Augmented Reality in Healthcare:
Use Cases, Examples, and Trends

It’s no joke or a mere sci-fi theory! We’re experiencing the impact of Augmented Reality in healthcare, right in front of us. Using an AR-enabled head-mounted device, a surgeon can review patient vitals during a medical procedure without juggling multiple devices or displays. In doing so, they are less likely to misread or misinterpret the data.
Head-mounted displays, wearables, and mobile apps drive interactions between the physical world and virtual objects to improve the quality of healthcare delivery and patient experience. Just like how AI and data analytics improve your caregiving organization’s day-to-day operations, AR presents valuable opportunities for healthcare professionals and providers, payers, medical devices, and other players in the healthcare ecosystem. If you are looking forward to enhancing your healthcare organization’s performance, operations, user experience, and profits, you cannot bypass AR. All things considered, who wouldn’t like to augment their existing business processes instead of spending heavily on enabling new processes?
Data Source: Statista
According to ResearchAndMarkets, the global AR market will generate $152 billion by 2030 at a CAGR of 36%, whereas the global AR healthcare market is expected to register a CAGR of 26% during the forecast period (2022-2027).

How Is Augmented Reality Creating An Impact In Healthcare?

Augmented Reality (AR) allows us to experience the real-life environment around us with a digital augmentation overlaid on it. AR works by integrating digital information or content into the user’s environment in real-time. In AR, the objects that reside in the real-world are enhanced using computer-generated capabilities. AR includes graphics, effects, sounds, text, and touch feedback to improve the user experience. In this technology, the user interacts with virtual objects placed in the real world.
Three essential components of AR include:
Due to its versatility, AR is becoming more accessible and affordable for medical imaging, medical education, dentistry, and nurses’ training.

The Most Impactful AR Trends in Healthcare Today

These ground-breaking AR trends in healthcare are expected to act as a magical boon that will help healthcare professionals overcome several medical limitations.
Robotic-Assisted Surgery (RAS) systems are gaining popularity in recent times as they improve surgical precision and dexterity, and provide better access to minimally-invasive procedures. Combining robotic-assisted surgery with AR offers an advanced interface which will enhance user perception. The ability of AR to improve situational awareness will tremendously advance the surgeon’s ability to make better decisions, in real-time. Robotic hepatic surgery, intraoperative reconstructions and tracking systems, robotic liver resections, preoperative imaging and 3D rendering, intra-operative robotic ultrasound application, etc. are some of the RAS fields which will be transformed by AR in the coming years.
The traditional methods used to assess wound parameters are mostly inaccurate, rough, and painful for the patient. Augmented Reality enables non-invasive assessment of wound parameters by providing visual feedback on the wound healing status. An accurate 3D model of the wound integrates AR functionalities based on a miniaturized projector to demonstrate wound progression. The availability of objective patient data allows doctors to suggest the right follow-up therapies and exercises. It also enables nurses to dress the wound properly. AR-based wound healing assessment offers patients a better understanding of their ailment, so their compliance to the doctor’s advice will improve significantly.
The healthcare industry is slowly realizing the game-changing benefits of AR in physiotherapy and behavioral treatment. Using AR in physiotherapy sessions increases patient engagement and improves physical outcomes. The data gathered from each session allows the physiotherapist to evaluate the outcomes better. AR makes way for a new, unobtrusive method of intervention in motor and cognitive rehabilitation by offering a safe environment for patients to practice movements and orient their exercises. It leads to greater patient motivation and enables caregivers to provide low-cost physiotherapy at home.
AR technology is an efficient time-saver that allows doctors to access patient charts from the EMR system and project the details in their area of vision, while attending a patient. AR glasses and interactive AR charts free doctors and nurses from thumbing reams of papers and documentation. Cloud-based data storage ensures that patient records are never misplaced, misfiled, damaged, or lost. Physicians can simply scan a patient’s hospital wristband and view the entire patient history which is retrieved by AR from the EMR database. It leads to a more meaningful patient-doctor relationship and saves the time taken for diagnosis and decision-making.
Multiple floors and buildings as well as insufficient maps or signage in large hospital facilities make indoor and outdoor wayfinding complex for patients, visitors, and entry-level medical trainees. Development of calibrated smartphone cameras and recent advances in computer graphics algorithms help simplify complex AR experiences in a larger environment, such as a multi-storeyed building. Using the patient’s phone camera, AR places virtual arrows on top of the images of their actual surroundings in real-time, enabling patients to navigate medical facilities with ease. Patients can effortlessly orient themselves in a hospital building and quickly reach their desired location by taking the shortest route.

Popular Uses of AR in Healthcare Today

Fingent’s AR team develops customized AR applications to improve the quality of your HCO’s service and care, cut costs, and address your business requirements in the most efficient way. Connect with our team to learn more.

7 Real-Life Applications and Examples of AR in Healthcare

From medical training to patient care, diagnosis, monitoring, and other practical uses, AR is well-equipped to transform the healthcare industry. Here are some of the top applications of AR in healthcare:

1. Immersive and Interactive Medical Training

The Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) reports that the United States could see an estimated shortage of 124,000 physicians by 2034, including shortfalls in both primary and specialty care. AR-enabled virtualized training provides deeper insights into the nuances of body functions, enabling medical practitioners to address more critical cases in a given period of time.
FlexAR offers medical students a tangible, AR-powered anatomy learning experience using a prototype tool. The app gives users both written and 3D visual information about anatomy without the need for traditional study materials and cadaver dissections. Ohio-based Case Western Reserve University uses Microsoft HoloLens devices to study human anatomy where an entire class can view the same life-sized 3D image at once.

