EMR (Electronic medical record) or EHR (Electronic healthcare record) allows clinicians to gather, track, and edit personal data and identify and monitor patients' health status. EHR/EMR software provides robust tools to streamline workflow and increase patient engagement. Effective EHR/EMR development involves analyzing existing infrastructure and improving processes to provide more sophisticated software.

Most tailored features of EHR/EMR software development

Today, every medical institution needs an electronic health record system. Building custom EHR/EMR software from scratch is the most challenging and best way to achieve your desired features and functionality.

VITech, as an experienced EHR/EMR software development company, can help you through the complicated process of EHR/EMR software development. The most critical points of it are:

• Crucial steps for planning and defining features, goals, and end users' needs.
• Valuable tips for crafting intuitive interfaces and data visualizations.
• Mapping out an efficient workflow that matches actual patient visits.
• Strategies for software development, QA, debugging, and safety of sensitive data.

At VITech, we develop custom EMR and EHR software for diverse clients. Our clients receive a roadmap for creating a custom medical platform tailored for modern healthcare practice. Our EHR/EMR software helps to improve data processing, record patients' height and weight to monitor their vital signs and symptoms, and provide faster access to lab results, digital prescriptions, and EMR/EHR integration services.

EHR/EMR software development covers a broader range of patient healthcare. EHR/EMR records can easily be transferred to a different hospital, a specialist, or a state.

EHR/EMR software enables the sharing of updated information in real-time and allows easy access to decision-making tools. Doctors and physicians can also access a patient's complete medical history.

To create a winning electronic healthcare records system, the client has to stay technically tuned. VITECH, as an experienced EHR development company, will help you to build the most essential features for each effective medical records system.

Most medical facilities today combine a customized healthcare management system with EHR software that can meet their unique requirements. In this case, software development must quickly adapt and change to meet new requirements.

However, some basic features of an effective clinical decision support system make up the basic structure:

One of the most important features is the patient portal. On this page, all the information about a patient is collected and made available to the patient and all the medical staff concerned. To create a customized patient portal for the EHR system, you must start by defining the must-have components: the patient's name, age, and health information like lab tests, medication, allergies, etc. A patient's portal on the EHR\EMR allows the physicians to add, view, or edit the data. The first step of EHR\EMR software development is creating an MVP version. Then, you have to add features according to MVP.

E-prescriptions are another crucial feature of an Electronic Medical Record System. In this portal, you can record and maintain each patient's conditions and contradictions as well as prescriptions and treatments needed for medical help. E-prescriptions can significantly increase the visibility of the patient's health condition and help physicians with correct diagnostics and treatment. The information accessible in the system helps to understand each patient's previous medical history.

Documentation and charting. The EHR/EMR, software development process, always includes functionality for charting and documenting, which helps medical staff save time on filling out documents, charts, and forms. Record software can allow efficient completion of those essential routine tasks.

EHR/EMR software development must consider a few crucial aspects, and knowledge about developing those features is essential. For instance, you can create customized chart templates for EHR/EMR. You can also add the possibility of dictation and voice recognition. Another helpful feature is a responsive chart. Customized EHR/EMR software has to be optimized according to customer requirements.

Machine learning is very profitable for EHR/EMR software development and allows the automation of many processes, such as form and checkbox auto-filling, information standardization, and others. VITech, as an experienced EHR/EMR software development company, delivers software using advanced technologies. Our expert team of developers helps you choose the most suitable technology for your project.

Lab results integration. Another essential feature of effective EHR/EMR software is lab integration, which allows physicians to quickly track and receive accurate lab and test results and make decisions about the best possible medical treatment. The key to developing effective EHR/EMR software is connecting current procedures with the patient's medical history. Integrated lab results fast-track the EHR/EMR system and help patients gain more credibility.

An electronic medical record system with all patient medical data can help healthcare workers and patients detect the markers of a condition and consult with physicians immediately.

Record access control. Compliance is essential when developing the EHR/EMR system. Application security is not less important. The challenge is to create an efficient and secure EHR/EMR software with stringent access control features. As an experienced software development company, VITech creates EHR/EMR software with different access levels to sensitive patient information. Each qualified medical staff member is only required to have access to personal medical data. Certain restrictions help to control patient record access better.

Advantages of a functioning EHR/EMR system:

• Planning and monitoring of patient treatment.
• Features assigned to a specific medical speciality.
• Cybersecurity features (e.g., data leak protection, end-to-end data encryption).
• Compliance with HIPAA or other government regulations.
• User-friendly UX and UI.
• Compatibility of desktop, tablet, and mobile versions.
• Patient records management.

