldn't learn in any other industry.
Features specific to healthcare only
Features that are developed specifically for the healthcare industry are different - that's why they involve developing skills and knowledge that developers generally don't come across.
What are these features and why are they specific?
#1 Interoperability and Data Quality Management
The core of all healthcare systems is data, that is, the possibility of exchanging them.
While in IT we have a handful of well-defined formats and standards, they are not sufficient by themselves to meet the needs for data exchange in the healthcare industry, so a number of different healthcare-specific formats have been developed.
Although there are many services on the market that offer services of this type, there is still a great need for custom solutions, and this sphere covers the largest part of engineering work due to its prevalence.
#2 Patient engagements and portals
Interaction and communication with patients are necessary and most important areas in healthcare.
Research shows that the rate of patient engagement, which greatly helps healthcare institutions, is directly related to the design and clarity of the portal offered to them.
On top of that, security and data protection are a challenge in themselves.
#3 Telehealth, Remote Patient Monitoring and Medical Devices
The boom in the development of IoT devices has certainly found its way into healthcare and is currently the fastest-growing and most invested sector.
The development of devices of this type enables easier monitoring of patient's vital parameters even outside of healthcare institutions, which as an additional consequence has the development of services and portals for collecting data from devices and presenting them.
#4 Health Cloud Solutions
The fact that large companies like Microsoft, Google, and AWS are developing services that are specifically exclusive for healthcare, shows how specific and widespread IT is in healthcare.
IT healthcare – a world to itself or a micro-world?
With the growing need for healthcare SaaS solutions in the market - it is evident that developers will have a big part in shaping the future of healthcare. HealthTech solutions reduce the operational tasks of health workers and directly affect the increase of their capacity to devote themselves to patients - therefore, costs in health care are reduced, which thus becomes more accessible to everyone.
Considering it's still a relatively young field, with few resources to learn from - breaking into this industry is demanding, but well worth the effort.
Although IT in healthcare is unique - it actually represents a micro-world, in which developers of different profiles and orientations can find challenges.
Developers are often looking for new, interesting projects that will give them the feeling of working on something that will shape the future - maybe working on healthcare SaaS solutions is exactly the answer.
Do you want to become part of the IT healthcare industry and develop solutions that will shape the future of healthcare? Don't miss your chance, check open positions and apply today!
