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92% of healthcare organizations are leveraging DevOps today. This methodology is ideal for the life-critical demands of the medical industry. Overall, DevOps is revolutionizing healthcare technology and patient outcomes for the better.
Often medical institutions are swamped by an overload of patients and time-consuming bureaucracy. Just consider that inefficiencies in a hospital or clinic setting can result in delayed or erroneous care – and even cost lives.
Transforming healthcare with DevOps is one way to achieve the quick, reliable and interconnected technical systems required for excellent patient care – from EHRs, medical devices, telemedicine and beyond. Here we’ll highlight the benefits of DevOps in healthcare, including real-life case studies.
Understanding DevOps in Healthcare
DevOps is a set of best practices that unify development (Dev) and operations (Ops) teams. The concept behind DevOps is to optimize and automate processes that in turn empower team productivity and organizational outcomes.
The main feature of DevOps is having a continuous integration/deployment (CI/CD) pipeline. This means that your teams are constantly improving your systems through well-defined and iterative processes. In addition, DevOps emphasizes automation, close collaboration, data-driven decisions, ongoing testing and more.
DevOps Healthcare Solutions
DevOps is well-suited to handle the unique demands of healthcare. Hospitals, clinics and other organizations require rapid, reliable and interconnected systems to care for patients. At the same time, they must protect patient data with top security and comply with regulations such as HIPAA and GDPR.
Healthcare technology transformation has also advanced rapidly in recent years, making a robust technical approach like DevOps key to success. It’s essential for healthtech to be interoperable to maximize clinical work and patient outcomes, including areas such as:
- EHR
- Patient management software
- Clinical workflows
- Medical devices
- Telemedicine
- Diagnostic software
- Mobile apps
- Support systems
- HIE protocols
Key Benefits of DevOps in Healthcare
Transforming healthcare with DevOps unlocks important advantages. Here we’ll highlight the main benefits of DevOps in healthcare today.
Elevated Security and Compliance
DevSecOps facilitates secure infrastructure by incorporating best security practices across all systems and products. Additionally, it supports continuous monitoring and deployment of fixes. Moreover, this methodology keeps sensitive patient data well-protected and ensures compliance with regulations such as HIPAA.
Improved Operational Efficiency
DevOps breaks down complex workflows into regular cycles to optimize developer time and resources. In particular, it identifies processes to automate and aids in IT infrastructure management, so that you can enhance efficiencies and allocate resources more effectively.
Enhanced Interoperability Among Systems
DevOps is also superb for achieving the interoperability necessary for healthcare. Communication among clinical devices and systems is vital for seamless patient diagnosis, treatment and care. DevOps automates and integrates to make this level of interconnection possible.
Accelerated Innovation in Patient Care
Patient care has evolved in exciting new ways, such as telemedicine, patient portals and wearable devices. DevOps is a powerful way to accelerate innovation even further. This methodology allows for rapid development and iterative cycles to test out new explorations in patient care.
Real-Time Data and Analytics
Patient data management is pivotal to glean insights and improve organizational efficiency. DevOps helps organizations manage data with greater speed and precision, streamlining access to patient data. As a result, this improves decision-making and strengthens data safety for records ranging from EHRs, labs, medications, insurance and more.
Boosted Patient Engagement
DevOps facilitates better care delivery based on tailored, efficient systems. In turn, patients are more engaged with their health and take advantage of digital services, such as self-service, e-prescriptions, automated appointments and more.
Reduced Long-Term Costs
DevOps’ focus on continual improvement and delivery means that your organization will achieve more efficient systems that reduce costs in the long run. This methodology also lets you update and refine processes regularly, so that you avoid wasting resources.
Best Practices for Implementing DevOps in Healthcare
Transforming healthcare with DevOps is an excellent next step to achieve efficiencies. As you kick off this process, keep in mind these best practices.
Build a DevOps Culture
To reap the benefits of the DevOps methodology, you’ll need your whole team on board. It may take some time to establish efficiencies between your development and operations teams. Work on fostering a DevOps culture so that collaboration is strengthened as you undergo this process.
Prioritize Security
Data breaches in healthcare reached an all-time high in 2023. DevSecOps, which incorporates security into your ongoing workflows, is essential to minimize your risk of a breach. Be sure to integrate security and compliance as keystones of your DevOps set-up.
Leverage Automation Tools
Creating a CI/CD pipeline involves automating key tasks and reducing human error. Leverage tools such as automated testing/monitoring, containerization, version control and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to maximize your DevOps processes.
Ensure Compliance and Data Privacy
The healthcare industry has special data requirements to ensure patient privacy. Make sure that your data workflows meet HIPAA standards and protect your patients. Often this means establishing the highest protections – from security protocols, access management, incident procedures and more.
Keep the Human Touch
Healthcare is a vital service that impacts families at their most vulnerable moments. As you prepare DevOps, don’t forget that workflows – no matter how automated or digital-savvy – should be personalized. Build this sense of a human touch into your patient-facing systems.
How to Choose the Right DevOps Partner for Healthcare
Selecting the right DevOps provider can be difficult, especially given the current developer shortage in the U.S. Do your due diligence to check your potential partner’s past work and client testimonials.
Additionally, you should focus your search on top traits for healthcare DevOps, such as:
- Industry experience in healthcare
- Knowledge of compliance standards (such as HIPAA)
- Commitment to patient usability and interoperability
- Expertise in complex and/or large-scale tech stacks
- Located in shared time zones for real-time collaboration
For example, top offshoring regions for transforming healthcare with DevOps often focus on Latin America and Canada.
Healthcare DevOps Case Study
At TECLA, we’re DevOps talent experts who check all these boxes – and more. We’re seasoned in working with healthcare clients who require long-term technical specialists with an eye for patient UX.
Recently, we built a high-quality team for a DC-based healthtech company called Limber. We worked closely with them to discover skilled, career-driven developers who would integrate well into their company culture. Our talent specialists at TECLA:
- Conducted a comprehensive needs assessment
- Provided detailed guidance on hiring in Latin America
- Became familiar with Limber Health's internal culture
- Designed an effective screening process for technical proficiency, cultural fit and English proficiency
- Introduced rigorously vetted candidates suitable for all required roles
Within three weeks, Limber Health successfully hired six top-tier professionals on par with their U.S.-based engineering team. Overall, they saved 52% on salary costs and got access to expertise that opened doors to new growth. In fact, since hiring DevOps with TECLA, Limber Health received a Series A funding round by Blue Venture Fund.
Want to hear more healthcare success stories? Check out our case studies from healthtech companies Scene and Wesper.
Uplift Patient Outcomes With TECLA DevOps Engineers
Ultimately, DevOps is a high-potential methodology for healthcare, as it enhances efficiency and security for patients. It’s also ideal for driving innovation in patient care and reducing organizational costs in the long run.
As you start transforming healthcare with DevOps, lean on a trusted talent partner like us. At TECLA, we’re well-versed in the challenges of healthtech and have experience building DevOps teams to get top outcomes. Check out what our past clients have to say – and get in touch with us today!
LatAm Making?
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