The Psychology Behind UX/UI Design

The HealthTech inductry is developing rapidly: according to Statista, by the end of 2024, its global capitalization is expected to reach a record 610.20 billion US dollars. This growth is driven by increasing demand for advanced healthcare solutions, especially as the number of digital offerings in this sector rises. With this growth comes intensified competition, pushing organizations to focus on building user loyalty by enhancing the quality of their services. In the healthcare context, providing a top-tier user experience (UX) becomes essential for driving user satisfaction and engagement. This article delves into the principles, challenges, and best practices for crafting exceptional UX in MedTech, telemedicine, and digital health solutions.

HealthTech Market Overview

One of the largest segments of the medtech market is medical equipment, which is projected to reach $511.20 billion in capitalization by 2024. Key areas of development include:

• Diagnostics and intervention: Innovative tools for early detection and treatment of diseases.
• Genetic research: Advanced solutions to decode and leverage genetic data.
• Patient mobility: Technologies that improve access and convenience for patients, especially those with chronic conditions.

This evolution is largely influenced by an aging global population, which drives sustained investment in healthcare technology. To remain competitive, medtech companies must integrate cutting-edge systems and focus on wearables, telemedicine, and personalized healthcare UX design to deliver unparalleled user experiences.

The Role of Telemedicine in Healthcare UX

Telemedicine has transformed healthcare delivery by enabling remote consultations, diagnosis, and treatment through digital platforms. Its success depends heavily on intuitive UX design, ensuring that both patients and healthcare providers can interact seamlessly.

Key UX Considerations for Telemedicine:

1. Real-Time Accessibility: Patients and doctors must connect effortlessly through video calls, chats, and data-sharing interfaces, regardless of their device or location.
2. Intuitive Navigation: Complex interfaces can delay care. Clear layouts and straightforward workflows are essential for urgent medical situations.
3. Security and Compliance: Telemedicine platforms must protect sensitive health data, adhering to HIPAA, GDPR, and other regulatory standards.
4. Integration with EHR/EMR Systems: To provide seamless care, telemedicine solutions must integrate with electronic health records, ensuring real-time access to patient histories and reports.
5. User Support: Telemedicine systems should include built-in assistance features, such as chatbots or FAQs, to guide users through the platform.

In turn, a well-thought-out medical UX design can speed up the execution of targeted actions by users, minimize the risk of errors, and generally reduce the cognitive load that new users of a particular digital solution face the first time.

Digital Health and Personalized Care

Digital health encompasses a broad range of solutions, including fitness apps, chronic disease management platforms, and AI-driven diagnostic tools. Personalization is at the heart of digital health, enabling tailored care for individual patients.

Key Elements of Personalization in Digital Health UX:

1. Adaptive Dashboards: Dashboards that adjust to display metrics relevant to specific users, such as glucose levels for diabetics or activity levels for fitness enthusiasts.
2. AI-Powered Recommendations: Leveraging wearable data and patient history to provide personalized health insights, such as medication reminders or lifestyle adjustments.
3. Behavioral Nudges: Notifications and reminders based on real-time data from wearables, such as prompts to stay active or alerts for irregular heart rates.
4. Collaborative Tools: Features that allow patients to share health progress with their healthcare providers, enabling more informed decision-making.‍
5. Data Visualization: Simplified visuals, such as graphs and heat maps, to help patients understand complex health data without requiring medical expertise.

Integration with Wearables

Wearable devices are enabling real-time data collection and fostering proactive patient care. These devices, including fitness trackers, smartwatches, and specialized medical wearables, provide essential metrics such as heart rate, blood pressure, sleep patterns, and oxygen levels.

To stay relevant in the modern healthcare ecosystem, medtech systems must:

1. Seamlessly integrate with wearables: Facilitate data synchronization from devices to centralized healthcare systems.
2. Enable flexibility: Support compatibility with various devices to cater to diverse patient needs.
3. Enhance real-time insights: Convert wearable data into actionable metrics that healthcare providers and patients can use to make informed decisions.

Integration with wearables empowers healthcare providers to:

• Monitor patients remotely, reducing hospital visits.
• Leverage AI-powered analytics to predict health deterioration.
• Tailor personalized care plans based on real-time patient data.

What Is HealthTech UX Design?

Healthcare UX design focuses on creating digital healthcare solutions that are functional, visually appealing, and accessible to all users, including patients and medical staff. A well-executed healthcare UX design reduces cognitive load, minimizes errors, and speeds up workflows in stressful environments.

“When designing for the Healthcare industry, it is crucial to keep in mind that every solution you create affects your users’ health – therefore, you cannot afford to produce half-baked or generic solutions as it puts someone’s well-being at risk. Cater to your users, make your design accessible, and ensure that your solutions are consistent and flexible across all mediums – that’s how you create a truly excellent and literally life-changing product”

Ivan Hohanov, Head of UX

Providing a premium user experience should be one of the fundamental goals in any business sector. However, when it comes to the provision of medical services, often the achievement of this goal is the only possible option to provide some patients with a specific service, which can be explained either by temporary restrictions in mobility or by the presence of permanent mental or physical disabilities. This actually causes the need to create digital solutions according to the principles of simplicity, intuitiveness, and ergonomics.