2. Training Physicians on New Therapies

Life sciences companies can use AR to educate care providers on the latest therapies and drugs that improve treatment outcomes. Companies can create compelling illustrations depicting the impacts of a disease or a virus on the human body at different stages and virtually demonstrate how the situation can be brought under control through novel treatment procedures, therapies, and drugs.
Application of Augmented Reality enhances the collaboration between the pharmaceutical community and doctors. The information collected by doctors using AR-based data visualization tools enable medical R&D teams to expedite the study of genetic data related to specific microbes. This paces up the discovery of drugs that can effectively combat the microbes. VisMol system, developed by Sygnature Discovery, uses Microsoft HoloLens technology to create an AR world that facilitates drug discovery collaboration.

3. Virtualizing Surgeries

Surgeons can leverage AR to create digital models of complicated surgeries that include multiple sub-steps and critical deviations requiring careful analysis and planning. The digital model of an entire surgery process details every step of the operation, allowing surgeons to optimize the sequence based on in-depth virtual analysis. As a result, surgeons will be better prepared to handle contingencies and lay out the course of action in advance, before entering the operating suite.
xvision Spine System developed by Augmedics (Chicago, IL), is a cutting-edge AR surgical guidance system that allows surgeons to “see” the patient’s anatomy through skin and tissue just like how they view X-rays. The X-ray like vision allows surgeons to accurately navigate instruments and implants during spine procedures.

4. Accurate Symptom Detection

Several patients find it challenging to explain their current health conditions to doctors. Some patients may exaggerate their symptoms, while others share only minimal information. This could result in incorrect diagnosis and wrong therapy. AR solves this problem by offering patients a simple and handy way to check their symptoms and current health status all by themselves. Doctors can also analyze the health reports projected by AR and suggest accurate remedies and lifestyle improvement therapies to help the patient stay fit and healthy.
EyeDecide AR app uses a camera display to simulate a patient’s eye anatomy, conditions, and solutions. The app describes each condition, annotates symptoms and findings adjacent to each medical image, and suggests treatment based on best practices. This allows the doctor to examine the symptoms precisely. The patient is also spared from any kind of communication challenge.

5. Patient Self-care

AR-enabled healthcare software solutions allows patients to become proactive in their own care. Physiotherapy and physical rehabilitation are two of the self-care areas where AR can be highly beneficial. By watching AR-based digital demonstrations of their bodily motions and actions, patients can refine their movements to restore physical fitness. Patients can also point their smartphone camera towards a city landscape to find information about nearby hospitals and get the direction to reach their destination.
Know My Heart and Know My Beat are two of the leading patient self-care apps designed specifically to use AR technology. The first app enables an individual patient to self-check their pulse and detect possible AF (Atrial Fibrillation). The second app aims to educate patients who have been diagnosed with AF to be more aware of their health condition so that they adhere to the prescribed medication and seek timely medical aid, when required.

6. Vein Visualization

Injecting intravenous shots or collecting blood samples for medical tests is a painful and unpleasant experience for many patients, particularly if the patient’s vein is missed in the first instance. Thanks to AR handheld scanner technology and near-infrared imaging, a nurse can easily see the vein to take blood or give a jab. The handheld scanner projects veins over the skin to prevent injection failures in patients and improve the first injection success ratio.
AccuVein’s vein finder uses AR technology to find a patient’s vein at the very first try of an IV start or a blood draw. The vein finder is a portable handheld device supported by a digital laser projection, a laser-based scanner, and a processing system. Projection-based AR allows the user to view a real-time virtual image of the underlying vasculature on top of the skin. Using AR for vein visualization has helped improve the first-time vein detection success rate by 3.5 times.

7. Medical Imaging

AR displays in operating rooms leverage sophisticated algorithms to convert CT imaging (Computed Tomography scan) into a dense 3D map of structures. Based on the surgical procedure’s requirements, this 3D map can be displayed on a nearby screen, through a headset, or projected onto the patient. Thus, AR technology provides surgeons an enhanced surgical field to sketch a detailed operating plan, well ahead of the first incision. Similarly, arteries and tumor structures can be superimposed into an operating field display to enable more accurate real-time viewing of underlying tissues, organ motions, and deformations.
Immersive Touch’s image-guided AR platform provides surgeons with 3D holographic “X-Ray vision” through the skin that visualizes patient specific anatomy intra-operatively. It aims to offer detailed anatomical data of the patient at various surgical phases. The platform helps surgeons navigate their instruments accurately without losing sight of the patient.

Practical Use Cases of AR in Healthcare

Future of Augmented Reality in healthcare

The increased use of smartphones and other mobile gadgets will augment AR-driven healthcare practices and service delivery in the future. Some of the most-awaited AR-led transformations in healthcare are listed here.

1. AR in Dental Practice

In recent times, AR is being employed in pre-clinical dental education and operative dentistry learning. From a clinical perspective, maxillofacial, orthognathic, oral, and implant surgeries will be increasingly aided by AR in the coming years. In endodontics procedures, video tools optimized using AR are being used to detect orifices for accessing root canals. AR also helps dentists to place brackets in orthodontics through 3D image-based tooth-tracking. The ability of AR to enhance spatial visual perception will go a long way in pre-clinical practices, such as designing treatment cavities for student analysis and learning.

