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When, How, and How Much to Upgrade Healthcare App to Latest Features and Architecture?

An app is like a kid.

You need to keep feeding it to let it grow and reach a higher level.

Be it adding new features, upgrading existing features, restructuring the app architecture, migrating the database to a different cloud provider, or revamping the tech stack, healthcare app upgradation practice is vital for getting rid of technical debt and driving growth at a constant pace.

If you give the cold shoulder to it, your app will fail to outperform other growing apps and eventually be lost in the overly-explored healthcare market.

So, if you are planning to upgrade your healthcare app soon, let us present you with a comprehensive guide with a focus on solving all your doubts.

However, before that, let us share how we being a healthcare IT company can help you upgrade your both iOS and Android healthcare apps.

Four Solid Reasons We Qualify to Upgrade the Healthcare App

We are the Robinhood of healthcare because of the following four reasons.

1. Healthcare-Specific IT Company

healthcare IT company

This might sound strange to you, but we have the guts to say no to IT projects from other industries and say yes to only healthcare IT projects.

Healthcare is the only thing we do exceptionally well. And we are proud of being limited to one industry.

Imagine the level of conversations and brainstorming sessions we would be doing when all the people in the room are unimaginably mad over healthcare!

2. Healthcare Knowledge at its Highest Level

Imagine the knowledge you could acquire if you had been doing the same thing 5 days a week for over 8 years!

We have been dealing with healthcare IT for over 8 years with the same level of passion and madness.

This helps us to gain some outstanding knowledge of healthcare which we pour into our healthcare IT projects in the form of excellence, performance, and innovation.

3. Most Affordable Healthcare Solutions Guaranteed

If there is any other company in North America that is offering you a better solution than us at a lower price, we will match that price without asking any questions.

4. The Most Complete Healthcare IT Team

From our executive team to senior & mid-level management and even teams of junior healthcare IT professionals, there is one thing very common; we all share the same vision to change healthcare and we are pretty serious about it.

Our team includes healthcare app developers, healthcare software engineers, business analysts, UI/UX designers, DevOps experts, cloud & network engineers, healthcare compliance specialists, delivery managers, project managers, QA engineers, and client success managers.

When Would Our CTO Suggest You to Upgrade Healthcare App?: Four Common Scenarios

Healthcare app upgrade or modernization is a process that might prove overwhelming for you.

But at the same time, it would cost you more if you don’t decide to undergo that process.

Thus, it is important to make rational decisions based on facts and not on temporary market shifts or your emotional and financial state.

The following are the top common scenarios when healthcare apps need to be upgraded.

When would our CTO suggest you upgrade healthcare app?: Four common scenarios

Scenario 1: You’re Misfiring Big Business Opportunities

Almost every pharmacy app received massive upgradation to accommodate a telemedicine feature within the existing online pharmacy apps during the time of the pandemic as telemedicine emerged as a new business opportunity due to the sudden shift in the market and user behavior.

Since telemedicine was a more sustainable shift or trend that continues to rule, the upgraded pharmacy apps did not misfire the opportunity and have been claiming more ROI than expected.

But if the telemedicine trend had not survived for a longer time, upgraded pharmacy apps would have failed to deliver high ROI, leaving app owners with no choice but to reduce operational costs by laying off the staff.

Thus, you need to validate whether what you are investing in will give you enough ROI or if it is just a temporary opportunity that you better misfire on account of its insufficient gain.

Scenario 2: Your App Can’t Cope With the Rising Number of Users

In technology terms, your existing app isn’t scalable.

And that’s the big problem.

A non-scalable healthcare app tends to automatically disqualify the extra users by offering them an awful experience.

Owning such a non-scalable app will only push you to a dead end as you are getting new users but your app isn’t designed and developed to accommodate the rising number of users.

To make your healthcare app scalable, we need to play around with its architecture.

For example, if your app architecture is monolithic, it must be modernized to microservices which give more flexibility, reliability, and scalability.

There are many other parameters too which need to be addressed by the team of experts to make sure your app’s infrastructure automatically scales up and scales down as per the demand.

And here it comes IaaS.

It is nothing but the type of cloud computing service that provides required storage and networking resources on demand to deliver consistent performance even when there is huge traffic on the app.

Scenario 3: It Lacks Native Integration Capabilities

Some old healthcare apps either fail to perform seamlessly when integrated with the modern healthcare system or cannot ever be integrated with the modern system due to compatibility issues caused by legacy architecture.

During the era where integrated care is gaining popularity at a very rapid pace and all healthcare apps aim to deliver 360-degree care experience with multiple system integration, your app working solo cannot help its users to satisfy modern clinical use cases.

Scenario 4: It Costs a Fortune to Maintain Your Healthcare App

As per our discussion with North American healthcare app entrepreneurs, they spend an average of 15% of their app revenue to maintain the app or just to keep their app running.

App maintenance is vital but spending huge amounts of money regularly to keep the app running is not at all a rational choice.

However, the good thing is, that healthcare apps working on modern app architecture do not require extensive maintenance as they come with several great features including self-healing.

Thus, the learning is pretty simple. If you are required to allocate a huge budget for app maintenance, there are higher chances that your app isn’t meeting modern app architecture standards and the only workable solution is to upgrade your app’s architecture.

How to Upgrade Healthcare App?: The Four-Step Process We Follow

They always say, “Trust the process.” But we always say, “Trust the process and people!”