It is noteworthy that medical personnel are no less in need of advanced user experience in healthcare software products, as they are often forced to act urgently in stressful situations and follow error-free decisions.

Key Principles of HealthTech UX Design

Let's look at a few fundamental principles underlying effective UX design for healthcare:

• Accessibility: patients should be able to fully use the functionality of a particular digital solution, regardless of their physical and mental disabilities.
• Conciseness: the user interface should not be overloaded – instead, it should demonstrate only those functions that the user currently needs.
• Mobility: users must be able to access at least some of the services provided by a particular healthcare organization remotely.
• Consistency: the functionality of a specific digital solution must be presented consistently and logically.
• Control: user actions within a specific digital solution must be controlled to prevent errors.
• Context: the interface of digital solutions must be context-sensitive so that users can intuitively perform targeted actions in it.

Best Practices in HealthTech UX Design

In this paragraph, we suggest that you consider a number of best practices that will help you bring HealthTech UX design to life.

Focus on the end user

Before you start working on a design, you will need to try to perceive it from the point of view of the end user to understand what possible problems they may encounter and what solutions will be optimal for them. Design thinking methods such as user research, as well as creating user personas and user flows based on surveys, personal data, etc., can help you with this.

Don't overload your screens

You should not place all the functions that have to be presented in your digital solution on the same screen. Instead, try to create a convenient, context-sensitive hierarchy and, according to it, divide the functionality into groups, placing each of them on a separate screen.

Create intuitive navigation

Your users must understand intuitively how to perform this or that action. Typically, the “rule of three” is used for this – that is, to complete a particular task, the user must complete no more than three steps. If this is not possible, make sure that your product contains clear and unambiguous hints leading to the goal.

Maintain balance

The visual component of your product also plays an important role: in particular, the user interface should look well-balanced, harmonious, and have a consistent style without being annoying.

Ensure compliance with data security standards and regulations

Make sure that while using your product, consumers cannot accidentally leak personal data (that is, every operation requiring their personal data must be performed by them consciously, after obtaining their consent). To do this, you will need to focus your design development process on FDA recommendations, HIPAA, GDPR, and ISO 62366.

Provide alternative control and navigation tools

Your users may have certain limitations in using the vast majority of digital solutions, so your main task will be to help them overcome them within your product. In particular, we are talking about ensuring product usability and accessibility by providing alternative navigation and control tools (for example, through voice input). More information on how to achieve accessibility in interaction design can be found in the WCAG 2.0 guidelines.

Consider implementing responsive design

If you consider launching your solution on multiple platforms (for example, on mobile and desktop devices), you will need to implement a responsive medical app design that will scale the screens of this solution to the dimensions and orientation of a specific user device.

Base on user feedback

As you complete the prototyping stage and/or launch new versions of your ready-made solution, you need to collect feedback from real users and optimize the UX design in accordance with their complaints, needs, goals, and wishes.

Challenges Of UX Design For HealthTech

Along with following the principles described above, you should also understand what challenges you will have to overcome during the UX design implementation.

Bringing complex workflows into the digital plane

Many workflows in the healthcare sector are multi-step and require the participation of multiple parties. In this regard, one of the most difficult tasks of UX designers is to transfer them to the digital plane, accompanied by simplification and reducing the risk of errors. As for overcoming this challenge, most often, teams have to start their work on a project by creating its tree-like architecture - this is the easiest way to remove unnecessary steps and correctly group functionality that requires the same actions on the part of the end user.

Ensuring regulatory compliance

When designing a user interface, designers must take into account standards that ensure the protection of private user data and prevent its abuse. The same applies to providing accessibility for solutions that patients with disabilities can use. After work on the project is completed, it will need to obtain a certificate of conformity from an independent authority authorized to issue such certificates.

Data visualization

If a particular digital solution operates on large volumes of data and generates analytical conclusions based on them, UX designers may well encounter difficulties in presenting them in a simple and understandable form for the end user. Usually, this problem is solved by testing several visualization options: charts, line graphs, pie charts, etc., and choosing the one that seemed most convenient for the vast majority of respondents.

Final Thoughts

We hope that now, you understand the differences between the process of developing a UX design for a medical sector and the usual one. That’s why it’s so important when looking for a UX design healthcare contractor to turn to specialists who already have experience creating digital products in this niche. In particular, you can contact us, and we will bring your idea to life in accordance with all standards and regulations accepted in your region.

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Budgets are tight, tech demands are high, and in-house teams can’t keep up. Outsourcing IT in healthcare is the solution. Why? Speed and savings. Outsourcing slashes time-to-market for critical tech and delivers top-tier talent on demand. In fact, 23.43% of IT outsourcing globally is healthcare-related. Beyond cost-cutting, there are many other advantages.