2. AR for Psychomotor Skills Training

AR training tools facilitate spatial and psychomotor skills training in the medical domain. While interacting with virtual objects superimposed on physical environments, learners get real-time feedback leading to positive learning outcomes. An interactive AR hand hygiene training tool for healthcare workers developed by a team of researchers from Ireland and Scotland enabled 81% of participants in the pilot program to attain proficiency after two-minute practice sessions. In the coming years, AR will increase the scope of self-directed skills-based training, improving skill acquisition and retention.

3. AR to Gamify Workout Sessions

AR can lower healthcare costs considerably, save thousands of lives, and improve our standard of living drastically. Even if you are working out from home, you can livestream and workout with others digitally using AR apps like FitTech. Even a monotonous morning walk can be made more enjoyable using AR. Apps such as “Zombies, Run!” can gamify daily running tasks, motivating users to take care of their health more seriously. Medical imaging and diagnosis will be simplified, and dietitians and nutritionists can use the findings to encourage people to bring desirable changes to their lifestyles.

How Fingent Can Help You with AR Services

Fingent is a high-end custom software development company that helps businesses -small and large- across the globe with innovative solutions. We provide a wide array of software development services from software customization to building Web, Mobile, Enterprise, and Cloud applications across various industries.
Our team at Fingent helps you develop customized healthcare AR applications that improve the quality of your HCO’s service and care, cut costs, and address your business requirements in the most efficient way. Build your brand, increase your brand identity, promote your products and services, and gain a competitive advantage with our AR consulting, development, and implementation services.
Fingent’s custom AR services are garnished with:

Most Common Q&A on Augmented Reality in Healthcare

Augmented Reality is used to simplify various clinical practices such as operating suite preparation, accurate vein visualization on the patient’s arm for drawing blood, dental learning and practice, immersive medical training, 3D medical imaging, real-time access of patient data from EMRs, precise symptom detection, collaborative surgeries, and so on.
AR-based 3D visualizations and virtual simulations allow patients to understand their health conditions better. Increased awareness of self-health encourages patients to adhere to the medical advice given by their physicians. AR can convey clinicians the symptoms or conditions which their patients wouldn’t have revealed or struggled to explain. Using an AR-enabled head-mounted device, a surgeon can review patient vitals during a medical procedure without juggling multiple devices or displays. In doing so, they are less likely to misread or misinterpret the data.
To keep it short, AR brings more transparency into patient care, boosts the productivity of doctors, nurses and health workers, and ultimately improves the quality of healthcare services and delivery.
Surgeons can leverage AR to create digital models of complicated surgeries that include multiple sub-steps and critical deviations requiring careful analysis and planning. xvision Spine System, for example, is a cutting-edge AR surgical guidance system that allows surgeons to “see” the patient’s anatomy through skin and tissue just like how they view X-rays. The X-ray-like vision allows surgeons to accurately navigate instruments and implants during spine procedures.
We help you deploy AR to improve medical training, pediatric MRI evaluation, medical imaging, venipuncture procedures, dentistry, remote surgical procedures, and more! Our team at Fingent delivers augmented reality services that can improve the quality of your HCO’s service and care, cut costs, and address your business requirements in the most efficient way.
Augmented Diagnosis is a process in which AR is employed to diagnose patient symptoms, medical imaging, and health vitals through 3D modeling and visualization. It improves doctor-patient communication and helps accurate diagnosis and treatment planning.
Augmented Practice is being used by medical training institutions and colleges to simulate surgical encounters and real-life patient conditions for students. It improves positive learning outcomes through enhanced skill acquisition and retention.
Augmented Surgery allows surgeons to understand their patient’s anatomy by digitally overlaying MRI data, CT scan, and health reports on top of their patient’s body. It offers surgeons an enhanced surgical field to sketch a detailed operating plan, well ahead of the first incision.
Although AR is perceived to have great potential in many industry sectors, its utilization is yet limited. This is mostly due to the many challenges businesses often face while adopting AR. Here are a few challenges to mainstream AR adoption listed:
  • >> Users are still skeptical about the right uses and benefits of AR
  • >> Cost constraints limit access to AR headsets and hardware
  • >> Being intensely immersive, AR is often considered physically harmful
  • >> Limitations in AR content creation for businesses
  • >> Lack of regulations to govern the use of AR
However, these prevailing challenges can be seamlessly eliminated by partnering with the right technology experts who can guide through the business capabilities one can derive with AR app development.

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    Tony Joseph

    Tony believes in building technology around processes, rather than building processes around technology. He specializes in custom software development, especially in analyzing processes, refining it and then building technology around it.He works with clients on a daily basis to understand and analyze their operational structure, discover (and not invent) key improvement areas and come up with technology solutions to deliver an efficient process.

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      Over the next three years, 66% of healthcare executives are planning to increase their investment in digital twin, states a recent digital health technology report. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, digital twin technology has been playing a key role in aiding healthcare professionals. Digital twin is used to optimize the usage of ventilators for critical patients, support contactless temperature scanning, reduce person-to-person contact, trial drugs, and prevent the risk of disease transmission. In the post-COVID-19 era too, medical researchers can leverage digital twins to analyze the existing data and study the impact caused on the human body.
      In this blog, we’ll take you through what is digital twin technology and how it’s creating an impact in the healthcare industry? Let’s checkout!

