As new technologies and software are transforming industries globally, the healthcare industry is not being left behind.
According to reports, researchers expect the global healthcare cloud market to generate over $61 billion by 2025 (Zion).
With its ease of access and wide range of services, healthcare organizations will see more control over solving their pain points while creating more security, more efficiency, and more productivity.
Some of the trends that healthcare is experiencing are creating tremendous opportunities for SaaS developers and companies to develop optimized and customized solutions that will change the way the world does healthcare.
Healthcare organizations that are quick to adapt to and adopt transformative medical SaaS products and applications will be more competitive in the healthcare marketplace and be a step ahead of the competition while achieving better service and better results.
What is Healthcare SaaS?
SaaS (software as a service) is an internet and cloud-based product, tool, or platform that delivers services. It is managed by a third-party vendor and is usually either a subscription-based model or a pay-as-you-go model.
SaaS is efficient and straightforward to set up and use, and it is easy to scale up or down services, making it ideal for companies ranging from large organizations to smaller and enterprise-level businesses. It is a cost-effective way to expand and maximize services while reducing costs, staffing, and IT demands.
The healthcare industry is turning towards SaaS medical software, tools, and platforms to provide a more reliable, affordable, and superior way of interacting and serving their patients.
Software as a service offers the healthcare industry cutting-edge technology that can transform the way people do medicine while providing higher levels of privacy and security while providing better results faster with better access to information and resources.
Trends that are shaping the healthcare industry will create open opportunities for SaaS vendors and SaaS companies who are seeking to bring world changing products to the marketplace.
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Healthcare SaaS Trends
1. Vertical SaaS
Vertical SaaS is software that is created for a specific industry. While many SaaS applications can be used across sectors, vertical SaaS specializes in a particular niche, like healthcare.
As SaaS companies niche down into an industry, vertical SaaS products can focus on a specific problem or need within that industry. Companies can tailor their products to target clients and supply chains. This level of product customization cuts costs for both SaaS providers and consumers.
For healthcare, vertical medical SaaS can lead the way towards more highly focused solutions specific to the needs of medical care providers and services.
Vertical SaaS products will more aptly meet needs and enhance consumer production and efficiency while keeping costs down as consumers can pay for the services they need or want. Vertical SaaS for healthcare can solve pain points in specific and focused ways.
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2. Multiple Clouds
In an industry with confidential information, personal patient data, and identity information, having secure clouds is vital. Though often redundant at times, multiple clouds open the portals of access to patients and providers alike, allowing for a more effortless flow and access of information while spreading out the data which can protect it better.
Many healthcare workers and facilities are highly mobile and use a large variety of devices. Personal devices, such as smartwatches, wireless monitors, dialysis pumps, and breathing devices, to name a few, all collect information that must be connected to the cloud for providers and patients to access information.
But with these fantastic products and services comes a high risk of attack. One report states that 88% of ransomware attacks involve the healthcare sector (beckers). With so many medical SaaS systems and devices, there are exponential points of entry to exploit. An integrated, automated, and adaptive approach is necessary to meet the challenges of a multi-cloud environment sweeping through the healthcare industry.
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3. Security
Data security, privacy, and compliance are significant concerns regardless of industry. For healthcare, with patients’ personal and private information on the line, security is vital. As patient records are being digitized and streamlined into cloud-based servers, the idea of data and security breaches is alarming. It is critical in healthcare that a rigorous security model is in place that can track data to and from the cloud.
Healthcare data security can be a complex problem, which is where SaaS companies can offer cloud security and medical privacy. Maintaining the confidentiality of patient records is of vital importance for healthcare providers. As SaaS applications become more prevalent in the healthcare industry, so does the need for security to match the demand.
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4. Artificial Intelligence
From medical devices to wearable smart devices, from health analytics using images as diagnostic tools to turning electronic health records into risk predictors, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is making its mark on the healthcare industry. AI-enabled solutions provide rapid, often immediate results paired with cost reductions. New product developments and advancements in artificial intelligence are making health care operations more efficient and effective.
Artificial Intelligence is a computer system that can perform tasks such as visual perception, speech recognition, and decision-making based on patterns within the data it is given. The more information AI is given, the more it learns, leading to better results faster.