Healthcare IT Outsourcing Statistics:

• 30-60% cost reduction is achievable due to healthcare.
• 90% of hospitals in the US have outsourced at least 1 IT service.
• 70% of healthcare organizations plan to increase their IT outsourcing budgets in the next three years.
• 85% of healthcare executives report improved efficiency and productivity from IT outsourcing.
• 60% of healthcare providers have outsourced their EHR management.
• 50% of telehealth in the US is managed by outsourced IT services.

And everything seems bright, yet the pros and cons of outsourcing healthcare persist. Now, let’s explore the meaning of healthcare IT outsourcing, the types of healthcare IT outsourcing, the commonly outsourced services, and the ideas of how to choose the best vendor for healthcare IT outsourcing to help you make an informed decision.

What Is IT Outsourcing in Healthcare?

Healthcare IT outsourcing means hiring external tech experts to handle tasks that aren’t core to patient care. As systems become more complex, providers outsource everything: telehealth, cybersecurity, data entry, billing, and transcription. This lets them focus on patients while staying up to date with technology.

Key Benefits of Outsourcing in Healthcare

Some stats to note: Hiring external IT experts speeds up project delivery by 33% compared to in-house teams. Skipping full-time hires saves over $100K per senior developer each year. Cutting internal recruitment slashes operational costs by 28%, freeing up the budget for core healthcare priorities. Nevertheless, the numbers speak for themselves; organizations must balance these pros and cons of outsourcing healthcare services to align strategy with healthcare’s core mission: delivering safe, compliant, and patient-first care.

Cost Reduction

First of all, outsourcing IT cuts costs by reducing in-house teams. It also replaces large hardware investments with pay-as-you-go services, such as cloud storage. This combination makes IT a predictable cost, freeing up funds for clinical needs.

Access to Specialized Expertise

Outsourcing IT gives healthcare providers instant access to expertise in EHRs, AI, cybersecurity, and blockchain, keeping them ahead of the curve in tech. Vendors already have specialized skills (e.g., AI diagnostics) and apply best practices from multiple clients. For example, vendors can apply innovations, such as robotic process automation for billing, that individual providers or internal teams may not be able to develop internally.

Faster Implementation of Technologies

Outsourcing IT allows healthcare providers to implement new solutions, such as cloud EHRs, telehealth, or advanced analytics, much faster than handling them in-house, thanks to vendors’ ready-made tools and specialized staff. This speeds up deployment, avoids overloading internal teams, and enables 24/7 progress across time zones. As a result, clinics and hospitals can quickly adopt the latest technologies and stay competitive without straining their own resources.

Focus on Core Healthcare Services

Clinicians and managers no longer need to fix servers or coding—external tech specialists handle it. This shift helps smaller practices save time; one clinic recovers hours each week by outsourcing scheduling and EHR support. Large hospitals free up their internal IT teams to focus on strategic priorities, such as care coordination, rather than routine maintenance.

Improved Scalability and Flexibility

Healthcare demand shifts quickly, often due to seasonal spikes, epidemics, or service expansions. Outsourced IT offers instant scalability. Vendors scale teams and systems up or down as needed. A hospital adding clinics can immediately extend the vendor’s support and network. Growing practices get more helpdesk or storage without major upfront costs. 

Optimizing Patient Services

24/7 IT support minimizes system downtime and service delays. AI and RPA automate tasks like appointment reminders and claims processing, cutting wait times. Expert-built telehealth platforms boost remote monitoring for rural patients. Outsourced revenue cycle management speeds up billing and claims processing, reducing patient financial surprises.

Potential Drawbacks and Risks of Outsourcing IT in Healthcare

Healthcare IT outsourcing brings big wins—but also big risks. Know how to manage the most common ones.

Data Security and Privacy Concerns

Outsourcing IT in healthcare raises privacy risks because sensitive patient data goes to external vendors. Each transfer creates vulnerabilities, especially if a partner’s security is weak. Breaches can expose records, violate HIPAA or GDPR, and erode trust. Providers lose some control over data protection, and inconsistent security practices add to the risk. Organizations must pick partners with strong security credentials to minimize exposure, which requires encryption, multi-factor authentication, regular audits, and strict contracts.

Compliance with Healthcare Regulations

Healthcare IT outsourcing partners must follow strict regulations, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and local laws. Non-compliance brings heavy fines. Cross-border deals add complexity to US hospital outsourcing to the EU, which must meet GDPR, and vice versa. Vendors must sign BAAs and match the provider’s policies since any partner failure is the provider’s liability. Cloud platforms like AWS and Azure are only compliant if they are correctly configured and covered by Business Associate Agreements (BAAs). Always check for certifications (such as ISO 27001, SOC 2, and HITRUST) and demand proof of compliance. Legal review and clear contracts are essential, but global rules can slow down deals.