Anyway, this is our process to upgrade your healthcare app.

1: Assessing Your Existing System

We don’t build castles in the air.

Whatever we do, we do it with a plan and extensive knowledge of what we are doing.

We start upgrading your healthcare app only after aggressively evaluating your current app.

We keep several factors in mind while evaluating your app.

These factors include cost, complexity, risk, technology debt, performance, product-market-fit, and security/compliance.

Evaluation of your healthcare app with a multi-dimensional approach gives us a better idea of where your app is currently standing and what it is lacking.

Based on our evaluation, we prepared a detailed report.

This report is supposed to be shared with team members and team leaders we later assign to work on your project.

Meanwhile, we also working on preparing a document called Software Requirements Specification (SRS) which contains all of your requirements in a very comprehensive manner.

2. Estimating Timeline and Planning Execution Cycle

We now have two most important resources – Evaluation Report and SRS.

Based on these reports, our experienced project managers prepare the timeline in different stages.

In all cases, everything goes as per the plan as they are well-versed in executing projects successfully as per the timeline.

One of the major reasons behind that is the most detailed execution cycle which assists the team to drive the project forward while keeping the risk minimum with risk mitigation strategies.

(For delivering projects at high velocity, we follow DevOps as a cultural philosophy, practices, and tools.)

3. Forming a Team to Work on Your Project

We now have a clear idea of what to do and how to do and the best part is, everything is well-documented.

This clarity facilitates us to easily identify the right team member who is equipped with the perfect skill set required to deliver your project successfully.

We hand-pick every team member who is supposed to work on your project.

If there are multiple teams i.e., design, development, and QA, there will be a team leader for each team who will manage his/her team and report to the project manager on behalf of team members.

This way, we ensure that everyone remains accountable for whatever they are working on and there will be very clear communication among team members and team leaders.

With the same team structure, we have delivered more than 50 healthcare projects successfully for North American medical organizations.

4. Designing, Developing, Testing, and Deploying the Code

The team is now at work.

They work in perfect rhythm with the timeline.

Everything they design and code goes through automated and manual testing.

Since there is a zero-tolerance policy at the place, not a small bug goes unsolved.

Only after clearance from the lead QA engineer, the code is released into production.

Five Upcoming Trends Compelling Providers to Upgrade Their Healthcare App

1. Using AI and Automation to Address Workforce Shortage

Healthcare is getting weaker due to staffing shortages and burnout.

US radiologists are experiencing reduced efficacy due to chronic work exhaustion.

Healthcare professionals face a backlog of routine treatments because of continuous strain and stress.

To increase the capabilities and efficiencies of the staff, healthcare providers may use AI for automation.

📌 How to Automate Repetitive Tasks in Healthcare?

With automation, the burden of repetitive administrative tasks for nurses, technologists, and physicians can be reduced. It enables them to spend more time with patients by reducing their screen time.

2. Remote Patient Monitoring and Wearables

Healthcare reach has been extended by providers monitoring patient health outside a clinic or hospital.

Using Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) technology, chronic disease treatments like diabetes or heart disease can change drastically.

Health issues can be prevented by accessing real-time regular parameter data from the patient’s wearable device.

Wearable devices measure and record minute parameter changes and alert the provider about the same.

It can monitor sleep patterns, oxygen saturation, workout time, blood pressure, calorie intake, heart rate, temperature, pulse rate, etc.

📌 Healthcare Monitoring App Development

Providers get a clear idea about the patient’s routine and can use it for better treatment and medications.

Providers can check patients’ vitals beyond the hospital walls.

3. Digital Prescriptions and Health Records

Digital prescriptions assist in building digital health records of patients.

It reduces the probability of human error in interpreting medicines.

With the idea of longevity and reduced paperwork, the use of digital prescriptions will multiply.

According to the American Medical Association (AMA), only 14% of providers were available for virtual consultations in 2016.

This number has soared to 80% in 2023.

In 2024, digital transformation and adoption will expedite at a miraculous pace.

4. Healthcare Continues to Move to the Cloud

Cloud adoption in healthcare has been rapid over the past few years in many parts of the world.

Cloud healthcare platforms offer faster testing and development of new technologies with a flexible and strong foundation.

Cloud-based SaaS solutions assist providers in getting data from different hospital systems during cancer care.

It supports virtual or in-person board meetings for collaborative analysis and decision-making.

5. Personalized Medicines

Medicines are usually created with a “one size fits all” mindset.

With evolving technologies like AI, digital twins, and genomics, providers can focus on personalized medications.

Even treatments can be individually tailored.

Though this system can be highly effective for chronic pain patients, it can be hazardous for patients taking high doses.

The providers can make a customized plan for the patients based on their vital parameters like blood pressure, blood glucose level, oxygen saturation, vitamins, and more.

How Much Does It Cost to Upgrade Healthcare App?

Well, it is never possible to estimate the cost without knowing the exact needs.

Because the cost ultimately depends on the number of hours it would require to implement the needs and hourly development charge.

Yes, we can give you any random number but we don’t want to mislead you with any random number.

So, let us give you a simple equation that you can use to calculate the project cost.

healthcare app upgradation cost

However, please don’t depend completely on this equation as the nature of your requirements, region, existing architecture of your app, and existing tech stack of your app also influence the overall project cost.

So, the smartest option for you is to let us know your requirements. We will prepare the most precise quotation and share it with you for your review.