How QA can strengthen healthcare technology
Health technology promises to make patients’ and employees’ lives easier and safer. Discover more about the role of QA and software testing in this process.
In healthcare, digital workplace solutions help us mitigate a number of mistakes driven by human factors. Yet, technology is not flawless and demands continuous testing as part of the delivery pipeline to ensure it is fit for purpose.
This is particularly important when it comes to the software used in hospitals and other medical facilities as any mistake can jeopardize lives. To reduce technical errors, companies employ quality assurance (QA) and software testing.
The following is a guide to how QA and testing improve medical applications and why companies are turning to QA outsourcing to meet their growing business needs.
Testing internal systems for healthcare facilities
The first in line is medical practice management (MPM) software, as its quality is vital for the smooth functioning of medical institutions. This is particularly true for those facilities with multiple departments or multifunctional units — due to the interconnectedness of their IT systems, a single fault can put the wider infrastructure at risk.
For example, this could mean incorrectly scheduled appointments, an increase in queue and wait times for patients, and inaccurate accounting.
To avoid such issues, providers need to employ QA professionals to improve error-free performance with every software release. Let us give an example: to make sure that MPM software runs well on both Windows and Linux platforms, test engineers would use compatibility testing.
Security testing is pivotal for electronic health record (EHR) systems as EHRs handle personal data usually transmitted from facility to facility. Here, information security assumes increased importance, and it’s QA engineers’ task to verify that no vulnerabilities remain in the software or that these are minimal.
Failover and recovery testing apply to electronic medical records (EMR) to ensure that EMRs are able to overcome system failures. Additionally, this type of checks can show how efficiently software handles data-intensive workflows and how quickly it would recover after a breakdown.
Software dealing with health and well-being demands a zero-error rate. QA and testing are exactly the two disciplines that help eliminate errors before they happen.
Testing of patient-facing systems
Patient portals came to be known as indispensable tools for patients to track their treatment and medication history and view all the EHR information gathered by the hospital in their accounts. Here, they can make medical appointments and send messages to their attending physician. Additionally, these portals allow for the reviewing and payment of medical bills.
To support the work of these apps, QA engineers can perform not only performance and functional testing but also usability testing, among others, making portals appealing and user-friendly and ensuring high user adoption and satisfaction rates.
Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is another integral patient-facing system. Incorporating the IoT technology, it is especially useful for patients with serious chronic conditions, for example, to measure their sugar and blood pressure levels. RPM is also found in out-patient and senior care.
Full-cycle testing is vital for RPM as it covers all the essential aspects that can affect the accuracy of results and thus undermine further treatment. Through testing the technology beforehand and reducing the risk of errors like incorrect readings, delays in recording data, and other, patient outcomes could be improved.
In the highly competitive digital market, it’s also important to ensure product popularity with users. UI testing is what typically verifies that software complies with the logic and requirements for graphical interfaces, looks professional, and has a uniform style.
Quality assurance not to be overlooked
HealthTech is rapidly developing, generating more solutions that are set to improve medical service and health maintenance practices. With a growing amount of software products appearing on the market, the issue of their reliability is rising as well.
To ensure the high quality and popularity of medical systems and apps, businesses need to incorporate QA and software testing into the development process. QA engineers test products throughout their lifecycles and make them more adaptable to buyers’ needs. In the long run, this drives patients’ trust, better outcomes, and general profitability.
Due to dynamic requirements and staffing considerations, healthcare providers and product companies are increasingly choosing to outsource their testing routine. This allows them to access and employ a variety of testing methods including:
· Compatibility testing
· Security testing
· Failover and recovery testing
· Performance testing
· Functional testing
· Usability testing
· And more
This list is not exhaustive, and professional QA engineers are always guided by the software specifications in their projects, coming up with a tailored set to cover every functional, usability, security, or other aspect as required.
