Healthcare, Page 18 Category

Did you know that before EHRs i.e. electronic health record systems came into the picture, interoperability of the medical information was carried out using fax machines and phone calls? But today, there are various EHRs used by healthcare facilities to cope up with this challenge. For instance, one EHR is in the office, another in the hospital, another in some other branch, or Sr. specialist in the hospital may be using another one. The principal drawback of the old method is that the crucial patient data is mostly fragmented and spread across several chambers. However, to deliver the best possible patient experience, it is of immense importance to have all the records in one place so that the complete picture of the patient’s health conditions and past treatment is easily available.

In regards to this issue, the experts in the healthcare industry realized that there is a need for more robust interoperability standards and medical APIs can be an apt solution for this. These APIs can facilitate data exchange and its processing between numerous systems in medical firms.

So, this article will take you through what are APIs in healthcare, how they are used in healthcare software applications, and how they benefit healthcare app development firms. Let’s commence.

APIs i.e. Application Programming Interfaces are a set of protocols and definitions that helps a software system to communicate with other services and products without knowing how it is implemented. Likewise, medical APIs can be integrated within a medical software for elevating the effectiveness and the overall efficiency of that product. It helps the data systems like EHRs communicate seamlessly and transfer the medical information between each other and thus, improve interoperability.

What else does a Medical API do?

These were the key benefits of medical APIs. These APIs prove beneficial to numerous parties like individual clinics, large healthcare bodies, medical app development companies, health clubs, other medical service providers, drug developers, patients i.e. end-consumers, pharmacies, health payers, transaction services, and even the concerned government agencies.

Now, let me take you through several types of medical APIs being used in the industry.

The appointment scheduling feature is one of the most liked, rather mandatory features of the new-age medical apps. Scheduling API comes with features meant for incorporating the appointment booking feature, cancelling or rescheduling appointments, sending reminders, synchronizing the available slots with the calendar, etc. in the medical apps or software systems.

These APIs are utilized for handling the functions related to registration processes involved with various EMR/EHR systems. These APIs can be embedded with EMRs for exchanging patient-specific data. Both patients and physicians will be able to easily register using the Registration API.

As the name suggests, this API is used for managing money transactions between patients, medical institutions, pharmacies, or insurance agencies. It helps to generate invoices and bills, send prescriptions, and also manage claims related to insurance. It can further be narrowed down as claims API or billing API, depending on the functions it is used for. However, the healthcare app development firms must make sure that they choose the financial API that has robust security features.

This API is purposed to managing clinical data exchanges and other related operations within a medical facility. This API helps in sending and receiving medical information from various units as and when required. This information covers patient records, immunizations, treatment plans, family medical history, etc. Clinical API is another API used for performing similar kinds of tasks.

There are several processes in a medical facility that lie outside of the organization; for instance, pharmacies, laboratories, radiology units, etc. Using the Ancillary API, the concerned healthcare professional can communicate with these external units, refill the requests with them, and also gather the required data from them. A good example of this is when a hospital wants to exchange some medical information like prescriptions with external pharmacies and refill requests. Ancillary API can be helpful in this scenario.

Such APIs are utilized for exchanging reportable clinical data records with the professional, public, or federal registries, and also with research institutions. Public Health APIs can also be employed for gathering public health records in the scenario of a rampant widespread threat like the ongoing Coronavirus Pandemic. Due to their ability to easily exchange data, these APIs can also be utilized for public health surveillance from data systems like EHRs.

Wearable Health apps use these APIs for data collection from several IoT-enabled devices like activity trackers, wearable devices, etc. Such data streams help in the monitoring and management of personal health, especially for fitness enthusiasts.

This API is usually employed by doctors and physicians for viewing test results, prescriptions, patient profiles, and similar other important records. This helps the doctors to access the medical data easily, save time and money, and refrain the patients from longer wait times during appointments.

Though APIs have resolved the interoperability issues to a great extent, there are still a few technological gaps.

Since there is a lack of data standards in the healthcare sector, it is essential to create customized APIs that aptly caters to the needs of the concerned service.

In case a system incorporates myriad APIs, then data transformation into a readable format could take several months or even years.

Furthermore, when there are multiple APIs in a system, it can become tedious to manage those APIs, especially when the systems need to be replaced or upgraded.

Testing of these APIs could pose another challenge because healthcare systems usually deal with complex data; which at times, may not be replicated in the testing environments.

There could also be challenges in the privacy and security of the medical data and so, the APIs must be developed to provide safe data storage and exchange, using technologies like Blockchain, encrypted protocols usage, advanced authentication, etc.

Experts have also predicted that there could be some financial concerns, lack of proper documentation, lack of tools for designing, testing, etc.

Though there are several challenges coming up, medical APIs are going to be the key when it comes to interoperability and data security. Needless to say, medical APIs have a bright future. Besides, the data exchange laws of the 21st Century Cures Act, are supportive of these APIs. They encourage the proliferation and standardization of these APIs. So, it is expected that healthcare APIs will expand and develop to deliver the best possible services to patients as well as service providers.