      The Role of Digital Twin in Healthcare

      Digital twin technology allows you to replicate the physical world in a digital layout. A digital twin is a virtual model of a device, object, or process that operates in real-time to update data when changes are made. Researchers rely on digital twins to test new scenarios in real-life environments with improved safety and cost-effectiveness. In the past, the application of digital twins was limited to sectors such as industrial engineering and manufacturing. It was economically unviable to build digital twins in other fields like healthcare and education. The proliferation and affordability of innovative technologies such as IoT, AI, ML, AR, VR, and XR are accelerating the adoption of digital twins in healthcare.
      Read more: The Application and Impact of Information Technology in Healthcare 
      Healthcare
      The healthcare industry is constantly striving to enhance patient outcomes, reduce operating costs, and address unforeseen medical crises effectively. The US-based Digital Twin Consortium observes that digital twin technology has the potential to improve patient turnaround, reduce patient wait times, optimize equipment utilization, cut staffing expenses, and minimize bed shortages. It helps personalize medicines based on real-time data and improve the operational efficiency and performance of healthcare organizations by identifying workflow bottlenecks and scheduling optimization.

      Top 5 Applications of Digital Twin in Healthcare

      Digital twins allow the creation of handy virtual models and medical simulations based on the data gathered from wearable devices, patient records, drugs and pharmaceutical companies, device manufacturers, and other healthcare departments. This helps streamline the overall clinical and caregiving processes. Listed here are the top five applications of medical digital twins:

      1. Customize treatments and drug administration

      Digital twins allow physicians, hospitals, and clinics to deliver patient-centric care by leveraging precision medicine. Data stored in healthcare mobile apps, medical software, wearables, fitness trackers, and other medical devices can be captured into digital twins which enables doctors and front-line health workers to address patients with persistent or critical conditions. For example, combining AI-powered anatomical analysis with the virtual model of a patient’s heart helps understand the progression of heart diseases over time. It enables medical researchers to identify how the patient will respond to new drugs, treatments, or surgical intercessions. Digital twin experiments are also conducted to analyze the progression of neurogenerative ailments such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

      2. Advance surgical procedure planning

      Digital twin technology enables brain and heart surgeons to run virtual simulations of surgical procedures prior to executing complex surgeries. Testing pre-operative and post-operative surgical procedures and outcomes on a digital replica of human body parts reduces the risk of hampering human health. Advanced, patient-specific computational models of human organs help plan and augment complex surgical interventions with improved precision and care.
      Read more: How Virtual Reality Benefits Autistic Patients
      Virtual Reality

      3. Enhance caregivers’ efficiency and experience

      Digital twins support caregivers to gain a consolidated view of patient data scattered across various medical applications, physicians, and specialists. Technologies like Natural Language Processing (NLP) help infer the data and summarize the medical history of each patient. Capturing patient-specific information onto your medical dashboard throws better light into the context of each patient. This improves your clinical decision-making ability.
      Digital twin model of a hospital allows you to measure the impact of organizational changes. For instance, you can use the virtual model to test new operational strategies, care delivery programs, staffing rotation, appointment scheduling, hospital bed facilities, surgical schedules, and so on. This helps redesign your organization’s workflow, improve coordination among various departments, and reduce the treatment window.
      Case Study: How Fingent’s healthcare technology solution helped improve collaboration between doctors, patients, and caregivers

      4. Test new medical devices and drugs

      Federal drug regulators such as the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) agency as well as the European Medicines Agency (EMA) propose using AI algorithms to determine the safety and effectiveness of pilot drugs. Digital twins can simulate the health traits of a larger number of patients which helps analyze how a drug’s usage will impact a wider population. Using several inclusion and exclusion paradigms, AI helps pace up drug trials by identifying the willingness and availability of patients. Digital twins can also mitigate the harmful impact of experimental drugs and reduce the number of patients who need to undergo real-world testing.
      It takes more than $2 billion to manufacture and launch a new drug into the market. Trial phase alone costs heavily and over 90% of treatments fail during this period. Capitalizing on technologies like machine learning and computational modeling helps expedite the early stages of drug design, development, and safety evaluation. Digital twins integrate the test data across various samples to give a holistic picture of the drug’s effect on patients.

      5. Improve supply chain flexibility

      The first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic weakened our supply chains due to the lockdowns and transportation bans across various countries. This resulted in the shortage of essential healthcare supplies. Digital twins allow healthcare organizations to create robust contingency plans to address such unpredicted events, increase bed capacity, manage emergencies during shutdowns or shortages, offer remote patient care, and design and construct new medical facilities to reach out to more patients. Hospitals, labs, and healthcare establishments can remodel their supply chain relationships to create alternative plans, improve collaboration with suppliers, and team up with authorities to plan and negotiate.
      Read more: Why is it better to outsource custom healthcare software development
      Custom healthcare software development

      Make The Most of Digital Twins with Fingent

      Healthcare application development experts at Fingent help you overcome the hurdles that defer digital twin adoption such as data gathering, quality of clinical trial datasets, and information security and privacy. We develop custom healthcare apps leveraging technologies such as VR, AI, ML, and IoT that enable you to virtually test innovations and deliver exceptional patient care. These solutions can be tailored to optimize both your clinical and operational functions. For instance, we help you develop virtual simulators for ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support System), accident trauma care standard operating procedure, an orthopedic or cardiac surgical procedure involving complex tools, and Neo-natal Resuscitation Simulator (GOLDEN MINUTE PROTOCOL).
      Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves the Standards of Medical Education and Training 
      Besides VR, healthcare providers can benefit from various customizable solutions such as connected healthcare apps powered by IoT, integrated medical dashboard software, remote patient monitoring systems, and healthcare analytics applications. Improve your organization’s technology ecosystem with Fingent top software development company. Contact us to design digital twins and drive innovation.

