Healthcare software development has become commonplace. Hospitals and healthcare organisations are progressively investing in bespoke software development in order to advance their practices, provide a better patient experience, and expedite care delivery.
The worldwide healthcare software market was worth $74.2 billion in 2020 and is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 10.7 percent between 2021 and 2028.
If you are considering healthcare software development, the moment has come. However, before you begin with your project, it is critical to estimate the whole cost of healthcare software development before beginning the real project development.
The estimated cost of development will, of course, be determined by the project parameters.
Depending on the amount of work and the kind of project, building the first iteration of your healthcare software project might cost anywhere from $50,000 to $150,000.
But why such a wide difference?
This is due to the fact that estimating the real expenses is dependent on a variety of variables. Let’s take a closer look at the underlying elements that might influence healthcare software development expenses.
Aspects that influence the cost of a healthcare software development project:
1. Internal and External Projects
Healthcare firms considering bespoke software development have two possibilities. They have the option of hiring an in-house software development team or outsourcing the project to a software development firm. Both of these choices have advantages and disadvantages.
Hiring an in-house staff requires both time and resources. While it gives you more control over the development process, it also requires a high level of technical competence.
If you want to keep development expenses low, outsource software development to a business that specialises in healthcare software development.
It not only saves you the trouble of screening and recruiting a team in-house, but the team is already familiar with the regulatory and compliance standards that development requires, saving expensive errors later in the development cycle.
The prices of software development vary depending on where you live. If you hire an offshore development team, you may save money without sacrificing development quality. Because typical wages are lower, you get the most bang for your buck.
2. Timeline Of Development
A basic piece of software with a minimal feature set and design, no third-party integration, and no third-party data processing may be created in a matter of months.
In such a circumstance, the software development costs would be inherently minimal in comparison to the expenses associated in producing feature-rich complicated software.
Healthcare software is often in the latter type, with patient data that must be protected and frequently requiring many third-party connectors. Complex healthcare software may take up to 6 months to design, build, and deploy, increasing software development expenses.
2. Team Size
The skill set and expertise of your project’s team will have a significant influence on the total expenses of healthcare software development. A bigger team of skilled developers will most likely decrease the development period.
Understaffing the project may be detrimental and ultimately cost more in the long term. It reduces productivity and produces more mistakes throughout the development process, resulting in deadline extensions and failures.
While a bigger team may seem to be more expensive at first, it will provide significant advantages to your project in the long term. Outsourcing software development has shown advantages in this area as well, since it allows you to adjust team size based on project requirements.
When it comes to working cooperatively, a newly formed team has a learning curve. A pre-existing team that has collaborated on several projects may interact more efficiently and achieve better outcomes.
3. Scope Of The Project
While the team size and project timeframe may be planned ahead of time, the project scope is not. You may opt to eliminate any features that you believe are unneeded based on input from stakeholders.
Alternatively, you may determine that the programme requires certain extra functionality, which may raise the related development expenses.
The main disadvantage of using the classic waterfall approach for software development is that any modifications to the project scope can only be introduced after the programme development is completed. At this point, introducing any new feature may increase the expenses.
Using Agile technique, on the other hand, may assist keep expenses under control. Agile enables for improved feedback absorption by adopting a development method that incorporates fewer development cycles called sprints that generally span 2-4 weeks.
Agile development works effectively for projects with a changeable scope while also keeping development expenses in control.
4. Software Complexity
The project’s complexity may be further classified into three categories.
- Technical complexity
- Design difficulty
- The complexity of the feature set
Based on each of these characteristics, the related costs of software development climb as the development timetable lengthens. Healthcare software development necessitates the incorporation of health APIs in addition to the current features that you choose to design.
These APIs help with anything from healthcare data interoperability and health records administration to payment processing and connection with payment gateways.
The accompanying software development expenses will rise in direct proportion to the complexity of the features you want to include.
For example, if you want your software to connect with medical devices or use artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms to conduct data analytics, the healthcare software development costs will be proportionately higher than if you just wanted to create a simple patient appointment booking application.
How to Estimate the Costs of Your Healthcare Software Development Project Accurately
Step 1: Contact the Professional
A business that specialises in healthcare software development, such as Arkenea, can assist you in obtaining a realistic estimate of the development expenses. You may learn how much money you’ll need to make your software concept a reality by revealing your specific needs.
You may calculate the budget and get much-needed insight into the development time-frames by identifying the business needs and discussing them with pros.
While there are budgeting tools on the market that may help you generate an estimated estimate, an in-person session works best for the most precise figures.
Step 2: Map Out the Requirement in Advance
While the scope of the project may vary, the final aim that your programme must achieve must be specified in advance. Make a list of all the criteria and potential restrictions ahead of time. Establish the development’s technical needs, ground rules, and assumptions.
These baseline estimations must be checked and validated by risk quantification and risk assessment. Proper documenting and monitoring of requirements throughout the project lifecycle can assist you in meeting your objectives while maintaining accurate budgetary estimates.
Step 3: Consider Post-Development Expenditures
There is a compliance cost involved with healthcare software development. To address the protection of patient health information and prevent significant penalties for noncompliance, HIPAA compliance must be prioritised in all projects.
When determining total expenditures, constant testing and maintenance costs for HIPAA security compliance must be included. Additionally, be sure to pay for software maintenance once it has been deployed.
Are you ready to begin?
If you have your specs set and need a precise estimate of how much your project will cost, our staff can assist you. We specialise in the creation of compliant medical software and have over a decade of expertise in the healthcare software market.
Contact RisingMax IT consulting company specialists immediately for a precise pricing estimate for your healthcare software development project.
