As healthcare providers around the world struggle with worsening healthcare workforce shortages and increasing demand for services, low-code technology has become essential to solving both of these challenges while promoting positive outcomes for both patients and clinicians. Proven.
Let’s look at the case of Mount Alvernia Hospital, a 300-bed private, non-profit medical institution in Singapore. Instead of the usual three months, applications are now released in a matter of weeks using a high-performance low-code platform.
need speed
Like other industries during the pandemic, Mount Alvernia has been forced to do more to digitally transform itself. This included rapid development and deployment of critical solutions such as status tracking and reporting.
“We initially relied on a waterfall development model on .net and Java platforms, but our need for speed and agility led us to partner with OutSystems,” said Bruce Leong, the hospital’s director of technology and strategy. Healthcare IT News.
The platform provided by OutSystems enabled a team of 13 individual IT developers to build the solution “in record time” using a reference to pre-built templates and plugins.
The move to no-code technology met no resistance from IT teams. Morale also improved as we were freed from the tedious and time-consuming tasks of traditional coding. This has helped us meet the ongoing needs of our staff and clinicians, reducing the development time for new solutions by one to two weeks.
Since the pandemic, the Mount Alvernia IT team has created 13 applications, including an employee health system (initially a contact tracing solution), a physician directory, medical record tracking, and electronic meal ordering.
OutSystems improved the team’s speed to market while also ensuring the cybersecurity of the platform. Leonard Tan, OutSystems regional director for Singapore and Greater China, explained:
“Our platform provides 500 validations from design to runtime, ensuring every aspect built on top of it prioritizes security. This includes automatic fixes for DDOS attacks, newly identified code vulnerabilities, mobile threats, and more. Additionally, enterprise IT teams can apply enterprise SAST solutions to enhance security assurance.”
“These solutions provide a robust governance model tailored to enterprise software factories and come with compliance designations such as SOC2, HIPAA, and more. Taking these measures allows our applications to scale seamlessly from department-level usage to handling millions of concurrent users without compromising security, speed, or performance. Our AI-powered performance tools continuously monitor your code to ensure consistent, top-level performance and scalability.”
foster innovation
“[Low-coding] Not only did it speed up development, but it also allowed our team to focus on innovation rather than reinventing the wheel.”
Bruce Leong, Director of Technology and Strategy, Mount Alvernia Hospital
Innovation, part of our DNA, also aligns with the hospital’s digital transformation strategy to remain agile. Currently, the Mount Alvernia IT team is developing a new patient application called Alvernia Connect.
Sharing more details about the project, he said: “Alvernia Connect represents a leap forward in digital engagement with doctors and patients. The app is designed to streamline and digitize processes that were previously manual and time-consuming.
“We are especially looking forward to the positive response to features such as digital admission forms and appointment scheduling, which will significantly reduce waiting times and paperwork. “The goal of Alvernia Connect is not just to provide convenience, but to provide patients with a seamless and stress-free experience.”
The first modules of Alvernia Connect are expected to be released soon in the first quarter of this year.
AI development support
Tan said that by 2025, 70% of new on-premise applications will be developed through low-code or no-code technologies.
“More new use cases continue to emerge in APAC. [of low- or no-code technologies] Across a variety of industries, healthcare is one sector undergoing significant digital transformation. The shift to patient-centricity will continue to accelerate the digitalization of healthcare delivery in the APAC region.”
Leonard Tan, Regional Director, Singapore and China, OutSystems
Low code can play an important role in the development of applications such as patient portals, mobile apps, hospital management systems, medication management systems, and monitoring and triage systems.
In the ongoing AI revolution, low code can also support the development of AI-based tools for monitoring patient conditions, managing medications, providing convenient interactions through chatbots, and more. “With the rise of AI, low code can help healthcare organizations efficiently build AI-based applications and improve customer experience without performing complex coding tasks,” said Tan.
Stay agile
Today, people over 60 make up 14% of the region’s population. By the end of the decade, this proportion will increase to 18%, and by 2050 they are expected to account for a quarter of the total population. With this rapid population growth, the demand for more convenient and personalized healthcare services is expected to increase.
“Going forward, we expect healthcare demand to increase due to Asia’s aging population, especially in Hong Kong, Korea and Japan. As a result, health care providers will find it increasingly difficult for their nursing workforce to keep up with the increased demand.”
“Additionally, as consumer demand for omnichannel experiences grows, the healthcare sector is increasingly adopting new innovations such as digital tools and AI.”
“As more healthcare providers develop new applications for both internal use and patients, the need for shorter development cycles is increasing, with IT teams expected to deliver applications within one to two weeks.”
Leong advises the healthcare industry to “remain flexible and agile enough to leverage new solutions to meet these requirements.”
“Increasing productivity and efficiency to address health care workforce shortages is becoming increasingly urgent, and this is where technology and automation emerge as key solutions.”