From retail to banking to e-commerce industries, there are applications that cover a wide range of services we use daily. The healthcare sector has also started to launch mobile app platforms across the health care delivery cycle, forming a voluminous medical app market.
Mobile health apps and devices are truly making a strong impact in the healthcare sector, as they can easily diagnose disease and prevent the likelihood of developing death-defying medical conditions like diabetes or heart disease.
The market of mHealth (mobile health) app has been growing with the adoption of new workflows, technologies, and new business models that are transforming healthcare. With the growing adoption of mobile in this sector, the business opportunity for mHealth apps is also growing exponentially.
Market Scenario and Statistics
- The global mHealth app market is estimated at US$28.320 bn in 2018 and is expected to reach up to US$102.35 bn by 2023. (source-Research and Market)
- Over 318,000 health apps exist on the top app stores, nearly double the number of apps available in the year 2015 with approx. 200 or more apps being added every day (IQVIA).
These statistics speak that progressively more healthcare providers offer mobile applications to their patients, which ultimately makes the interaction between provider and patient much simpler. An increase in the coverage of mobile cellular networks and the growing accessibility of patient education technology in emerging economies have churned out better prospects for the mobile health market.
Types of mHealth applications
- Healthcare Professional Finders
- Symptom Checkers
- Condition Education and Management
- Self-Monitoring
- Managing Clinical and Financial Records
- Rehabilitation Programs
- Remote Patient Monitoring
- Prescription Filling and Compliance (Adherence)
Challenges, challenges everywhere
With the exponential growth of mHealth applications, delivering a secure and high-quality working app has become a necessity for user retention. Healthcare is sensitive to changes and innovations as lives are literally at stake. This extra cautiousness creates roadblocks, which may cause difficulties in creating a new healthcare application.
Challenges in the mHealth apps that necessitate a focus on Quality Assurance:
Meeting Usability Expectations
It does not matter whether your enterprise’s goal is as determined as creating a mobile version of health records or as humble as a recommendation with healthcare professional finders, the app should be convenient to use. Each mobile health app can influence several stakeholders, including caregivers, care team members, insurers, patients, admin staff, and more. The application should support their workflows easily, so QA specialists need to get a clear picture of basic user requirements.
Security and Privacy of the Devices, Data, and Apps
The need to safeguard software from breaches, malicious attacks, and nasty viruses, could disturb the whole development team. In healthcare, there is an answer to cope with such incidents: compliance with HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). If the mobile health app is compliant with this legislative regulation, then it is secured.
HIPAA act focuses on the security and privacy of health data and requires added knowledge of the vertical. In particular, QA specialists should thoroughly study the Act to assure that the test is consistent with each section of the regulation applicable to the specific product.
The Demand for Interoperable Systems and Apps
As healthcare software and app is steady goes into the cloud, even legacy systems follow the trend. Undoubtedly, smaller apps are the first to make the move. The resource acclaimed the necessity for interoperability in such applications, as new health IT technologies, priorities, and procedures, will influence changes in accepted standards for data transfer–Health Level Seven (HL7), Digital Imaging And Communications In Medicine (DICOM) and Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources (FHIR).
QA specialists have to ensure continuous dialogue between their applications and all other systems that could connect to it, counting huge clinical systems (CRM, ERP, EHR), and an extensive choice of smart medical devices and wearable.
If the testing period won’t be consistent with all industry standards and demands, it will cause high operating costs.
Solutions- How ImpactQA Can Help You?
It is essential that mHealth providers should integrate software testing as a vital component of their digital health strategy.
Our experts completely understand the nuisances of Mobile Health applications involving legacy systems, multiple subsystems, voluminous test data, diverse data sources, and complex authentication systems. Our QA specialists also offer Healthcare software testing solutions for diverse healthcare players such as hospitals, diagnostic centers, pharma companies, clinical labs, third-party administrators (TPA), medical equipment makers, etc.
We offer the following testing services in the healthcare domain:
- Usability Testing
- Mobile Apps Testing
- Functional Testing
- Performance Testing
- Security Testing
- Interoperability Testing
- System Integration and Interface Testing
Our committed healthcare application test team has the expertise to cater to the requirements for comprehensive healthcare application tests manually and using test automation tools like Selenium, Appium, Robotium, and QTP. Our proficiency lies in building agile and robust test solutions for health institutions that help them to address their need for flexible and cost-effective solutions.
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