Key Takeaways
- Low code for healthcare brings faster and more cost-effective development, scalable architectures, seamless integration with third-party software, and engaged professionals.
- Healthcare low code platforms should provide reusable components, visual programming, seamless data integration, system analysis, cloud-native architecture, process automation, and compliance with industry regulations.
- Popular use cases include hospital management systems, centralized communication tools, homecare planning solutions, analytics platforms, and remote monitoring software.
Can you imagine that by 2025, around 70% of new business applications will be created using no- or low-code technologies? Low code for medical industry may be the optimal solution to make the process faster, cheaper, and more accessible for non-tech specialists.
Based on Forrester’s Developer Survey for 2022, 20% of businesses indicate that they actively seek candidates without traditional degrees. Meanwhile, 24% specify that they hire individuals with non-IT degrees. And this can become your reality, too.
This article will explain how low-code simplifies healthcare app development and makes your platform more scalable. We’re also going to look at successful healthcare projects built entirely with low-code solutions.
Business Benefits of Low-Code for Healthcare Companies
Low code development for healthcare is a visual approach to building applications with minimal manual programming — through specific platforms.
The main benefits of low code healthcare technologies include faster building processes, scalable architectures, engaged professionals, lower costs, and seamless integration with third-party software and legacy systems.
1. Faster Development and Time-to-Market
The low-code approach requires less development effort, providing boilerplate code, reusable components, and pre-built templates to speed up the building process. In other words, you’re creating an application from building blocks, not from scratch. Also, you can use low-code to quickly add off-the-shelf solutions to your platforms.
According to McKinsey, developers claim time savings of 35-45% in code generation and 20-30% in code refactoring. As a result, this leads to a 90% reduction in total development time.
2. Easily Scalable Architectures
Usually, low-code solutions support scalable cloud-native SaaS architectures. Most of them integrate with popular cloud providers like Amazon Web Services and Microsoft Azure. These services allow you to scale resources up and down according to your requirements for uptime and costs.
To check low-code solution scalability, Microsoft recommends considering the capabilities to set up APIs, preferring cloud-based architecture and microservices. Also, review supplier agreements and platform documentation.
3. Healthcare Professionals Engaged in the Production
Imagine analysts, doctors, nurses, and business technicians (citizen developers) taking part in your medical solution’s design, development, and deployment. Wouldn’t it make your application more valuable for healthcare providers?
Gartner forecasts that by 2026, individuals outside traditional IT departments will constitute a minimum of 80% of the user base for low-code development tools. That’s an increase from the 60% recorded in 2021.
4. Reduced Development and Maintenance Costs
Low-code for healthcare reduces strain on IT departments and lowers the overall costs of the software development life-cycle by 70%. These solutions let you deploy a minimum viable product or a working prototype quickly, efficiently, and with minimal coding.
This way, you reduce the need to hire in-house or outsourced developers. Plus, you’ll need less engineering effort to create low-code healthcare apps, resulting in lower overall costs.
Increasing demand for operational efficiency, a widening skills gap and escalating economic pressures fuel the growing interest in hyper-automation. As a result, robotic process automation (RPA) stands as one of the most widespread low-code technologies in 2022.
5. Integrates with Third-Party Software and Legacy Systems
HIPAA compliant no code app development brings healthcare innovation closer to your platform, especially if you’ve stuck with outdated legacy systems. The process of full-scale IT modernization generally spans from 12 to 24 months. However, you can enhance your operations within just three days by leveraging low-code/no-code tools. For example, by incorporating reusable packaged components.
Healthcare companies use low-code platforms to replace legacy modules with modern third-party technologies, including telehealth, administrative management, and scheduling software. You can also quickly build web and mobile applications on top of your healthcare platform to allow remote access from portable devices. Besides, low-code tools simplify implementing electronic health record (EHR) systems into your platforms.
Challenges of Low-Code Healthcare Development
Despite their rapid growth — from $22.5 billion in 2022 to an expected $32 billion in 2024, low-code solutions are still imperfect. Let’s briefly go over their biggest constraints:
- You don’t have access to the source of low-code platforms, which may lead to vendor lock-in (inability to switch platforms without substantial costs).
- You may face security issues if you integrate external apps, databases, cloud services, and custom interfaces.
- You’ll be limited to the features offered by your provider and probably need additional hand-coding to enhance your software.
Knowing how to combine traditional coding and low or no code in healthcare is critical to maximizing the performance of development teams.
Capabilities of Low-Code Platforms for Healthcare Projects
Advanced platforms offer many tools and features to help you build clinical software.
Rapid Development
Consider a drag-and-drop interface for quick app prototyping. Pre-built templates and components should include user interface components (buttons, forms, menus), backend functions (authentication modules, database connectors), and complete application templates tailored for specific purposes.
Scalability
A low-code platform should contain mechanisms for automatic scaling, load balancing, caching, and other scalability measures. Most low-code platforms are hosted in the cloud and offer scalable hosting options with flexible payment plans. The microservice architecture will also help you achieve your desired goals.
Interoperability
Pay attention to smooth integration with existing healthcare systems and databases. For example, seamless integration with Electronic Health Record (EHR) solutions ensures a holistic view of patient information. Compliance with healthcare regulations and standards like HIPAA, GDPR, PCI DSS, and FFDCA is also crucial.
Security
Ensure the platform has encryption protocols (such as AES) to secure data both in transit and at rest. Role-based access control will help you manage who can view, edit, and manage different types of healthcare data. The solution should establish a robust incident response plan, minimizing the impact of security breaches.