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        Vinod Saratchandran

        Vinod has conceptualized and delivered niche mobility products that cater to various domains including logistics, media & non-profits. He leads, mentors & coaches a team of Project Coordinators & Analysts at Fingent.

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          Healthcare is a vast customer service industry that is trying to improve patient health and healthcare processes. This patient-centric approach has evolved, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic. Virtual consultations and telemedicine practices have increased rapidly in the last two years. A report by PwC on global healthcare trends reports, 91% of consumers who used virtual clinical care in the past would do so in the future. Additionally, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows an increase of 154% in the use of telehealth in March 2020 compared to the same period in 2019.
          As patients are demanding much more streamlined and seamless access to healthcare, most organizations are trying to get rid of old conventional systems that limit performance. Today, patients seek personalized treatment. That’s where custom-made software comes into the picture.
          Read more: Is Augmented Reality the future of HealthCare?
          Augmented Reality in healthcare
          Custom software is built to cater to the specific needs of the users. They intend to solve unique challenges. Emerging technologies have proved an immense benefit to the healthcare sector. When these technologies are integrated together they bring various benefits to doctors, patients, medical organizations, and the entire healthcare industry.
          A few commonly known custom software solutions for healthcare are:

          • Electronic Health Record (EHR)
          • Hospital Management Systems
          • Telemedicine
          • Electronic Prescriptions System
          • Appointment Scheduling
          • Medical Equipment Management
          • Medical Research

          In this blog, we will further dig into how custom-made software provides superior customer service in the healthcare industry.

          How is custom-made software boosting patient care?

          1. Improved personalized patient services

          Data-driven patient services are adding value to patient care. Data that is recorded, transmitted, and easily available is helping improve doctor-patient interactions. This allows healthcare organizations to personalize their patient services. Additionally, they can manage their interactions with thousands of patients without the need for administrative overhead.

          2. Improved communication and organization

          With custom-made software, different departments can communicate easily and improve the organizational culture of hospitals. Departments can share information without the need for manual entries and documentation. Also, patients can visit any department without carrying any document along as the information is already available electronically with the hospital.

          3. Improved growth

          Custom software digitally transforms the traditional medical record maintenance system and makes it paper-free. The Electronic Medical Record (EMR) can store data of thousands of patients securely host on the cloud. This decreases operating costs and eventually increases the ROI. Thus, custom software plays a pivotal role in improving business growth.

          4. Integrated system

          Custom-made software integrates different workflows that your organization requires daily. Custom software can synchronize several simple and complex processes such as finance, OPD, human resources, etc., in a single place. This helps reduce workplace stress and allows healthcare providers to invest more time in patient care.
          Read more: Choosing Prescriptive Analytics over Predictive Analytics in Healthcare!

          Why is Customer Service a priority in Healthcare?

          Health issues can be stressful emotionally as well as financially. When engaging with healthcare organizations, most patients expect personal care in addition to the treatment. Thus, the more personalized the care, treatment, and engagement with patients, the more likely it is to have happy customers.

          How can custom-made software improve customer service?

          1. Scheduling appointments

          Using custom-made software, healthcare organizations can improve the scheduling experience by reducing wait times and the time taken to capture patient data. It can also help provide appointment confirmations and reminders via text message or email prior to the appointment.
          Booking appointments is the most elementary feature in most healthcare apps.

          2. Service delivery experience

          Custom-made software can provide healthcare practitioners with complete access to patient records health history along with diagnostic tools and systems. In addition, healthcare practitioners can use digital tools to record treatment notes, patient recommendations, queries, and diagnosis notes while interacting with the patient. This helps provide patients with tailor-made experiences and improve customer service in general.

          3. Post-appointment follow-up

          Healthcare practitioners can use auto-trigger feedback forms that allow patients to rate their experience, which will enable them to measure patient satisfaction. Doing so will improve customer engagement and foster a long-term relationship with patients.
          Read more: Custom Healthcare Software Development: Why Is It Better To Outsource It?
          Custom healthcare software development

          How Fingent can help your healthcare organization improve patient care?

          Whether your healthcare business is small or big, a custom healthcare solution is the only way to move ahead in the game and ensure quality and effective patient care services. Fingent is a trusted partner and has been proving efficiency in custom-made healthcare solutions for years. Here are some of Fingent’s success stories in enabling healthcare organizations to drive unique and streamlined customer experiences.

          #1 A Custom Solution To Simplify Patient Care

          Miscommunication between doctors, patients, and healthcare providers can turn life-threatening. That’s why it’s highly imperative that communications are streamlined. Although this itself could be a challenge!
          That’s why Fingent helped develop a simplified patient-care solution, Encourage, that promotes effective communications amongst the various players in the healthcare ecosystem. A doctor can keep track of patients’ progress, assign tasks, and set reminders and care plans, as part of the patients’ profile. Patients can also get involved and also add selected caretakers to the care plan. The solution not just helps streamline communication, but also helps improve patient engagement and allows to better educate patients and families on various treatments.
          Know more on how Encourage turned an apt custom software solution for simplified patient care!

