Testing Healthcare Application

Jan 10, 2018

Introduction:

In this day and age, where everything is dependent on technology, it is not quite unique or different to have a mobile, smartphone or computer based application or software that caters to various healthcare needs of people around the globe. The rapid advancement in the field of software and applications as well as information technology, has not only made things convenient and cost effective for the users, but has also improved the quality, functionality and effectiveness of software, systems and applications that are developed in recent times. Similarly, healthcare software and applications are being designed and developed by software engineers to make healthcare easier on a pocket and in terms of accessibility. Healthcare, which is the most important thing for any individual is usually neglected as well as not taken seriously because of its high cost and other complexities, which has further put healthcare industry in a state of despair. Hence, these applications and software developed for the purpose of healthcare try to improve the condition of healthcare industry and make things comfortable as well as more approachable for people all over the world. Therefore, to elaborate the importance of healthcare and healthcare applications, here is a detailed discussion on the same.

Defining Healthcare Application:

The constantly growing medical requirements have been the biggest reason for the evolution of healthcare mobility solutions. Earlier healthcare and life science industry was majorly focused on manufacturing customized medical equipment and devices for the doctors and hospitals. However, in recent years the focus has shifted and switched over to custom made mobile and computer based applications, which are extremely smart, rich in functionality, performance and effectiveness, as well as are easy to use. The main aim of these applications and software is to cut the cost of healthcare and to provide patients with the best results that make the process of health care easy, safe and convenient for them. Furthermore, these health apps are application programs that offer health-related services for smartphones, tablet and PCs. Moreover, as these applications are accessible to patients both at home and on-the-go, they are a part of the movement towards mobile health (mHealth) programs in health care.

Benefits of Healthcare Application:

Nowadays, there is a huge variety of healthcare applications available for purchase from app stores, which are designed to help consumers make healthier choices in their everyday life and that offer advice and suggestions related to fitness and nutrition. Moreover, there are other applications that help doctors and patients communicate from afar, for example applications developed for diabetics automatically send glucose readings to their primary care physicians and assist them in keeping a track of their patient’s health. Some applications and software are aimed at physicians themselves, while several applications combine mHealth with electronic medical records (EMR), allowing doctors to keep accurate records that are easily accessible. In short, there are numerous benefits of various healthcare software and applications, which aim at making healthcare more easy and comfortable for users. Other benefits of healthcare applications are:

Secure Communication: The healthcare applications act as a single point of information by providing all the necessary medical details and records about the patient, and secures the discussion between the doctor and the patient through encryption, which further ensures compliance.
Simultaneous Reporting and Monitoring: With the assistance of these applications, the users can enjoy the benefit of constant monitoring, which will allow them to keep a track of patient’s health. This becomes extremely useful in cases like heart failure, asthma attacks, diabetes, and more. Moreover, these mobile based applications are connected to smart medical devices, which collect medical and other necessary health data and use the data connection of the smartphone to transfer collected information to a physician.
Appointment Scheduling: The biggest advantage of these applications is that they allow users to schedule appointments from anywhere and at any time. Nowadays, when we hardly have time for ourselves, these applications give patients the opportunity to schedule as well as reschedule appointments directly from their smartphones.
Easy to Share: Users with the help of these applications can share their reports, test results and other important medical documents directly with their doctors, with great comfort, ease and according to their convenience. This not only saves time, but also saves them from scheduling a new appointment just to share their reports with the doctor.
Recorded Consultation: The healthcare applications enables the patient or the user to record and store voice conversations with the doctor, which specially comes handy while dealing with patients that have hearing problems. Also, with the assistance of these applications one can translate conversations to a language that is suitable or comfortable for them.

How to Test Healthcare Applications:

The dynamic regulations and ever growing competition in the healthcare industry, as well as the large investment in research and development has led to a high demand of quality and effectiveness in this sector. This requirement of quality applications has further increased and created the need for severe healthcare application testing, which is not only important because of the need of quality, but because it also affects someone’s life. Hence, testing of healthcare applications should be executed properly and with utmost care. Moreover, proper workflow and steps should be followed, which can guarantee and validate that the application is developed as the requirements of the users and is safe and secure. Hence, the areas that are tested to ensure the quality of healthcare applications are as follows:

Member System: Here testing is executed to maintain policyholder data, along with various plan with their list of benefits and generated premium bills for the policyholders based on their plans.
Provider System: This is tested to maintain the data received from the providers. It should be capable of enrolling, terminating, reinstating, and re-enrolling a member; add and remove the dependent; generate premium bill and process premium payments.
Broker System: Tested to maintain broker data and to calculate commissions. Here too positive and negative flow is calculated, while executing system testing.
Claims System: For claim entry and validation testing is performed by a team of talented testers. It consists of diagnosis and procedure code, and should be capable of editing, entering and processing claims for members as well as dependents.
Finance System: Finance system is tested to check whether the application is able to do necessary payments to the provider, member and broker properly. It should be able to write pay check and make EFT payments to the respective recipient.
Member Portal: Testing is performed here to ensure that the application is able to display the policyholder’s necessary information and is capable of making payments. Moreover, it should also be capable of raising request for changing information for policyholders.
Provider Portal: As the provider information is displayed here, it is important to test provider portal. It should be tested to ensure that it is able to make change request in provider details.
Broker Portal: This displays the broker details, as well as raises request to change broker information. Testing performed at this step validates it proper functioning.

Important Tips For Testing Healthcare Software/Application:

While performing tests on healthcare applications it is important for the team of testers to consider few points, which can assist them in the process of application and software designing and development. The key to achieve success in developing and testing healthcare application is to check and test its claims, that is, if the application promises to provide safe and secure communication, then testing should be concentrating in achieving the said goal. Hence, here are some important tips for testing healthcare software and application to help testers:

Dates are extremely significant and have to be recorded accurately, as a slight change or irregularity in the date can cause a major defect to go unnoticed.
In healthcare applications there are several parameters such as, different types of plan, members, providers, commission calculation methods, and more, which should be considered while designing the test cases for the application.
It is required for testers to have complete knowledge of the domain.
They should know the business users for the respective system and should thing from their perspective. This will help testers in finding defects efficiently.

Conclusion:

The demands of healthcare applications is increasing and growing rapidly day by day, as more healthcare providers and seekers are realizing the benefits provided by these applications. Moreover, with the assistance of technological advancement, more development of healthcare applications for doctors and medical experts is taking shape. However, the accuracy and proper functioning of these applications is extremely important, as it constantly cater to healthcare needs and requirements and any issue or discrepancies can become a cause of great loss money as well as of life. Hence, testing these application is immensely important and it should be carried out with great care and attention. Furthermore, importance should be given to minutest of details, which will help in developing a software that is technically perfect and has superior quality. In short, to ensure safety, security, performance and functionality of a healthcare application, testing it thoroughly is the best way to achieve this goal.