The Ultimate Healthcare Web Development Guide in 2023

If you are a healthcare professional or tech entrepreneur looking to improve and streamline the operations of hospitals or medical organizations, the very first thought you would have is digital transformation.

As 58% of Canadians prefer to book appointments online via electronic mediums, there is no doubt that developing a healthcare web app or website would be beneficial.

In this blog post, you will learn everything about healthcare web development which includes the development process, cost, timeline, and challenges.

Let’s get started.

Before jumping onto the development process of the healthcare web app or website, let’s first learn about the different types of healthcare solutions.

9 Types of Healthcare Web Solutions

Here are 9 types of healthcare web solutions that can be developed according to the requirements of your organization.

Next, learn about the development process of healthcare or medical web apps. As a leading web development company in Canada, we know the complete process of development. By following this process, you would be able to develop a powerful healthcare solution for your organization.

How to Create a Healthcare Web Portal in 5 Steps

Follow these 5 steps to create your healthcare web app or website.

1. Requirement Gathering and Planning of Your Healthcare Web Solution

   Before your healthcare web development, you must be clear with your requirements. You should know which problems you want to solve with your healthcare application.

   So, first, define the main problems you want to solve with your healthcare website development or web app development.

   For example, your goal in developing a healthcare web platform is to provide remote healthcare access to underserved populations.

   Depending on your problems, the team of healthcare web developers would provide you with a solution.

   At this stage, you need to contact an experienced healthcare web app development company like Space-O, whose team of business analysts collect your requirements, define the scope, make a plan of functionalities to include, and provide your approximate costs of development.’

   To properly develop your healthcare solution, it is important to understand your requirements and the core functioning of your healthcare organization. Moreover, performing research in the market helps to know the pain points and your healthcare solution is developed to overcome the core pain points that your healthcare organization is facing.

2. Deciding the Features Include in Your Healthcare Website or Web App

   The functionalities and features of your healthcare application decide its success. Carefully choosing the right features for your healthcare web application is important. To help you, here is a table that includes core features to integrate into your healthcare web or website for end-users.

   Features of Healthcare Web Application for the End-users
   User registration and authentication Electronic Health Records (EHR) access Appointment scheduling and reminders Telemedicine capabilities Medication management Billing and payment processing Secure messaging and chat Health education and resources Integration with wearables Language Translation Social login options	Online forums and support groups Referral management Feedback and review system Personalized health dashboard Health tracking and monitoring tools Symptom checker and triage tools Reminders for preventive care and screenings Online access to test results and diagnostic imaging Payment options Search and filters

   Now, let’s check the features of a healthcare web application for healthcare professionals.

   Features of Healthcare Web Application for Healthcare Professionals
   Electronic Health Records (EHR) integration Patient data management Medication management Appointment scheduling and management Referral management Secure messaging and chat Patient tracking and monitoring Analytics and reporting tools Integration with medical devices and wearables Decision support tools for disease management Clinical trial recruitment and management	Clinical decision support tools Electronic prescribing Clinical documentation and note-taking tools Telemedicine capabilities Integration with billing and payment processing Health education and resources for patients Collaborative care coordination tools Integration with prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) Disease management and treatment guidelines

   Next, the process of wireframe will get started.

3. Create a Wireframe and Prototype of Your Healthcare Web Application

   Before designing your healthcare web app, it is important to create a wireframe. Creating wireframes helps you to know what your healthcare web app looks like. A wireframe is a visual representation of your healthcare web application with the exact layout and functionality of your web application. However, it doesn’t include any elements like colours, images, and fonts.

   When your healthcare website or web app gets ready, you need to review it against your requirements. If any changes are required to your web application, the UI/UX design team works to modify the wireframe upon your requirements. Once the wireframe gets ready, the UI/UX team prepares a prototype as per your healthcare web app wireframe.

   An early version of your healthcare web app is created to test its functionality and design. The purpose of designing a prototype of any web or mobile application is to get feedback and get the improvement done accordingly. So, when your final version of the healthcare web application is user-friendly, according to your requirements, and helps you to achieve your end goals.

