Building apps in healthcare is different from developing them in other industries. From the reasons we do it to how we develop and get them in the hands of users, creating technology in healthcare is its own complicated beast.
Here are three reasons why healthcare technology is so different from other industries.
We’re on a mission.
First off, most of us are in this for more than a quick buck—for many, there’s often an intrinsic driver rooted in some personal healthcare experience that motivated their involvement in the project. Most entrepreneurs and app developers I talk to have a healthcare story that opened their eyes to some inefficiency—or, as it can often feel when a loved one is involved, an injustice. When it comes to why people develop new healthcare technologies, it’s often about saving lives in the most fragile settings.
We’re in it for the long haul.
Healthcare organizations aren’t risk takers. They live by the Hippocratic mantra, “first do no harm”, an inherently risk-averse statement. Many entrepreneurs lament the year-long sales cycles and sluggish adoption of new technology at health systems, and although I believe there are tremendous gains to be had from technology enabled healthcare, I also believe that this struggle to sell is a necessary balance. Let’s not move too quickly. Let’s not cause harm.
Our tech is different.
As it should be, health information is protected. We have to build our applications to surpass regulatory guidelines and industry best practices. Additionally, the clinical source-of-truth is a database managed by the healthcare organization—the electronic health record (EHR). The EHR has become the backbone of healthcare organizations and it isn’t going anywhere—providers reference their EHR for patient information before each encounter, and it helps keep track of diagnoses and treatments. It also handles the hairball of public and private insurance reimbursement processes, something for which many people are grateful.
This is the technology landscape we innovate within, and Redox has partnered with Kinvey to help solve some of these problems. Redox builds standardized APIs to help integrate with legacy EHR systems at the health systems you work with. Kinvey’s platform allows developers to build and deploy applications in a HIPAA-compliant and scalable environment. If you’re working on something that could benefit from what we’re doing, let’s talk. We’re here to help.
If you’d like to learn more, join us for a webinar on 3/21 and we’ll talk through how our platforms can be used to accelerate developing and deploying applications in healthcare.
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