Communication Barriers

Language differences and technical jargon can cause misunderstandings. Cultural variations in work style (e.g., how strictly deadlines are followed) can further complicate coordination. Time zone gaps can mean that real-time collaboration suffers—a US clinic’s urgent issue may require overnight handling by an offshore team. Tasks can slip or be misinterpreted without regular, structured communication (such as weekly calls and project management tools). 

Loss of Control Over Certain Processes

Outsourcing IT in healthcare means losing direct control over critical functions, which can lead to quality and security issues. Without hands-on oversight, providers cannot enforce their quality standards or catch errors, such as misconfigurations or coding bugs, in real-time. For example, an unsupervised IT helpdesk or feature rollout might deviate from security protocols. Overreliance on SLAs leaves providers powerless to address service drops beyond the contractual escalation process. Malicious or underperforming vendors might prioritize other clients or cut corners.

Technical Barriers to Seamless Integration

Outsourced systems must integrate smoothly within existing healthcare IT (in-house EHRs, lab systems, and workflows), which is often more complex. Moreover, integrating new solutions with legacy infrastructure can be challenging, especially if the existing infrastructure is outdated or uses different technology standards. Thus, discrepancies in processes can fragment workflows, such as those caused by different coding standards or software platforms. Testing and validation often take longer when multiple teams are involved. To overcome this, providers need robust integration planning: use APIs, middleware, or interoperability standards (like HL7 FHIR) and involve in-house IT early in the design. Nonetheless, some level of technical friction is almost inevitable, and providers must allocate resources for system integration and ongoing maintenance across vendors.

Commonly Outsourced Services in the Healthcare Industry

Healthcare is outsourcing smarter than ever. From IT support to billing, cybersecurity, and HR, these services help streamline operations, reduce costs, and keep the focus where it belongs—on patients. Read on for the most common services outsourced in the healthcare industry:

IT Infrastructure and Support Services

Many providers outsource their entire IT helpdesk, network management, and cloud services. For instance, hospitals increasingly rely on managed services for server upkeep and cloud platforms. An outsourced team can manage data backups, firewall maintenance, and user support 24/7. It is often more cost-effective than maintaining a large in-house infrastructure team.

Insurance Claims Management

Outsourcing insurance billing and revenue cycle management (RCM), including claims processing, is a common practice. Vendors with healthcare expertise can handle coding, claim submission, denial management, and collections. Using Robotic Process Automation (RPA) in RCM is a growing trend: automated bots can verify insurance coverage or submit claims 24/7. Put simply, vendors execute routine tasks in a fraction of the time by automating transactional and repetitive processes, which directly benefits revenue cycles. And the result? Faster payment turnaround and fewer denials. 

HR and Administrative Operations

External firms often handle non-clinical back-office functions, such as payroll, staffing, recruitment, and human resources. Outsourced HR specialists can recruit nurses and technicians, manage benefits enrollment, and ensure compliance with labor laws. This offloads the administrative burden from medical staff. 

Medical Documentation and Coding

Accurate medical coding, using ICD, CPT, and HCPCS codes, is crucial for both billing and compliance. Many practices outsource coding to specialized firms or offshore teams. This guarantees access to certified coders and up-to-date knowledge of coding rules. Studies confirm that outsourced coding ensures accuracy, maintains compliance, and reduces claim denials. Plus, faster claim submissions across time zones improve cash flow.

Healthcare Data Analysis

Firms may hire external data experts to sift through EHR data for population health management, predictive modeling, or operational improvements. For example, a health system might employ a vendor to flag readmission risks or optimize staffing. These partners use AI/ML tools to uncover insights from large datasets, providing access to advanced analytics platforms and data scientists without the need for costly in-house teams. Plus, cloud-based analytics (AWS, Azure, GCP) enable complex modeling and dashboards, with specialists handling HIPAA-compliant pipelines.

Patient and Client Support Services

Many patient-facing administrative tasks are outsourced to call centers or virtual assistants. This includes scheduling appointments, pre-visit insurance verification, nurse triage hotlines, and follow-up calls with patients. Modern outsourcing even incorporates AI: healthcare chatbots can answer common questions or provide medication reminders. Thus, a BPO firm or a hospital might route after-hours calls to an offshore nurse advice line, which keeps patients supported 24/7 and reduces the load on busy office staff.

How to Choose the Right IT Outsourcing Partner

Once you’ve defined the pros and cons of IT outsourcing in healthcare, set clear goals and scope—identify required IT functions, establish your budget, and define desired outcomes to guide every decision. Next, assess your internal capabilities and identify any gaps, so you can target partners with the right expertise in healthcare systems, cloud computing, AI, or cybersecurity. 

Research vendors’ reputations, review case studies and speak with references to confirm their track record and financial stability. Verify HIPAA and GDPR compliance, encryption standards, multi-factor authentication, and audit practices to safeguard patient data. Evaluate cultural fit, communication style, and time-zone overlap to ensure smooth collaboration. Negotiate a clear contract with detailed SLAs, performance metrics, pricing models, and exit clauses to align expectations and manage risks. 