AI is the critical engine that combines analytics, insights, and decision-making processes that provide users, both provider and patient, with faster and better results. By automating appropriate systems and streamlining operations, AI makes healthcare more consumer-focused by saving time and money on the provider’s side while still enabling them to focus more on the patient while spending less time on repetitive processes and management.
Because of its exceptional learning and reasoning capacities, AI can streamline diagnostic, discovery, and treatment processes through its predictions process based on its given data while minimizing risk and errors.
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5. PaaS migration
As SaaS continues to grow, so will PaaS (platform as a service). Larger and even medium-scale organizations can create their own applications and platforms for their patients, increasing customer satisfaction, retention, and acquisition.
Clients can have more control over the specifically designed apps, which increases flexibility and scalability. It frees users from software installations and the hardware to run the applications.
A practitioner or nurse can access information more readily through the app rather than the internet. With PaaS, the healthcare provider can control the apps as it provides a framework to create customized applications that work for their specific organization or need.
For the healthcare industry, this is vital as they can focus their apps on what they want to offer their patients, which improves provider agility, functionality, and flexibility.
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6. Pay-Per-Use
Most SaaS products are subscription-based, with the ability to scale up and down based on need and project. This spreads the cost out over the year if customers pay monthly for services and is advantageous for both SaaS companies and consumers. However, not all services are needed all the time, especially for smaller organizations.
Recently, many SaaS vendors have moved towards a pay-per-use model. For healthcare companies who offer temporary services or have cash flow issues, these pricing options are beneficial as they can pay for what they need, only when they need it.
Pay-per-use SaaS pricing models are also appealing to smaller healthcare organizations or startups as they can still utilize groundbreaking technology without having to pay large sums upfront or for services they are not big enough to offer.
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7. API Connections
Application Programming Interface (API) is another significant trend for SaaS and healthcare. As SaaS products sweep through the healthcare industry, there is a growing need to integrate programs and applications.
The ability to integrate data with existing infrastructure is going to be an increasing need in healthcare SaaS. API’s enable the collection of data from a patient via their mobile device and integrate that with a diagnostic tool on the provider’s end.
API’s enable healthcare providers to have patient-facing applications that encourage engagement and connections with patients. They also allow employees and partners to more seamlessly and efficiently streamline operations through internal applications and services.
These apps allow for shared information and resources to provide quality care for patients in a more personal and meaningful way.
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8. Micro-SaaS
SaaS products are revolutionizing how consumers run businesses, interact with the world, and even affect personal lives daily. However great a SaaS product may be, there will always be missing pieces or gaps in the product’s abilities. This fact is not any different for the healthcare industry.
Micro-SaaS companies are usually small companies that offer products that are considered to be add-ons to current platforms. These micro-products help fill the gaps and enhance current SaaS products. Rather than finding a whole new SaaS product, which will probably solve a few problems while still having gaps in other areas, adding the missing feature is appealing to any organization, especially for healthcare.
Micro-SaaS is an economical way to fill any voids and solve pain points without investing in more costly, more extensive systems with unnecessary aspects.
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9. Edge Computing
For years, health systems and providers relied on the cloud to collect, store, and analyze information and data. Personal devices help to improve patient care, create better clinician workflow, and lower healthcare costs. However, all of these life-changing devices generate massive amounts of collected data.
Data management is more straightforward with the help of edge computing, working as a complement to the cloud. For example, it can strategically limit the transmission of readings from patient wearables and send summaries at intervals rather than constantly deliver all of the information.
This streamlined process allows for precise information, which increases analytics and processing for the clinicians and providers. Edge computing also enables healthcare organizations to comply with privacy regulations and data handling security more easily.
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10. DaaS Revenues
With the rise in the use of artificial intelligence (AI) being integrated into the healthcare industry, so does the need for enriched and verified data. For the healthcare industry, it is crucial to have data that can be relied upon to interact with patients and collaborate with providers with confidence.
DaaS outsources most data storage and processing operations to the cloud. It is a new concept that is beginning to see widespread adoption. DaaS provides many advantages that improve functionality, have greater flexibility, have automated maintenance, often cut costs, and require less staff.
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Top Benefits of SaaS in the Healthcare Industry
The combination of technology and healthcare has significant benefits that far exceed ease of use and cost reduction. Utilizing the right SaaS medical software in the healthcare industry improves patient care and enhances the provider-patient relationship.