The basic infrastructure for effective and secure EHR/EMR software must implement all those features. Additionally, you can modify the developed software and scale the Electronic Medical Record System according to new requirements.

VITEch's experienced software developers can help you create a new EHR from scratch or upgrade a given software. As a result, you will receive a winning feature set.

EHR/EMR software development team composition

EHR or EMR software development teams must be ready to solve challenging tasks and handle custom healthcare software development. The following team composition is usually needed to develop a functional EHR/EMR software:

• 1 Front End Developer
• 2 Back End Developers
• 2 Quality Assurance Specialists
• 1 Project Manager
• 1 UI/UX Designer

EHR/EMR system architecture

Building a service-oriented architecture is the next important aspect of successful EHR/EMR software development. This architecture type needs interoperability and a specific work approach that divides the development process into smaller modules interconnected with an application programming interface. It allows us to keep a buffer to scale an EHR/EMR system and build more accessible software to scale and test. This approach creates a scalable environment to ensure maintenance and quickly identify faults.

The EHR/EMR software VITech creates is practical, intuitive, and designed smoothly and sleekly according to the client's requirements. Our experienced designers know how to develop an eye-catching and intuitive interface that stands out from other similar healthcare EHR/EMRs.

Our experienced back-end developers are in charge of creating the database layer, which builds the basic structure of the EHR/EMR software development. After dividing all these tasks into different modules, the most essential development work combines them and lets them work in unison as a single software.

Healthcare software must comply with specific government requirements, such as HIPAA. This article will discuss the HIPAA compliance question in more detail in one of the following sections.

The software architecture VITech develops includes the essential navigability of the EHR/EMR system, which allows users to operate it efficiently.

Our EHR/EMR software development

Some salient features of EHR/EMR software include UX/UI tailored design, compliance with HIPAA, flexibility to run on mobile, desktop, and tablets, and cloud software adoption. In addition, EHR/EMR software uses integrated modules that allow practice management, telemedicine, health information exchange integration, and revenue cycle management.

EMR/EHR software contains digital patient records. However, the former covers a narrower approach, whereas the latter caters to a more comprehensive approach to a patient's overall health.

EHR/EMR system certification

We provide all the necessary data to independently accredited testing centres to obtain the required certification. We aim to meet all the crucial criteria to ensure the software's effective operation and patient safety.

EMR/EHR desktop, tablet, and mobile app development

EHR/EMR applications help physicians diagnose more effectively, as patients can insert and share their disease data with physicians. Customized electronic health records software can be adapted to various devices to automate and improve your staff's work.

Technology allows for ease of use and affordability. Our EMR/EHR software development services enable doctors and nurses to access patients' records on desktop, tablet, and mobile devices.

EMR/EHR integration services

Hospitals can improve workflows with data shared between EHR systems and healthcare stakeholders. Interoperable environments improve the healthcare industry by giving people access to the correct data at the right time. The data analytics tools allow you to use the following options:

• Protected health information analytics include lab tests, vitals, medical images, and other sensitive information in the patient's medical record.
• Financial analytics. For example, fraud detection and financial risk management.
• Operational analytics. For example, the total number of visits and schedules, staff workload, etc.

Chronic disease management

Doctors and physicians can utilize patients' data to improve their patient's health outcomes. With our EHR/EMR software consulting, you can improve chronic disease management for your patients.

UX/UI tailored to hospital staff

With various audiences interacting with medical tools daily, designing software that ensures a great user experience is essential. We create tailored software to serve our client's unique needs so they can achieve their goals efficiently.

Our EHR/EMR software development can be universal or dedicated to a specific medical speciality. We create sophisticated workflows tailored to the particular needs of medical specialists.

Prescription assistance

With our EHR/EMR software development software, hospitals can electronically manage prescriptions for their patients, reducing prescription-related errors.

Patient communication

Our services aim to facilitate patient-doctor communication through digital messaging. Doctors can better manage their patients' records and communicate with them easily through electronic communication.

Data leak protection

Sharing patient data outside of the network can pose various security risks. We follow strict, network-centric, HIPAA-compliant approaches to secure network access.

Secure HIPAA-compliant cloud

Every healthcare facility must protect the patient's medical history and focus on HIPAA-compliant software.  