Develop a transition and knowledge transfer plan that covers data migration, team onboarding, and training to minimize disruptions. Finally, set up ongoing governance with regular performance reviews, reporting dashboards, and feedback loops to drive continuous improvement and keep your partnership on track.

The Future of IT Outsourcing in Healthcare

The healthcare IT outsourcing market is set to explode, doubling from $60.6 billion in 2025 to $117.1 billion by 2035. Hospitals and clinics worldwide now outsource EHR management, analytics, cybersecurity, and revenue cycle ops to cut costs and speed up digital transformation. AI and machine learning drive predictive analytics, automate admin work, and secure patient data. Blockchain gains traction for medical records and fraud prevention. RPA bots handle claims, billing, and scheduling, which reduces errors and boosts efficiency.

Cloud adoption is leading in North America and Europe, with providers transitioning to hybrid and multi-cloud setups for increased scalability and flexibility. Outsourcing partners help even small clinics access enterprise-grade cloud and analytics. Demand for telehealth and IoMT platforms has surged since the pandemic, with many providers outsourcing these services. 

Cybersecurity is shifting to managed security service providers as threats rise.

Looking ahead, expect more outsourcing of advanced tech like genomics analysis and virtual reality rehab tools. The market’s growth stems from pressure to cut costs, fill IT skill gaps, and comply with stringent data laws like HIPAA and GDPR. From small clinics to major hospitals, the next decade belongs to providers who turn to outsourcing AI, cloud, and automation.

Darly Solutions—Is Your Proven Vendor of Healthcare IT Outsourcing

Darly Solutions offers end-to-end expertise in healthcare IT, covering everything from core application development to comprehensive back-office and support functions. Our expanded service portfolio taps into industry best practices and proven outsourcing models to help you accelerate innovation, enhance security, and control costs—all while keeping your focus on patient care.

Service Portfolio

• Custom Software Development: BPM, CRM, LIMS, and patient management platforms tailored to your workflows.
• App Development: Native mobile and web apps for telemedicine, remote patient monitoring, and on-the-go clinician tools.
• Cross-Platform Development: Framework-agnostic solutions that run seamlessly on iOS, Android, and web browsers.
• Automation Services: AI-driven RPA for appointment reminders, claims adjudication, and revenue cycle tasks.
• UI/UX Design: Patient-centric interfaces and clinician dashboards that boost engagement and usability.
• Integration Services: Middleware and API management for seamless data exchange.

If you need a managed IT team or project-based augmentation, partner with Darly Solutions to outsource your healthcare software development. Contact us today to transform your digital health initiatives with experts you can trust.

Conclusion

Outsourcing IT in healthcare reduces costs, taps expert talent, accelerates innovation, and scales quickly—ideal for both small clinics and large systems. It frees providers to focus on care, roll out tech like cloud EHRs and AI analytics quickly, and boost service quality with faster billing and 24/7 support.

But it’s not risk-free. Data security, regulatory compliance, and quality must stay airtight. Avoid breaches, integration flops, and control loss by locking down clear contracts, vetting partners hard, and keeping communication sharp.

The smart move? Outsource only non-core IT tasks. Keep sensitive or strategic functions in-house. Treat outsourcing as a long-term strategic play, not just a way to cut costs. Get it right, and it can supercharge your digital health game.

The future of healthcare is digital. In 2022 alone, the global patient portal market reached $2.9B, as the Grand View Research reports. By  2030, it’s projected to grow even higher—at a CAGR of 19.44%. This trend reflects how public and private healthcare organizations strive to digitize paper documentation and automate everyday business operations.

Indeed, the stakes in healthcare are high. Even minor errors can lead to incorrect diagnoses and worsen patients’ conditions. This is where patient portal software greatly minimizes errors, particularly those caused by human factors 

Below, read on how to create a patient portal. We’ll analyze the target audience’s needs, dive into the most successful examples of its implementation, and examine the nature of the target audience's requirements.

What is a patient portal system?

An online patient portal is a web or mobile solution (usually for Android and iOS platforms) that gives patients access to medical records, helps schedule appointments in a few clicks, and easily communicate with healthcare providers at any time. 

By automating the interaction between the parties via the patient portal, organizations can improve the quality of care while making their services more accessible and convenient for patients.

In particular, modern patient portal requirements are:

• Fast and secure access to their medical data and records with guaranteed privacy protection.
• High-quality medical services without the need to wait in long queues.
• A clear understanding of the treatment plan and progress.

Healthcare organizations instead aim to:

• Reduce their administrative costs – in particular, for maintaining paper documentation.
• Maximize personnel efficiency without the risk of burnout.
• Increase patient satisfaction through transparent interaction and remote patient monitoring.
• Comply with the healthcare regulations.
• Reach a new level of income by reducing expenses and attracting new patients.

