Top Three Considerations for Healthcare App Testing
Today, you have an app for everything and that includes the healthcare sector as well. With the healthcare software applications getting popular, the much-needed bridging of the gap between the medical professionals and the patients has become possible. Also, record maintenance, which is an integral part of the healthcare functions, can be done with greater efficiency. However, when it comes to developing healthcare software, the maximum emphasis is laid on ensuring the confidentiality of the patient information and the overall accuracy of the data. Now, for the healthcare applications going mobile, security is given much more importance. Alongside, the performance and reliability quotient are considered seriously because medical professionals are often reluctant to divert from their established workflow and venture into the uncharted territory of the mobile device software. This calls for the need for comprehensive healthcare testing services that take care of every aspect of a healthcare app on mobile. So, what are the factors that must be considered in the process? Let’s take a closer look. Security Security remains the foremost concern. The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, popularly known as the HIPAA, lay down the need for the application to be responsible for the patient information that is displayed on it. The Medical Records Institute (MRI) publishes a list of priorities regarding data integrity that find place in a test plan for mobile devices. It requires the data to be absolutely consistent and accurate, timely, interoperable, complete, accessible and auditable at all times and in all places. The multiple layers involved in mobile security like the infrastructure, hardware, user interface and operating system, need to be covered adequately during testing. A good healthcare app offers interoperability between the medical devices and the other systems through messaging. Testing needs to be carried out for all the underlying systems as well. Reliability and Performance Both these are interlinked although a better performing app would automatically imply that it is reliable. When you are running a complicated, integrated health care application, speed is something that will draw the maximum attention. Reliability is defined by factors like how is the application moved out of the guaranteed Internet or Wi-Fi connection or how easily the end users’ lost work can be recovered and so on. Display The display is undoubtedly the most important factor to be considered during the testing process. Since the screen size of the devices varies widely, testers have to identify and solve all types of display sizing problems. The application should necessarily display all the data completely. In healthcare applications, information travels back and forth to various end points so, care should be taken to ensure that even a
slight data is not lost in the way. Users must be able to see the whole information and also access them with minimal scrolling. Display items like buttons and field names are better kept intact. While these are some of the most important factors of consideration in healthcare app testing, testers should always keep the user experience as a priority. A healthcare app must keep the information secure while working reliably with a high level of performance. Testers constantly seek alternative testing methods and locations to create efficient applications.