It’s evident that medical APIs can boost the communication, overall performance, and efficiency of healthcare organizations. It is expected that these APIs in healthcare will expand to enhance the patient experience, connect healthcare providers to complete data, enable the patients to easily and safely access their medical records, etc. and thus, be advantageous to every medical & healthcare application development company competing to deliver the best services. So, medical APIs are the future of this sector..

With this, I would like to wrap up my article. Do share your views and experiences about the medical APIs in the comments below.

Present-day patients expect services like receiving reminders via email/text messages, accessing their electronic health records whenever needed, and availing of online video doctor consultations from their medical consultants and physicians. Practitioners too, prefer advanced and smart Healthcare management software solutions for easing out their workload. Therefore, it has become necessary for hospital bodies to revamp their traditional infrastructure and implement a technology-infused approach. And, what can be a better option than employing a comprehensive HMS (Hospital Management System)?

A digitally smart HMS has been garnering popularity in the healthcare industry for the last few years. However, for receiving optimum benefits, it’s crucial to employ the right HMS that perfectly aligns with the requirements of your medical facility. So, while selecting the vendor agency that offers Healthcare Development Services, there are certain factors to consider and some standard practices to follow. My write-up provides all-inclusive guidance on how to pick the right HMS (Hospital Management System) for your healthcare facility. But, before we delve deeper, let me provide you useful pieces of information on HMS and its benefits.

A Hospital Management System, commonly known as HMS, refers to an app or a software system that is employed for gathering and digitally storing patient data and keeping the diverse departments of a healthcare facility connected on a common platform. An HMS offers several modules like Patient management system software, Doctor Management System, Online Appointment Management System, Lab Test System, Invoice Management System, Administrative Rights Management System, Drug Management System, etc.

An HMS executes the following functions.

Take a look at the key benefits ushered in by an HMS.

It is crucial to identify the specific requirements based on the workflow of your healthcare facility before you proceed to select an HMS for your hospital. This can be done by holding discussions with your hospital management staff and other stakeholders on the necessary functionalities as well as additional features needed by your organization. These brainstorming sessions will not only assist you to pick the best suited HMS; but also provide you a clear understanding needed for comparing and analyzing the pros and cons of different HMS products.

Before selecting an HMS it is important to conduct a thorough background check of various HMS available in the market as well as the recognition and previous work experience of the vendor agency. For this, you need to check online ratings and reviews and feedback from the company’s existing/previous customers.

Before finalizing the HMS for your medical organization, your vendor must present a demo of the HMS features. Such a demo will not only enable you to validate the specifications from the products but also determine if that HMS will prove useful and reliable for your patients and organization. Prior to the demo, prepare a report containing your concerns and pain points and keep this report handy during the demo. This strategy will help you comprehend during the demo how usable the HMS will be for your facility and what problems will it address.

The effective implementation of HMS involves processes like establishing the basic setup, training of staff, and pilot testing. The conventional approach of implementation includes commencing with a modest beginning and then implement an enhanced automation prospecting. On the other hand, the phased approach of HMS implementation empowers the hospital management to reduce the workload of hospital operations bit by bit.

Improper knowledge and understanding of the HMS by the hospital staff may result in disastrous outcomes. Therefore, train your staff well for educating them about its functioning and maintaining the privacy and security of medical data. The training session may include fundamental setup and pilot testing and can be customized for various departments as per their needs.

Even if you have finalized HMS software after careful scrutiny of requirements and features, you’re likely to miss out on certain indispensable functionalities. Moreover, you might need to implement advanced features down the line to cope up with changing times. Such issues can be resolved if you opt for a customized HMS. Customization happens to be a crucial prerequisite when automating your hospital functions. As such, it is advisable to pick a vendor who will craft customized HMS software tailored to meet the needs of your hospital’s workflow and allow you to add advanced functionalities as and when required.

When installing an HMS solution for your medical facility, you need to decide on its location – whether a client-server or a cloud-based system. Also, it’s advisable to go for cloud-based HIS software. The reasons are as follows:

However, while finalizing the HIS/HIMS software, do not forget to validate its scaling abilities.

‘Your hospital already possesses an HMS, but needs to be enhanced as per the latest practices!’ Well, in this case, there isn’t any need for reinventing the wheel by replacing the existing software. Instead of investing in new software, look out for vendor firms who will upgrade your existing HMS as per your need and integrate the additional features in the old version itself.

Your hospital’s HMS software is subject to real-time scenarios as well as the loads which mandate the reputation of your workforce post-implementation of the HMS. Several spontaneous and unanticipated issues are likely to crop up. Such issues need correct handling within the right SLA (service level agreement). Additionally, HMS systems need auto updations from time to time. Hence, select a vendor who provides the facilities of updations and support.

Times are changing and so are the expectations of patients, doctors, and also the hospital staff! Ever since the HMS solutions have transformed the functioning of the healthcare sector, the doctor-patient community prefers the digitally functioning hospital set-up over the traditional one. So, it’s high time to adopt a highly functional HMS that fulfills the needs of your hospital body.