          #2 Healthcare Service Platform

          Providing the right healthcare guidance, knowledge, or tools to the patients or their families can be time-consuming. Plus, it’s also imperative that the information shared is confidential and extremely accurate.
          To streamline and solve such challenges in patient engagement and collaboration, Fingent helped develop an online platform, NovitaCare, that helps engage patients, providers, researchers, and NGOs to collaborate online and facilitate quality care. The solution equips many early-stage healthcare start-ups to streamline their workflow, improve patient-caregiver and caregiver-patient interactions, eliminate wastage, improve accountability and raise patient care quality.
          Learn more on how NovitaCare turned into a top-notch solution for healthcare patient management.

          #3 Improving Visibility on Hospital Performances with Data Visualization

          It is vital for patients to choose the best hospitals and healthcare centers based on their performances. NHS wanted to create a platform that streamlined this search with metrics that compared hospital performances to showcase the best and those with good success rates.
          Fingent designed an application that utilized data inputs from NHS to create interactive visuals and graphs to compare hospital performances. The solution drills down the minute of details to analyze hospitals across various parameters to deliver financial, clinical, and geographical insights, highlighting key performance issues and indicators.
          Read more on how NHS used Fingent’s data visualization capabilities to identify the best-performing healthcare centers.

          #4 Cutting-edge Web Application for Health Insurance Decision-makers

          In partnership with Casenet’s ASG, Fingent helped simplify TruCare Insights, a nimble PHM platform that aids healthcare payer organizations.
          Casenet’s Advanced solution group wanted to create an application that provides action-oriented dashboards and management ease to healthcare payer organizations. The platform, TrueCare did not provide integrated reporting options, and maintaining reports and reconciling them required excessive manual labor. Thus, Fingent helped the team build a highly scalable web application, with best-in-class UI/UX design, to seamlessly integrate the complex workflows of TrueCare, and manage 10 mn+ data records using custom filters.
          Know more on how helping Casenet simplify their platform TrueCare streamlined their workflow and management!
          Using our proven strategies, Fingent top software development company has helped many healthcare organizations and non-profit healthcare sectors boost performance and bring innovative ideas to life. Our experts help provide external perspective, agility, and understanding needed for real innovations. With us, you can get access to skilled software development professionals and all the ancillary roles to develop technology solutions that are apt and unique to your challenges. Additionally, we provide the best-in-class support during and after custom software development.
          To know more about how we can help you deploy the top technologies for improved healthcare services, connect with us today!

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            About the Author

            ...
            Vinod Saratchandran

            Vinod has conceptualized and delivered niche mobility products that cater to various domains including logistics, media & non-profits. He leads, mentors & coaches a team of Project Coordinators & Analysts at Fingent.

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              With the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, the healthcare industry is spiraling at an unexpected speed and is continuously inventing healthcare solutions to drive streamlined operations. Medical organizations are now largely depending on custom healthcare software solutions to maintain medical history, electronic health records, patient’s personal information, and other medical data to provide better patient care and health services. This blog will take you through why your healthcare organization needs to invest in custom healthcare software development, and how it’s beneficial to outsource it!

              What is custom healthcare software development?

              Today, healthcare is driven by technological innovations such as big data, electronic patient record systems, interoperability, and machine learning. The need for this is to provide better patient experiences and improve health outcomes. To achieve this, there is a need for professionally designed tools and solutions that can help healthcare providers to deliver patient-first and cost-effective care.

              Custom healthcare software development is the process of creating web or mobile apps for medical professionals so they can interact with patients better, use medical data analytics, and access patient health records.

              Examples of how custom software development has transformed the healthcare industry include;

              • Tools such as Hospital Management Systems (HMS) or Hospital Information System (HIS) are comprehensive integrated solutions that handle different aspects of hospital or clinic’s workflow efficiently.
              • An Electronic Health Record (EHR) system collects a patient’s data and history and stores it in a digital format that makes sharing across different healthcare systems easy.
              • Mobile apps and wearable devices are serving several health aspects.

              Read more: Augmented Reality in Healthcare: The Industry Future!

              Augmented Reality in healthcare

              Key benefits of custom healthcare software

              1. Tailor-made solution

              Software solutions built specifically catering to your organizational needs help deliver better customer services. Especially when it concerns providing patient-care services, it is always recommended to invest in custom or tailormade solutions. An off-the-shelf or packaged solution, in comparison to a custom software solution, may or may not be able to meet your organization’s requirements or even work well within a specific type of facility. A custom software solution will help solve your business-specific complexes and will help meet your business goals.

              2. Streamline processes

              Undoubtedly, technology enables us to get our work done efficiently and more accurately. A custom software solution can have a far-reaching impact. It frees your staff to allow them to focus on patient care.

              3. Personalized care

              Today, patients want to understand their health on their own and expect personalized services from their healthcare provider. This is why there is an increasing demand for telemedicine, at-home testing kits, and health apps.

              4. Enhanced security

              Custom healthcare software solutions are built in compliance with the industry standards and guarantee that personal data stays secure and confidential. An app must comply with Open Web Application Security Project standards and other certifications, to be approved.

              When it comes to creating custom healthcare software, organizations can;

              • Leverage any open-source platform to create a customizable solution without the need for coding
              • Outsource the entire custom software development process to a reliable development agency.

