13 Types of Healthcare Software

1. Electronic Health Record (EHR) Software

EHR software collects information on patients – for example, the medication they take, doctors’ recommendations, and the procedures that they have undergone in the past.

Many programs also include a financial module for invoicing and payment, and a separate portal for the patient, which allows patients to access their consultation history, medical records, and prescriptions.

The two most popular types of EHR software are:

Electronic patient record software (EPR) – used internally by hospitals to store and process their patient information.
Electronic medical record software (EMR) – used to store data like medication types and dosage, past and planned procedures, and data on the patient’s recovery course.
Examples: eClinicalWorks, Allscripts

2. Medical database software

Medical database software helps doctors in two key areas:

Making better treatment decisions by cross-referencing a patient’s case with similar cases.
Educating themselves by reviewing clinical cases of a given disease.
A dermatologist can, for example, use this type of software to browse all patients diagnosed with Atopic Dermatitis and compare their symptoms, treatments, and recovery plans.

3. Medical research software

Medical research software is used for two primary purposes: education and sharing research with the medical community.

4. Medical diagnosis software

Medical diagnosis software for doctors allows them to exchange anonymized patient records so that they can fill any informational gaps preventing them from providing an accurate diagnosis. This type of software often leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to analyze all available patient data and generate probable diagnoses.
There are also medical diagnosis apps available for individuals. Such apps allow users to check if their symptoms require a visit to hospital. Diagnosis apps like these have become popular during the COVID-19 pandemic.

5. E-prescribing software

The software lets medical professionals track, renew, and cancel prescriptions for their patients. It’s also integrated with national drug reference databases.

Example: MediTab, ScriptSure

6. Medical imaging software

Medical 3D imaging software permits:

Human anatomy 3D modeling. Such programs let medical technicians create tailored models for individual patients

7. Telemedicine software

Telemedicine is truly a booming industry, with a market value expected to reach $64 billion by the year 2025 – and that’s just the data for the United States alone! What makes it so successful is its convenience for doctors and patients alike.

Telemedicine software lets healthcare professionals carry out appointments with patients online, either via a web browser or a mobile app. In some software, the video conferencing feature is complemented by e-prescriptions and a billing module.

8. Appointment scheduling (booking) software

Booking software helps hospitals, clinics, and medical practices manage their appointment systems online. Typically, the software features a patient panel that lets individuals schedule appointments via an app or website.

Often, it also has an email notification system and automatic reminders for doctors and patients about upcoming appointments.

9. Medical billing software

This software helps hospital accounting departments keep track of patient invoices, payments, and any other financial operations. It’s often integrated into bigger systems, such as EHR or hospital management software.

10. Hospital management software

Hospital management software assists hospital administration in day-to-day operations. These types of programs usually help with the automation of accounting, medical billing, claims, out-patient management, inventory, bed management, and others.

11. Medical equipment management software

The goal of this type of software is to relieve hospitals and medical practices of manual stocktaking and equipment maintenance.

12. Health tracking apps

Fitness, Diet, Meditation and stress reduction.
There’s also an increasing number of apps that integrate with IoT devices worn to source and analyze users’ health data.

13. Personal Health Record software (medical diaries)

These types of software serve as medical diaries – and can be either held on the patient’s device or integrated with the doctor or hospital’s software.

This type of software can support the patient towards recovery, or alert medical staff on the worsening condition of a patient as soon as the first symptoms appear.