4. Developing HIPPA-compliant Custom Healthcare Web App Solution

   Web app developers first set up the environment for your medical web software. According to the technology stack present in the SRS document, the developers write code for your healthcare web application.

   At this stage, the web developers code functionalities and features of your healthcare web application. During the development, web developers ensure compliance with different standards, such as HIPAA, GDPR, NIST, PIPEDA, and CCPA. This way, you ensure that your healthcare website or web application is secure for your patients.

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5. Testing and Deployment of Your Healthcare Web Application

   The QA team performs the testing of your healthcare web application. By following the software testing life cycle, the testers ensure your healthcare doesn’t have any bugs left before deployment. Different types of testing on your healthcare websites are as follows:

   • Unit testing
   • Performance testing
   • Functional testing
   • Usability testing
   • Security testing
   • Integration testing

   When the testing is performed and your web application is bug-free, the healthcare web application is deployed on the servers as per your requirements.

   First of all, the server on which your web application is set up. After that, the environment of deployment is set up, and further, the build of your web application is created.

   This process includes steps for deploying your healthcare web app which are as follows:

   • Compiling source code
   • Bundling assets
   • Running scripts of code

   At last, user acceptance testing is done to ensure your healthcare website is working fine. As your healthcare web application is bug-free, then it is launched to the public for usage.

   Moving further, let’s learn about the important compliance you need to follow.

Follows These 4 Compliance for Healthcare Web Apps and Websites Development

Here is the list of security and privacy compliance that you need to follow when developing a healthcare website or web application for your hospital or organization. It is important to ensure the security and privacy of your patients when you are dealing with healthcare mobile apps, web applications, and websites.

1. GDPR

   The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation based in Europe that protects the personal and private data of EU citizens. When you are developing a healthcare web application for the citizens of Europe, then your application must comply with the GDPR regulations.

2. HIPAA

   HIPAA is referred to as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). This regulation is also known as healthcare security compliance regulation worldwide. Every healthcare professional needs to protect sensitive patient data and maintain the privacy and security of the information available on electronic protected health information.

3. PHIPA

   PHIPA, referred to as the Personal Health Information Protection Act, is a privacy law in Ontario, Canada. This privacy law is created to protect the privacy and confidentiality of an individual’s personal health information, which is collected, stored, and disclosed by healthcare providers purposefully. If you are specifically creating a healthcare web application, you need to ensure compliance with the law of PHIPA.

4. PIPEDA

   A federal privacy law in Canada that sets out rules for the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information by the private sector organizations functioning in Canada. PIPEDA refers to the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act. This is an important federal privacy law under which healthcare professionals, providers, or companies develop healthcare web applications. In addition, healthcare professionals need to protect their personal information from unauthorized access, use, or disclosure.

Now, you might wonder about the development cost of healthcare web applications. Check the next section.

How Much Does It Cost to Develop a Healthcare Web App?

The average cost to develop a healthcare web application ranges from $50,000 to $75,000. The cost of a healthcare web application depends on several factors which are as follows.

• The complexity of your healthcare web application
• The technology stack used to develop the web application
• Features and functionalities to integrate into your healthcare web app
• The cost of compliance with the different privacy laws and regulators
• The location of the web application development team you hire
• The level of customization you want into your web application

However, use this formula to calculate the cost of your medical website development. Here is the formula to use.

If you want to get the exact cost of your healthcare web development, contact Space-O. Our technical consultants will provide you with a complete roadmap, timeline, and cost of your custom healthcare web development.

In the next section, let’s learn about the timeline to develop a healthcare website or web-based medical software for your healthcare business.

How Long Does It Take to Develop a Healthcare Web App?

The average timeline to develop a medical web app ranges from 6 to 12 months.