That is why the patient portal system is the one-stop solution that, if implemented correctly, covers all the above-mentioned needs. This is typically achieved through the following features:

• Access to medical records (including medical history and test results).
• Appointment booking (with the option to select the date, time, and doctor).
• Online consultations (for example, via video calls and chats with doctors).
• Repeat prescription orders (automatic issuance of electronic prescriptions and reminders for refills).
• Online bill payment.
• Personal data management (including patient contact information).
• Push notifications (reminders for upcoming visits, tests, vaccinations, etc.).
• Educational materials.
• Feedback tools (surveys for patient satisfaction and forms for submitting complaints, etc.).

Types of patient portals: Which fits your healthcare needs?

Generally, there are two global types of patient portals: integrated and standalone. The former is presented as a component of electronic health records (EMR/EHR) and is fully tied to the infrastructure of a healthcare facility. Integrated portals ensure uninterrupted data exchange between doctors and patients but, in the case of ready-made solutions, are limited by the functionality offered by the specific healthcare provider.

Standalone portals, however, come in two forms: SaaS and on-premise. The former are hosted in the cloud and are available by subscription, which is especially convenient for healthcare providers within small organizations. Their advantage is quick deployment and configuration. At the same time, their customization options are often limited. 

As for the second category, these are software solutions installed on local servers of a specific healthcare organization. They provide comprehensive control over data but require significant infrastructure and support costs. They can also be difficult to scale and integrate with third-party solutions.

It is worth noting that every medical organization has its own regular processes and specific business tasks distributed among different departments. In particular:

• The reception desk keeps track of patient records.
• Laboratories collect, process, and store test results.
• The finance department is responsible for payments and insurance processes.
• Doctors and medical personnel work with medical records and appointments.

All the above processes can rarely be integrated into a single system, which makes it difficult to automate them using only one off-the-shelf patient portal. Moreover, medical institutions vary greatly in specialization (including clinics, dentistry, laboratories, hospitals, etc.), and ready-made products do not always meet their needs. 

If we add to this the need to comply with regional security standards for patient data, it becomes clear that out-of-the-box solutions may not be viable. This is the main reason why healthcare organizations are increasingly resorting to custom healthcare portal development.

Patient portal requirements: Key features and functionalities

Now, let's check the main functionalities and features that should be integrated into a patient portal.

User authentication and access management system

This portal component uses OAuth 2.0 and OpenID Connect for secure login. It protects users' credentials and enables multi-factor authentication. Usually, developers provide multi-level access with restrictions based on user roles (including patients, doctors, administrators, etc.). 

At the same time, when implementing role-based access, it is important to adhere to widely recognized patient data security policies, such as HIPAA and GDPR. Specifically, doctors and administrators should have full access to all patient data. In contrast, individual patients should only be able to view, edit, and delete their info.

Medical data storage

The storage is located on local or cloud servers using AES-256 and TLS 1.3 for data encryption. By the way, many cloud vendors have ready-made solutions for healthcare organizations that meet the standards of patient data privacy (including AWS HealthLake, Azure Healthcare, and others). It is also crucial to ensure that such storage is protected against data misuse and unauthorized access.

Integration with EHR systems

This integration is necessary for consolidating patient data. Thus, developers must adhere to FHIR and HL7 standards to ensure compatibility and data exchange. As for the integration itself, if we are not talking about legacy solutions, it is carried out through an API. 

Finally, to ensure that the patient portal system complies with the requirements of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (particularly, the ONC's Cures Act), it is essential that the platform could get full access to the patient, with all the ability to edit and delete.

Appointment schedules, doctors’ cards, and telemedicine tools

The first two components involve creating a catalog with therapists’ information and a scheduling system where patients can book visits. This can be achieved through RESTful API to synchronize with hospital calendars. Also, integrating with trusted video communication platforms like Zoom Healthcare can facilitate direct communication between patients and doctors.

Automation of bill calculations and online payments

Online payments are processed through integrations with payment gateways like Stripe or PayPal. In general, they must support PCI DSS standards. As for the automated billing system, this is essentially a regular calculator that “pulls up” data on the cost of services selected by the patient and sums them up (minus insurance and benefits, if any).

Integration with wearable devices

This is necessary so that doctors can monitor the condition of patients in real time. To do this, developers use APIs to collect data from devices (for example, from Apple HealthKit or Google Fit, as well as more specialized IoT equipment). At the same time, they must also implement a mechanism for obtaining prior patient consent to collect personal data.

Messaging 

It also makes sense to integrate a chat (with the ability to attach media files) for interaction with doctors, supporting end-to-end encryption (E2E) and using WebSockets protocols that provide real-time messaging.

User dashboards

The patient portal needs an interface for each user role. Basically, it should adapt the data and tools for doctors, admins, and patients. Among other things, it can also be enriched with advanced analytical tools. For example, Power BI or Tableau can be used to generate reports and visualize data (assessing attendance dynamics, treatment results, patient satisfaction, etc.).

