The healthcare industry has witnessed tremendous technological advancements over the past few years. From increased use of telemedicine during the COVID-19 pandemic to FDA-approved artificial intelligence algorithms, technology is steadily transforming how patients interact with their healthcare systems and how providers diagnose, treat, and prevent illnesses. Moreover, opportunities for more healthcare transformation exist with other submarkets that need improvements, such as data analytics and information services, software platforms, clinical solutions, logistic and supply chain services, and payment and administrative services.
However, healthcare transformation has challenges, and there is a need to overcome them to achieve better patient outcomes. This post highlights how augmenting your team is a great way to address common challenges to healthcare innovation.
Challenges that organizations face in the process of healthcare transformation include regulatory challenges and high development costs. The healthcare industry is heavily regulated to ensure patient safety and confidentiality. Healthcare innovators must comply with regulations like HIPAA and GDPR to protect patient data. Noncompliance can lead to hefty fines, legal issues, and reputational damage. Regulatory requirements can also divert resources from the organization’s main goal of developing and implementing new technologies for patients, leading to missed opportunities. Understanding the regulatory landscape and the requirements to ensure compliance is crucial, but it can be challenging to consistently read the updated bulletins. If you do not already have a well-developed strategy to address this challenge, hiring outside experts with knowledge and experience in healthcare regulation allows you to adhere to rules more quickly and cost effectively.
Technology development in this industry is expensive due to the highly precise nature of healthcare solutions. Securing the funding for developing new healthcare technology can be prohibitive due to the extensive time required to develop and test it. Moreover, additional costs may be involved, such as marketing and facility space for your organization.
Many innovators have overcome these challenges to successfully bring their technologies to providers and patients. However, doing so alone can be daunting, so organizations should consider team augmentation as an approach to strategizing solutions to these problems.
Hiring all the people you need for healthcare innovation in-house is challenging and expensive. Staff augmentation is a solution. This is when a business outsources part of its product development to another company or adds outside experts to its team. They can get simple support or find additional software developers or consultants knowledgeable about business and regulatory compliance best practices. By doing this, you can quickly expand your team's capacity and capability, enabling you to take on more significant projects and meet deadlines.
There are several benefits of team augmentation. First, it can be cost effective. You can access specialized skills and knowledge without having to hire full-time employees whose benefits are your responsibility. Second, it can add unique expertise and provide insight that saves time by avoiding common pitfalls and better strategizing resource allocation. One great example of an organization that provides health IT staff augmentation services is OtterSoft, which can help you with finding great human talent, technological development budgeting, healthcare software development, interoperability challenges, and healthcare data analytics.
One way to augment your team is to utilize consulting groups. They can provide various services, including project management, software development, and regulatory compliance. Another way to augment your team is to partner with other companies. Doing this can provide access to specialized skills and knowledge that you do not have in-house. However, partnering with other companies can be challenging because each party may have proprietary interests that minimize open communication.
While these solutions may be useful in short-term, well-defined cases, team augmentation with HealthTech software development partners should be your preferred strategy for bringing healthcare technology to market quicker because healthcare IT development and adoption have longer time horizons than IT development in other industries, making it more imperative to have lasting partners who will be with you for the long term.
The challenges of healthcare innovation are vast and require a combination of technical, regulatory, and business expertise. Staff augmentation is a valuable strategy that can help healthcare innovators overcome these challenges and bring innovative healthcare technologies to market more quickly and cost effectively. Organizations like OtterSoft can provide the necessary expertise in healthcare IT, including application development, interoperability, data analytics and artificial intelligence, regulatory compliance, and telehealth. By partnering with individuals and organizations experienced with the pitfalls of healthcare IT innovation, new innovators can improve the chances of disruption that bring meaningful solutions to healthcare.
Here at OtterSoft, we help healthcare technology providers drive innovation and integrate smoothly with legacy systems to keep things in motion, address the challenges of healthcare innovation, and seamlessly sync information. To see how we can help you overcome the challenges of healthcare innovation, contact us today!