Under HIPAA, there are 75 security protocols. To become HIPAA-compliant, you have to follow all of them. The major challenge of developing HIPAA-compliant EHR/EMR software is safeguarding patient health information.  

Medical facilities, even those that use external management services, must be HIPAA compliant. The EHR/EMR system must also undergo stringent checks and screening.

VITech develops software that complies with security standards, industry requirements, and regulations for EMR software development, including HIPAA. Our clients can be sure that their data is securely protected and not at risk of being compromised.

Our HIPAA-compliant EMR/EHR software ensures safe and secure patient data transfers using cloud-hosting software for improved data storage, safety, and scalability.

HIPAA compliance when building EHR/EMR software involves the following aspects:

• Staff training
• Privacy and security regulations
• Administering the documents
• Vendor and business management
• Contingency or incident plans

Telemedicine

From scheduling appointments to viewing lab results, our EMR/EHR software development services provide easily accessible tools for patients remotely. We build customized telemedicine applications integrated with health-tracking equipment, such as medical devices for remote patient monitoring, wearables, sensors, IoT connections, and more.

Healthcare analytics

Improve operational and health analytics through EMR/EHR software development. We deliver and streamline your processes to reduce variation.

Health information exchange integration

Electronic health information exchange (HIE) is a secure way to access and share patients' medical information electronically. We have experience building integrated HIE services so you can complete patient records seamlessly.

Patient portal and app

We create patient portals to help patients receive their health information and participate more actively in their healthcare plans. We also streamline clinical workflows, manage bilateral patient data, improve doctor-patient communication, manage e-prescriptions, and more.

Benefits of tailored EHR/EMR software

Using specialized or custom EHR/EMR software might be more profitable in the long run. It is essential for medical specialities that are less satisfied with off-the-shelf EHRs. Here are some specialities with the lowest user experience score: ophthalmology, behavioural therapy and mental health, surgery and critical care, dermatology, orthopaedics, otolaryngology, oncology, and cardiology.

The most essential benefits of an EHR/EMR software development for medical facilities and their staff:

• Obtaining electronic data on patients.
• Usability and accessibility by operating with patient data.
• Gathered in one-panel information about the patient's prescriptions, conditions, and medical care.
• Smoothening the patient's treatment.
• Support for scheduling appointments and other standard healthcare services like labs, tests, and prescriptions.
• Enhancing the development of preventative medical care.
• A complete patient's medical history.
• Patient access to their health records.
• Secure patient data sharing between different healthcare facilities.
• Essential health records storage capacity.
• Better management of different medical services, from appointments to surgeries.

How patients benefit from using tailored EHR/EMR software:

• Patients can set appointments with their doctors via an EHR system and receive reminders and notifications about medical procedures, prescriptions, billing, etc.
• Patients will receive more information and the help of medical practices to become more aware of how to take preventive healthcare measures.
• Patients can use educational content related to specific diseases or general medical recommendations.
• The patients will have access to a portal for storing insurance information.

The most important steps to developing an effective EHR  

EHR/EMR software development allows a team to fulfil different stages of the work process, including the discovery phase, project planning, UI and UX design, software development, QA, and pre-and post-launch activities.

Сheck the validity of the idea.

Before the software development work starts, you must always validate and analyze the idea's probability and potential. As an experienced EHR/EMR software development company, VITech begins with validating the client's custom EMR software development requests. The first step is gathering and discussing the client's requirements to understand them better. First, we list the most critical questions defining future software development. For example, how long does the filling out forms and documents take, or what does communication with medical staff and patients look like? All these questions will get you closer to the client's real needs and wishes and give a better vision of the future developed EHR/EMR.

We must correctly analyze their answers to these questions to understand clients' needs and clarify their expectations from their EHR/EMR software. The client requirements in this niche can be particular. For example, the EHR/EMR system is tailor-made for urologists, so the software development team must be ready to build something extraordinary.

At this stage, it is crucial to understand the users' pain points and issues, which have to be solved. Another vital phase of successful EHR/EMR system development is testing the business plan with potential customers, including physicians and nurses.

Discovery phase

We create a flowchart of the procedures and processes during the discovery phase. This chart includes all the features needed to develop future EHR software. The most important things are defining the technology stack, conducting business analysis, and estimating costs. After that, we create a prototype that helps the client understand how the future EHR/EMR software will work.