How to develop a patient portal software: From concept to launch

When it comes to custom solutions, our telehealth website development services are provided in several subsequent stages. Let’s consider them in detail.

Ideation and requirements analysis

At this stage, our team consolidates the portal concept of custom healthcare portal development, according to your business goals, unique aspects of your internal business processes and IT infrastructure, the needs of the target audience, and an analysis of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses. Based on this blueprint, we create documentation indicating functional and non-functional requirements.

Architecture design

From now on, our patient portal development team has everything ready to define the project's technological stack (for the frontend, backend, and database) and choose a specific architectural approach. We also approve the necessary third-party Integrations (including EHR, payment gateways, telemedicine solutions, etc.). 

Finally, we select tools and protocols to ensure our portal has a proper security level, including data encryption, user authentication/authorization methods, diagrams of interaction between components, etc.

UI/UX design

This stage involves building interface prototypes and gradually transforming them into a full-fledged design after usability testing. At the same time, our patient portal app development experts always take into account the requirements for the accessibility of the user interface. Basically, they are most accurately outlined in the WCAG 2.1 and ADA guidelines.

Development

Now, we can start working on the frontend and backend of the patient portal. Once individual functional modules are ready, we conduct unit testing to prevent hard-to-fix bugs at later stages of the project. This stage also involves the implementation of security mechanisms and integration with third-party solutions.

Testing and quality control

When the code base is ready, our patient portal development experts conduct rigorous testing, including functional, load, security, usability, etc. This stage ensures that the solution meets the best specs and software quality standards in healthcare.

Deployment and launch

Before launching the portal, we prepare all the necessary infrastructure, build a CI/CD pipeline, and set up a monitoring system. If needed, we can train your staff on how to use the portal. After all the previous stages are checked—we usually start deployment.

Post-release support and updates

To better understand ​​​​its further optimization, our patient portal development experts regularly check the portal’s logs and metrics, collecting feedback. In addition, as post-release bugs are discovered, we fix them and, if necessary, implement new features.

Understanding the needs of your patients

A patient portal and medical website design should fully adapt to the target audience's problems. That is why it is essential to define them in advance. Based on our experience, we would like to highlight the following ones:

• Long wait time when making an appointment.
  Patients often encounter long wait times in phone and in-person queues. A patient portal can help. It lets users book online appointments 24/7 and choose a specialist. In addition, it sends SMS or push notifications to remind patients about upcoming visits.
• Lack of full access to medical data.
  Many patients are forced to visit clinics because healthcare organizations still document their test results manually. The patient portal gives access to electronic medical records, test results, and doctor recommendations, which can be easily downloaded or saved (for offline access).
• Lack of understanding of the treatment plans.
  Patients may find it difficult to track their treatments' progress, which may result in forgotten, delayed, or canceled visits and procedures. To prevent this, portals display the treatment plan and the current status of therapy. In addition, patients get notifications about upcoming procedures, calendars, and recommendations, which is very smart.
• Difficulties in paying for medical services.
  The need for patients to be physically present makes offline payments resource-intensive. Patient portals eliminate this headache with integrated payment systems, allowing users to view their payment history and current bills in just a few clicks.
• Insufficient communication with the attending physician.
  In-person appointments to explain test results and treatment plans can be time-consuming for both patients and healthcare providers. Patient portals streamline this process with online chat and video calling capabilities.‍
• Weak control over the treatment of chronic conditions.
  Patients with chronic conditions often lack convenient tools for regular monitoring. Portals can address this with real-time health data visualization, medication reminders, and appointment scheduling, as well as integrating with wearable devices for continuous data collection.‍
• Low involvement in the treatment process.
  Since some patients find it difficult to understand how their actions affect treatment results, the patient portal development team can also add interactive tools to the portal to track patients' treatment progress or provide educational materials.
  Gamification elements can enhance the effect.

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Patient portal development challenges and solutions

In this section, we will analyze the most typical challenges of patient portal software development and the most effective ways to overcome them.

• Ensuring compliance with regulations.
  Telemedicine hugely relies on strong data protection, first—to comply with laws like HIPAA and GDPR, and second—obviously, it is for patient trust. End-to-end encryption, role-based access control (RBAC), and multi-factor authentication are key practices, along with regular system audits and penetration testing to ensure security.
• Integration with existing solutions in the organization's IT infrastructure.
  Many healthcare providers still use older systems that don't easily connect with modern software. To solve this, developers can build 'middleware'—software that acts as a bridge—to automate data transfer between patient portals and other systems, ensuring everything works smoothly.
• Ensuring high performance and scalability.
  Many portals frequently freeze when user traffic exceeds the original design capacity. To solve this, developers can host the portal in a cloud environment that scales as users grow and use a microservice architecture to balance the workload across the portal's services. Additionally, they can optimize a database through indexing and caching.
• Ensuring intuitiveness. 
  ‍Since the target audience of patient portals is diverse (including the elderly, people with disabilities, and people with no technical literacy), there should be universal access to the full use of all portal functionality. To solve this, during the development of the patient portal software, the team should conduct user research and surveys to guide and optimize the software effectively. They should also adhere to the compliance of this software with the WCAG 2.1 guidelines. 