The timeline to develop healthcare websites or web apps depends on multiple factors. Those factors are as follows:

• The complexity of your medical web development
• The size of the web application development team
• The number of functionalities or features you want to integrate
• The technology stack used to develop your medical web portals
• The experience of the web app development team you hire
• The architecture you choose to develop your healthcare systems

These are the core factors that directly impact the timeline of your healthcare systems. Depending on your healthcare web development, the approximate timeline for development gets decided. For understanding purposes, you can consider the above timeline. However, when developing a healthcare system, the timeline of your application ranges higher or lower from the above given.

Now, let’s understand the challenges faced during the healthcare web development process for healthcare organizations.

4 Challenges Faced During Healthcare Web Development

Here is the list of core challenges that are faced when developing healthcare web applications in the healthcare industry.

1. Compliance With Healthcare Regulations

   When developing medical websites or healthcare web applications, you need to ensure your applications comply with all the necessary healthcare regulations. Some of the important healthcare regulations are HIPAA, PIPEPA, and PHIPA.

   But, the problem here is that your healthcare web application needs to design your healthcare web application accordingly. So, if you have a limited timeline, then your development becomes critical and difficult. This leads to the challenge of complying with the healthcare regulations as well as completing the development within the timeline.

2. Integration With Third-party Systems

   To effectively function your healthcare website or web application, you need to integrate with third-party systems. For example, if you have developed your healthcare website for your healthcare organization, then to access your patients you need systems like electronic healthcare record systems or medical billing software systems according to your requirements.

   Therefore, to ensure the healthcare websites function properly the testing and deployment are done accordingly. Moreover, the important point is to ensure secure integration, testing APIs and finding reliable APIs and third-party systems are necessary.

3. Data Management of Your Healthcare Web Application

   Whether it’s about healthcare websites or web applications, data plays an important role. Through data, healthcare providers or healthcare professionals can take proper decisions on providing treatment to patients. Moreover, the data present in the application of healthcare organizations is sensitive and private so managing it properly is the sole responsibility.

   That’s why when it comes to managing the data of patients, healthcare providers need to ensure that their applications properly comply with privacy and healthcare guidelines. For that, following proper encryption, and data access controls is important.

   In addition, data recovery and taking regular backups of healthcare applications should be a must-choice to properly run your healthcare organization. All these processes are complex and time-consuming as well as done with the proper planning of development. So, sometimes due to excessive complexity, the timeline of your healthcare website development increases.

4. Scalability and Performance of a Healthcare Website

   Your healthcare web application should be able to handle large data or volume, even during the peak hours of usage. Mostly, when developing healthcare websites or web applications, scalability and performance are left aside somehow due to the over-complexity of the applications,

   So, when the user base of your application increases, the issues of low performance, and irregular interruptions arise. That’s where the scalability of your web application is required. To ensure you don’t face the challenge of scalability and performance, you need to have scalable architecture and deployment of your healthcare application on the web servers should be done by following proper methods.

   So, are you ready to develop your healthcare websites or web applications? You might want to know where to look for healthcare website developers. Check the next section.

Where to Look for Healthcare Web Developers?

Whether you are looking to hire medical website developers or healthcare web app developers, you need to visit the following websites. Make sure you choose the right healthcare web developers for your project. Because the right team of developers, designers, and testers leads to the success of your web applications.

Here are the different platforms from where you can hire quality developers at affordable rates.

So these are the websites on which you will find the best talents for your healthcare web development. Whereas, if you are busy with the core operations of your healthcare business, you can contact a reputed software development company like Space-O technology.

Do you still have questions regarding healthcare web development? Check the next section of the FAQ.

Ready to Develop Custom Healthcare Web Solution?

In this blog, you have learned about the complete process, cost, and timeline of healthcare web development. Developing customized healthcare web solutions surely benefits your healthcare organization. No doubt the process of developing a healthcare web solution is not easy as it involves knowing the exact requirements, design, development, and compliance.

However, choosing the right development team for your healthcare web development helps you to achieve your goals of improving your healthcare organization. If you are looking to hire healthcare web developers, get in touch with us. Let’s talk about your requirements.