              Read more: Why Healthcare Prefers Prescriptive Analytics Over Predictive Analytics

              Advantages of outsourcing healthcare software development

              1. Economical and effective

              By outsourcing to a third-party offshore company, you can save a lot of costs. It helps save largely on the cost of developing application infrastructure, recruiting professionals, training the recruits, and deployment and pre-installation set-up costs. Most service providers use advanced technology that would fit your budget.

              2. Experienced team

              While some projects require a large pool of software developers others may not. In such cases, it may be difficult to hire software developers and then relieve them after completing the work as it involves a huge cost to hire, set up infrastructure, and team. Therefore, outsourcing custom healthcare software development gives you the leeway to scale up or down resources as per your project requirements.

              3. Agile and scalable solutions

              In-house healthcare developers are usually burdened with several other tasks which cause them to lose focus and compromise on the delivery of the app. Collaborating with a third-party agency will provide you with the flexibility of managing the resources and whenever you need them. This will also help you include scalable software developers to build an app that is more agile and consistent.

              4. Quick time to market

              Outsourcing the custom development task will give you access to experts from healthcare domains to develop your applications. This will ensure your app be superior,well-grained, and reach the market faster so patients can be treated faster.

              5. Increased productivity

              As offshore developers are qualified and talented enough to develop your app, you won’t have to burden them with briefings and preparations. This will allow you to focus on improving the critical and core healthcare services of your organization thus improving the results significantly.

              Read more: Healthcare Analytics Reaches New Heights with SAP HANA

              Healthcare

              Cost of outsourcing custom healthcare software development

              When it comes to the healthcare industry, the average cost of an experienced developer is not cheap. That is why 59% of global companies outsource software development. While the costs vary from country to country, you will still save about 40-70% of the total costs. For example, the average hourly cost for a software developer in the US is $65–$130 per hour while the hourly cost of offshore developers in Asia and Africa is $20–45.

              Why choose Fingent?

              If you need custom healthcare software for your organization, Fingent top custom software development company is your trusted partner.

              • We have a pool of experienced and skilled developers who can help you identify the right solution for your business complexities.
              • Our agile methodology of development ensures client involvement at every stage so that the solution is scalable, cost-effective, as well as caters to specific client requirements.
              • We offer transparent offshore development services in terms of overhead costs and recruitment fees.

              In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the need for custom healthcare software development cannot be denied. Our developers are not only affordable but can add much value in terms of talent and skill to your organization. Connect with our experts today!

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                About the Author

                ...
                Tony Joseph

                Tony believes in building technology around processes, rather than building processes around technology. He specializes in custom software development, especially in analyzing processes, refining it and then building technology around it.He works with clients on a daily basis to understand and analyze their operational structure, discover (and not invent) key improvement areas and come up with technology solutions to deliver an efficient process.

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                  Custom patient engagement platforms improve caregiver-patient interactions today. Here’s how. 

                  With the COVID-19 pandemic restricting face-to-face engagement, patients have started using telehealth (telemedicine) technology and other digital channels to receive healthcare services. The growth of digital healthcare will increase the demand for healthcare technologies in the future. 81% of people (patients) want healthcare providers to know them individually and deliver more personalized and meaningful experiences.

                  While support programs like teleconsulting do not replace the physical presence of healthcare providers, they offer valued information, which is the need of the hour. With stay-at-home mandates, social distancing, and lockdowns, telemedicine is the vital care model that boosts patient engagement today. Personalized patient engagement fosters trust among patients and ensures continuity of care. So, in times of pandemic and beyond, patient engagement platforms will play a crucial role.

                  Read more: 5 ways to optimize the revenue of your medical practice and clinical processes 

                  Medical Practice

                  Patient engagement and its growing significance

                  In simple terms, patient engagement is a concept where patients are actively involved and considered important decision-makers in their care.

                  Engaged patients are:

                  • Informed- as they understand their health status and the treatment.
                  • Empowered- as they believe they can change their health outcomes.
                  • Heard- as they can communicate with their providers better and participate in shared decision-making.

                  What is a patient engagement platform (PEP)?

                  A patient engagement platform is an application that enables patients to interact with healthcare providers via their mobile device, tablet, or computer. The patient engagement platform keeps the patients involved beyond the four walls of the hospital.

                  When implemented effectively, patient engagement platforms can help streamline access to medical records, provide appointment reminders, enable self-scheduling for patients, and deliver patient education or awareness.

                  How do patient engagement platforms help?

                  Patient engagement platforms (PEPs) can help automate the following processes.

                  • Send reminders to patients regarding their postoperative treatment protocols
                  • Allow patients to update mobility reports and pain score
                  • Deliver educational content
                  • Manage images of wounds
                  • Record and monitor health vitals like BP, FBS, BMI, etc.

                  Read more: 7 major impacts of technology in healthcare

                  healthcare

                  What are the benefits of a patient engagement platform?

                  1. Ease the patient engagement process

                  A customized patient engagement platform helps improve your patient experience by assisting them in scheduling medical appointments. It can also help notify patients about their next visit to the clinic, or when they need to check their health vitals, or when their current medication course will be over. In addition, caregivers can use the patient engagement platform to track a patient’s medical history and use the data to channelize treatment plans when the patient pays a second visit.

                  2. Enable caregivers to focus on core competencies

                  With a patient engagement platform in place, patients can fill in medical forms, electronically scan their insurance cards, and consent from their mobiles, laptops, or computers. It will allow healthcare providers to focus on their core competencies and saves patients from standing in queues or long wait times. In addition, it can expedite the care delivery process during an emergency.