• Accessibility on mobile OSes.
  As patients increasingly manage their healthcare on digital devices, patient portals must offer a seamless mobile experience. Poor mobile optimization can lead to slow loading times and display issues. Developers can address this by building progressive web apps (PWAs) or cross-platform solutions, implementing offline access for key features, and optimizing content loading with techniques like lazy loading and data compression.

Patient portal software cost: What to expect

The cost of telemedicine app development depends on project complexity,  the team involved in the patient portal software development process, geographic location, development timeline, and the scope of features. Let's examine each of the points that influenced the cost in detail:

1. Project complexity

• Basic consultation apps with user registration, appointment scheduling, video calls, and messaging: $30K-$100K.
• Advanced telehealth platforms with multi-user portals, integrated EHR, and health analytics: $100K-$300K+.
• Telemedicine platforms with IoT/AI integration: $250K-$500K.

2. Team composition

A typical team for creating a basic patient portal usually includes:

• 2-3 developers: Where 1-2 are front-end developers, and 1 back-end developer.
• The project manager: Tracks the project goals and wins. 
• QA specialist: Tests the app to make sure it works correctly.

3. Development timeline

The time it takes for patient portal software development also affects costs. Most telemedicine apps take between 2 to 6 months to develop:

• Simple apps usually take about 2-3 months.
• More complex apps may take up to 6-12 months.

4. Geographic location

American tech experts can be expensive. For example, a front-end developer might earn over $100K annually, about $8K monthly. He might charge between $70K-$80K for a three-month project.

Hiring remote developers can save you money. For instance, Eastern European developers or other regions often charge between $2,500 and $3,500 monthly. You can easily hire a similar team for about $30K to $40K for the same project.

If you want to find out the patient portal software cost in your case, please fill out this contact form. 

Improving patient outcomes with data management: A case by Darly Solutions

From theory to practice—let's examine our relevant Darly Solutions experience through a top case from our portfolio.

In particular, we were approached by a HealthTech company specializing in consolidating unstructured medical data for organizations in the healthcare sector. They needed a custom digital solution to monitor clinical data. 

Faced with a tight deadline and the need for high precision, we meticulously planned and assigned all the UX/UI design, web development, QA, and project management tasks. We also reviewed the team's work schedule, as some members had to work overtime. Finally, we carefully chose the technology stack. We settled on Angular, HTML, CSS, Docker, ngRx, TailwindCSS, NGX Pagination, and JSON. 

Finally, our efforts paid off. We launched the product on time and met all design, functionality, and quality standards. As a result, the client has a competitive product with all the chances to thrive in the innovative telemedicine sector.

Find out more about this case here.

The future of patient portal development

In general, the future of patient portal software development is closely connected with the fast development of modern technologies, such as:

• Artificial intelligence and machine learning.
  These technologies will personalize the portal and related healthcare services. AI-powered chatbots, including ones with recognition of human voice commands, will assist with scheduling appointments and answering FAQs. In advance, machine learning can also analyze patient data and symptoms to provide preliminary diagnoses.‍

• Blockchain.
  The introduction of blockchain technologies in patient portals can be aimed at more secure storage of their medical records and ensuring access to them only to authorized users. In addition, with its help, each interaction with data (adding, editing, and deleting) will be recorded, increasing the system's transparency.

• Virtual and augmented reality.
  These technologies can form the basis of next-generation telemedicine solutions. In particular, in the future, patients will be able to interact with doctors at a distance without reducing the quality of service. AR interfaces will also help inform patients about upcoming treatment plans.
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• Internet of Things and integration with wearable devices.
  IoT solutions can provide end-to-end RPM in real-time (for example, portals will be able to collect and analyze data on the patient's pulse, blood pressure, oxygen level, and activity). Based on this data, doctors can receive instant notifications of critical changes regardless of patients' locations.
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• Big data and business intelligence.
  Examples of patient portals use big data to identify trends, such as tracking the rise in the incidence of a particular virus or assessing the effectiveness of treatments. Also, end-to-end medical data analysis ensures timely prediction of exacerbation of chronic diseases. Finally, doctors and administrators of healthcare institutions will be able to monitor departments' workloads and optimize appointment scheduling.
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• Biometric identification.
  Biometric mechanisms can give users access to the portal through fingerprint, face, or voice scanning, making the authorization process more secure and easier.

Conclusion

Now you know everything about patient portal development and can safely choose an off-the-shelf solution or search for a team to implement a custom one. If the second option is closer to you but you would not like to turn the search process into a real headache, you can contact us, and we will be happy to discuss the details of our future cooperation to implement your idea.