Mobile Accessibility
Mobile app development capabilities enable the creation of patient-facing applications that enhance engagement and communication. This includes apps for appointment scheduling, medication reminders, telehealth consultations, and access to personal health records. Such solutions contribute to improved patient outcomes and satisfaction.
Data Analytics
Some no code healthcare solutions enable organizations to monitor the performance of critical clinical software, ensuring optimal functionality, minimizing downtime, and efficiently utilizing resources. By tracking system performance, you can proactively address any issues, guaranteeing a seamless experience for both healthcare professionals and patients.
Deployment
Low-code platforms for healthcare provide versatile deployment options, giving organizations the freedom to determine the hosting environment. They should offer flexible deployment — on-premises, cloud, or hybrid setups. This adaptability aligns application hosting with organizational infrastructure and security preferences.
Low-Code: Use Cases in Healthcare
Today’s platforms meet the requirements of the most demanding companies, so let’s look at some low code use cases in healthcare.
Hospital Management System for ATC
“Low-code technology by far exceeds any productivity and reliability I have come across in more than 25 years in IT business.”
Omar Shraim, Senior Director IT at ATC
Advanced Technology Company (ATC), a Kuwait-based healthcare technology provider, had a legacy system with complex software, siloed data, and inefficient department communication. Available hospital management solutions were expensive and would take up to five years to make.
ATC used a low-side platform to build a complete healthcare management system. The company could deploy a fully customizable solution in weeks instead of years. This reduced licensing costs, simplified patient registering processes, and gave access to real-time analysis of critical system data.
Centralized Communication Tool for Luz Saúde
“Low-code platform has been a key digital enabler for Luz Saúde to tackle the challenges raised by our business expansion.”
Cristina Freitas, Project Manager at Luz Saúde
Luz Saúde, a leading Portuguese healthcare group, needed a tool to provide medical personnel with content management, access control, and scheduling features. The development was estimated to take over nine months with a full-scale engineering team.
However, the management opted for a low-code platform to reduce the time-to-market. The decision to build a low-code solution for healthcare was the right choice, seeing as the process took only four months with a tiny seven-person team.
Homecare Planning System for Saga HealthCare
“With a HIPPA compliant low code tool, you can easily build expertise within your own IT department, and from there, the power to develop and innovate is in your hands.”
Matt Smith, Head of IT at Saga Healthcare
Saga HealthCare, one of the UK’s largest homecare agencies, needed to launch a new homecare scheduling system. The initial estimates for the project were $16 million and three years. However, a low-code solution allowed the company to build the desired system for less than $333,500 over six months.
Analytics Platform for Medical Implants for Kermit PPI
“Leveraging a low-code environment allowed us to develop our solution very quickly, efficiently, test it, roll it out and make modifications from customer feedback.”
Jason Smith, COO and Co-Founder at Kermit PPI
Kermit PPI, a US hospital analytics platform, wanted to help hospitals digitize transaction and billing management for its implantable medical devices.
A regular technical stack was about to take Kermit PPI roughly a year to build an app with a team of 10 developers. But the low-code platform allowed the company to create its app on the first iteration in nine months with a single developer.
The Kermit software helps identify contracting issues, analyze invoices, and detect opportunities to reduce expenses. As a result, hospitals using their solutions save about 30% on medical implants.
Remote Monitoring Platform for Medtronic
“We wanted a secure platform that would allow us to build the capabilities we needed quickly and easily—and we’ve got it”
Karel Nouwen, Senior IT Director at Medtronic
Medtronic, a US-based medical device enterprise operating in 150 countries, needed secure and scalable software for remote monitoring and triage of devices, trackers, and sensors. The available off-the-shelf solutions lacked features or were too hard to customize to Medtronic’s needs.
The low-code solutions helped the firm deploy a product in half a year. Medtronic can now quickly adjust and scale its platform based on its requirements, cutting about 50% of IT expenses.
Acropolium Case Studies on Low-Code Development in Healthcare
Our IT outsourcing company developed a cross-platform solution for a private center for psychological assistance to people with various types of addictions. Its idea was to minimize offline communication by identifying problems and providing advice and help online.
Client goals
- Building an application that establishes trust and provides assistance
- Increasing the flow of patients
- Launching the platform in a short period
Challenges
- The private psychological help center did not have an online platform for communication.
- The clinic’s clients refused to discuss sensitive topics during a personal meeting, complicating the treatment process.
Solution & Outcome
- Our dedicated team used the Firebase BaaS platform to avoid spending time and resources on backend development. This made it possible to better focus on the application’s business logic.
- The developed solution allowed clinic patients to pass a mini-drug test, browse the library of prohibited substances, contact quality specialists, and even issue illegal alcohol sales points.
- As a result, thanks to the BaaS solution, the program’s budget was reduced by 40%, and it was possible to eliminate further maintenance and support costs. And the flow of new patients for rehabilitation increased by 36%.
Accelerate Your Digital Transformation with Acropolium
Low-code development services allow companies to build healthcare software with minimum manual hand-coding. Of course, the technology has some integration and customization limitations. But when used appropriately, a low-code platform for healthcare helps create secure, interoperable, and scalable software faster and cheaper than a traditional technical stack.
But what emerging trends will further enhance the capabilities of low or no code for healthcare? In the future, you can expect the integration of advanced technologies like artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), the Internet of Things (IoT), blockchain, chatbots and virtual assistants, and augmented reality (AR).
Whether you want to enhance aspects of your platform, automate business processes, rebuild your healthcare legacy software, or create an entire operational healthcare software solution, Acropolium can share its expertise. Our certified team will recommend the best low-code option for your custom software and support the complete development cycle — on a subscription basis.
If you’re interested in our partnership, you’re welcome to contact us to learn more!
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