During the discovery phase, we prepare the following documents:

• Target group analysis, EHR market analysis, and competitors research.
• A Business Associate Agreement (for HIPAA-covered entities).
• Compliance requirements list.
• An EHR/EMR concept and marketing/implementation strategy.
• Clinical workflow and business needs analysis (for healthcare organizations).
• Risk assessment and mitigation plans.
• A business case and project plan with key milestones, timeframes, KPIs, and budget.
• A software requirements specification (SRS).
• A feature list.
• A comprehensive EHR/EMR design proposal includes architecture, integrations, and tech stack.
• EHR/EMR software certification plan.

EHR/EMR software designing

The next step in the EHR/EMR software development life cycle is UI/UX design. First, we will develop a raw design of the EMR software, which will be improved and scaled with the required features. Developing the UI/UX design prototype helps streamline the other tasks and fast-track the development process because it allows for efficient performance checks and screening.

During this stage, the clients will get:

• User cases are created for each role within the healthcare facility.
• UI prototypes.
• UX wireframes.

Iterative development and QA

The very challenging task of EHR/EMR software development is to offer a product that solves clients' issues and fulfils their requirements.

The quality assurance team identifies the bugs and participates in the development and testing stages. The testing continues until the project goals are met and the EMR software functions. Our experienced QA professionals check the software design and monitor other operations during the development and testing. As an experienced software development company, VITech understands how to develop a functional EHR/EMR software version. We offer fully functional EMR/EHR front end, back end, and APIs for EHR/EMR integration and EHR/EMR quality reports based on the results of performance, functional, compliance, security, compatibility, and accessibility testing.

Integrated modules

• Practice management.
• Revenue cycle management (RCM).
• Patient portal and app (for visit scheduling, appointment reminders, etc.).
• Patient communication and telemedicine.
• Chronic disease management.
• Remote patient monitoring via connected medical devices.
• HIE integration.
• E-prescribing.
• DICOM viewer.
• Medical inventory management

Maintenance and launch

The EHR/EMR software development process depends on the specific client's requirements. We aim to launch the product in the right target market group and appropriate environment. The final version of EMR/EHR software can be changed according to the user's requirements. As an experienced software development company, VITech first launches the MVP to get feedback and analyze the performance. The feedback and other insights help to change the features of the EHR/EMR system.

After that, we can change the developed features to scale them up to the requirements.

During the EHR/EMR launch, support, maintenance, and evolution stage, we offer the following:

• Risk assessment and mitigation plan.
• Revised and updated documentation containing HIPAA risk assessment document.
• User training documentation.
• A support and a maintenance team for your EHR (if required).
• EHR deployment to the production environment.
• The continuous improvement of EMR/EHR software functionality & UI based on security audits and user feedback (if required).

Why VITech

VITech's custom EHR/EMR software seamlessly communicates with other healthcare IT systems thanks to healthcare data exchange standards at their core.

Ease of use

You get EHR/EMR software with a human-centric design tailored for the medical staff's convenience. Doctors or nurses can access EHR/EMR software from their smartphones, tablets, and other gadgets without making the software performance unstable.

Interoperability

Advanced technologies

With VITech's ample expertise in advanced techs, you can leverage EHR/EMR data analytics for diagnostic assistance, blockchain for secure medical data exchange, AI for image recognition, and more.

Regulatory compliance

VITech's EHR/EMR software is developed according to the industry's best security practices and relevant regulations, such as HIPAA.

EHR market entry consulting

We help you:

• Design an EHR/EMR feature set with a focus on care workflows.
• Plan high-level EHR/EMR architecture and a tech stack.
• Create a business case (featuring investments, ROI, etc.).
• Design user adoption strategy.

Full-cycle EHR/EMR software development

We take over:

• EHR/EMR feature set design.
• Software architecture planning.
• UX/UI design.
• MVP development (with core EHR features), iterative improvements, and QA.
• Assistance with all relevant certifications.

EHR/EMR evolution

We offer:

• Analyzing your legacy EHR/EMR software and business needs.
• Designing new EHR/EMR features, requirements, advanced modules, etc.
• UI/UX redesign, code refactoring, and development.
• Compliance and security audits with further improvements.

Quick and solid delivery

Depending on the project's complexity, we can release the MVP in 2-4 months and then conduct the next releases in 1-3 weeks. Minor product fixes and changes can be implemented continuously.

HIPAA compliance

When designing EHR/EMR architecture, we follow HIPAA technical safeguards and care about the solid security of the product.

Experience and expertise

Usability and a seamless experience are valuable parts of our EHR/EMR software development lifecycle. We create research-based, user-friendly UI and UX designs for our clients.