Providers can give more comprehensive care faster thanks to SaaS products that make information more easily accessible while adhering to and exceeding security and privacy standards of the past. SaaS can bring about revolutionary changes to the healthcare industry.
1. Data Security
It is critical to keep patient’s data secure. Sensitive data must be protected against data breaches and attacks. Having a robust, expert IT team is one solution; usually a very costly solution. Even then, an IT tech department may not keep up with all the demands and stay on budget.
Reliable SaaS platforms and programs provide healthcare organizations with cutting-edge technology that can improve rather than hamper data security. SaaS vendors who specialize in data protection understand the complexities of data security and offer advanced protection that is HIPAA-compliant and is far superior to the old ways of handling the data of patients and providers.
With the use of SaaS products, data can be more secure and yet more accessible.
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2. Transparency of Medical Information
A patient gets the best treatment when there is reliable, up-to-date, accurate information available. Having access to complete records of a patient’s history makes treatments more effective. Trying to answer medical history during a crisis or traumatic event can lead to incorrect or missing information.
Older patients or impaired patients do not have to rely on caregivers to have all the up-to-date information; their medical history is already stored and accessible to their providers, reducing the risk for already at-risk patients. Having that information already on hand, consistently updated as needed, provides vital information when it is most needed.
With Electronic Health Records (EHR), there is greater transparency between patients and providers without relying upon the patient to remember all the information. SaaS products can deliver these e-records with ease and simplicity while protecting and preserving privacy. This level of confidence can create safer and superior outcomes for patient care.
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3. Telemedicine
Going to the doctor or hospital when chronically ill or bedridden is an overwhelming and sometimes nearly impossible endeavor. With the rise in health-on-demand telemedicine, a doctor can make house calls without leaving the healthcare premises. A patient can have faster and more reliable access to a provider when they need it the most without leaving the comfort of their home.
Professional healthcare providers can offer their services to many people no matter where their patients may be. Telemedicine also allows for a greater reach of medical care as professionals can collaborate no matter how remote the patient or clinic may be. Imagine being able to connect with expert professionals while working in the most remote locations on the globe. Medicine can more effectively reach the corners of the world.
This combination of technology and healthcare through SaaS solutions can make this possible.
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4. Collaboration
Collaborations between medical experts and providers are critical to streamlining patient care. Now more than ever, departments within healthcare organizations can work together by communicating more efficiently, getting results faster, and getting information exchanged at lightning speeds.
Extended from that, second opinions, getting in touch with outside organizations, reaching out to experts around the globe is now easier than ever before with the use of SaaS products.
SaaS makes this collaboration more effective and efficient. With the desire and demand to improve patient care, cut costs, and enhance business procedures, SaaS transforms the collaboration experience for patients and providers.
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5. Real-Time Updates
Hand in hand with the ability to streamline collaborations and having transparency with medical records, SaaS products allow for real-time updates. Departments can more quickly input and access medical results as soon as they are available. Gone are the days of waiting for a phone call or fax. Medical professionals can track the process of tests, facility operations, and clinical decisions and can more quickly have all the data on hand to make more accurate decisions faster.
With the use of SaaS medical software, healthcare organizations can keep all parties informed with up-to-date information, giving peace of mind to patients and their families, often in the most stressful and traumatic moments. Providers can make decisions with confidence, knowing that they have the most up-to-date information for their patients on hand when it counts the most.
Healthcare organizations are beginning to see an increased enhancement of their services and efficiency through software as a service (SaaS) applications. By utilizing cloud-based SaaS platforms, the healthcare industry can capitalize on the benefits of more reliable, flexible services that can facilitate interdepartmental and inter-organization collaboration, management, and scalability.
With 60% of patients favoring virtual care (Kyruus), the SaaS platforms for healthcare are seeing rising demand and rising confidence in the digital and cloud world. Coupling clinical and consumer perspectives is the future of effective and efficient healthcare.
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The rise in technology within healthcare does not have to mean automated, inhuman care at the hands of artificial intelligence. Rather technology coupled with healthcare gives providers and patients a more extraordinary ability to treat each person with the dignity and respect they deserve because providers have the cutting edge tools that can help them make the difference between life and death.