                  Case Study: Fingent partnered with Casenet’s Advanced Solutions Group to develop TruCare Insights as a reliable population health management platform. Download Now!

                  3. Empower care providers to make informed decisions

                  Healthcare organizations can use information like satisfaction scores, online appointments, wait times, and ROI to make informed decisions related to staffing and identify opportunities for improvement. Custom patient engagement platforms allow clinicians to track all this information effectively. It goes a long way in supporting clinical decision-making.

                  4. Optimize healthcare throughput

                  Patient engagement platforms allow online registration that ensures patients have less waiting time in the clinic. It enables healthcare providers to attend to more patients in a given time and improve data accuracy and demographics. In addition, patient engagement platforms spare medical professionals from time-consuming and manual data management processes so that they get time to receive advanced medical training. Nurses, physicians, administrators, and other hospital staff members can streamline their communication, increase staff satisfaction, and utilize data analytics to make strategic decisions.

                  Benefits to the patients:

                  • Patients are aware of the next steps, such as diet plans, exercises, medication plans, or next clinical visit
                  • Consistent and transparent care will be available 24/7
                  • Augmented patient engagement and experience
                  • Improved communication lowers preoperative stress and anxiety

                  Case Study: How did a data analytics solution help NHS gain financial, clinical, and geographical insights to improve visibility over their KPIs? Read Now

                  What to look for in a custom patient engagement platform?

                  Given the changes in patient behavior, expectations, and changing healthcare landscape, healthcare providers will have to ramp up patient engagement strategies and implement the latest engagement technologies. Patient engagement platforms must enable providers to determine the best ways to deploy their expertise and services to their patients.

                  Read more: Digital tools reshaping the healthcare industry

                  So, make sure the patient engagement platform has the following capabilities.

                  1. EMR integration

                  The patient engagement platform should integrate with Electronic Medical Records (EMR). For example, the platform should receive data from the EMR, such as a referral or recall, and revert to the EMR.

                  2. Sentiment analysis

                  The main aim of patient engagement is to understand patients on a deeper, emotional level. So, it is crucial to leverage sentiment analysis technology. This will enable providers to recognize when a patient is happy or frustrated and respond accordingly.

                  3. Real-time and interactive patient communication

                  The platform must encourage bidirectional communication, specifically text-based messaging. In short, patients must be able to communicate with their health system easily.

                  4. Chatbot functionality and keyword actions

                  The use of chatbots and keywords in patient engagement platforms is trending. It helps reduce human intervention. So, the patient engagement platform should allow for automated responses to common questions such as “where are you located?” The platform must also enable keywords to trigger automation, such as scheduling a ride for patients who need a lift.

                  Read more: 5 leading chatbot use cases explained with real-life examples

                  Chatbots

                  5. Patient on-boarding

                  The platform should drive patients to the patient portal and help them register quickly and conveniently to get medical support on time.

                  6. Integration with other vendors

                  A single app can’t solve it all. It is just not feasible and is also not in your patient’s best interests. Make sure that your patient engagement platform integrates seamlessly with your other vendors. For example, the platform can offer billing features or even integrate with medical billing software, medical invoice management software, etc.

                  7. Boost employee adoption

                  Your staff must like and accept the patient engagement platform. If they don’t appreciate the new technology, it won’t fulfill its potential. In addition, you must ensure that the patient engagement platform enjoys enterprise-wide adoption and has a user-friendly UX and UI.

                  8. Offer multilingual support

                  As not all patients speak English, you will have to ensure that the platform supports different languages used or spoken widely by your patients.

                  Read more: 5 essentials to an effective healthcare application 

                  Why should you adopt a custom patient engagement platform?

                  A custom patient engagement platform is specifically developed for your organization to cover your unique healthcare requirements and cater to your internal processes.

                  As such a platform is built from scratch, it gives you the freedom of choice for technology. Additionally, you can easily integrate this platform with third-party systems because you get to control the code entirely. Also, you will have full ownership of the final product and customize the software according to any relevant changes in your organization.

                  Benefits of a custom patient engagement platform

                  • High scalability
                  • Seamless integration to your existing infrastructure
                  • Enables integration with any new services you are willing to include in your medical practice
                  • Freedom to choose the technology
                  • Gain full ownership of the resulting solution

                  Custom patient engagement platform is best suited for medical practices that:

                  • Offer a wide range of services
                  • Plan to expand in size and services
                  • Have rigid workflows that are difficult to adapt
                  • Want to integrate the new solution with the existing system

                  Read more: The application and impact of information technology in healthcare

                  Healthcare

                  Develop your custom patient engagement platform with Fingent

                  At Fingent, we have the expertise and work closely with you to build a custom patient engagement platform to suit your business needs. Our software development experts help you select the best web development frameworks, database and backend technologies, data visualization formats, and leading front-end technologies to develop your patient engagement platform or any medical software that you would require.

                  Fingent helps you develop healthcare application platforms tailored to your needs, with top features like appointment scheduling, medical billing, patient feedback management, payment processing, chatbot, and fundamental to in-depth analytics. To know more, please get in touch with us.

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                    About the Author

                    ...
                    Vinod Saratchandran

                    Vinod has conceptualized and delivered niche mobility products that cater to various domains including logistics, media & non-profits. He leads, mentors & coaches a team of Project Coordinators & Analysts at Fingent.

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