What Is Healthcare Software Testing
Healthcare software solutions are intricate and have specific rules and logic that must be followed correctly in order to provide patients with accurate care. When developing a medical software application, it’s critical that it is properly and extensively tested to ensure all workflows operate as expected.
A typical software development team will have testers who are heavily involved in the planning and design steps of the medical software development process. This ensures that they’re aware of exactly how the software is designed to run and how to test scenarios to hit intended outcomes.
Healthcare application testing is an essential step in the development process that must be completed before deploying the product. This is especially important in the healthcare industry as there are HIPAA regulations, insurance, and licensing involved that could be impacted if using healthcare software with defects.
Types Of Medical Software Testing
The type of testing completed will depend on what is included in the healthcare software. Here are a few examples of typical software tests completed when building healthcare applications.
Functional Testing
Functional testing is when development teams test the basic functions of the software against the requirements determined during the planning stage of the development process. This is typically the first type of testing that is completed to ensure all basic functions of the healthcare software are running as expected before starting to test more specific scenarios.
Usability Testing
Usability testing focuses on testing the software through the user’s expected experience to verify the healthcare software is easy to navigate and follows logical workflows.
When testing healthcare applications, testers will run usability tests for all user roles, including patients, medical professionals, and administrators. Testers will run through all expected workflows for each user role to ensure there are no gaps in services and to provide a seamless user experience.
Compliance Testing
Security testing is a standard practice for all standard software development projects, but healthcare software also needs to be tested for compliance. Depending on the location, healthcare providers can be held to security standards and regulations, including HIPAA and GDPR.
The security and compliance of the healthcare software must be prioritized as these applications deal with highly sensitive patient data that are protected by law.
System Integration Testing
One aspect of healthcare software that makes it ideal is the ability to integrate applications to give patients a complete healthcare experience. Testers will verify all integrated software is thoroughly tested, including medical devices, electronic health records (EHR), and lab and imaging software.
Performance Testing
Performance testing is completed to test how stable the software solution is during a standard amount of traffic. Testers will also check the solution’s performance during a high amount of traffic to ensure the healthcare system performs properly under stress.
Steps For Testing Healthcare Software
To properly test healthcare software, there are five steps that must be completed to ensure nothing is forgotten and the client is delivered a high-quality product.
Test Planning
The first step to testing is to figure out what needs to be tested and in what order. During this step, testers will review all the software requirements and workflows to build a healthcare software testing plan that covers every aspect of the healthcare software.
Test Case Design and Development
Once the testers have a complete list of features to test, they will start creating test plans to properly test scenarios as they are developed. This can include steps required to hit specific workflows, test data to use, and determining how many regression tests to run.
Test Setup
Test setup is occasionally combined with the previous step during case design and development. Test setup includes verifying testing environments are running, creating all necessary logins based on user roles, and loading test data into the testing environment.
Run the Test
With all the planning and setup complete, the testers are ready to hit the ground running once the features are developed. It’s standard practice for multiple testers to run through a test set to verify the software works correctly and to minimize the risk of user error.
Analyze the Test
Once the testing is complete, the testers will report on any defects identified so the developers can implement fixes. Once the defect is reportedly resolved, testers will run through the entire test set again to verify the fix and confirm no other defects were created as a result.
How We Can Improve Your Company With Our Healthcare Software Testing Services
If your organization needs outside support to complete all the testing required for your healthcare software, Geneca is here to help. We will help your company deploy a high-quality software solution with our testing consulting and outsourcing services.
Healthcare Software Testing Consulting
If you have the manpower to test your software but aren’t quite sure how to do so, Geneca offers testing consulting services to help you get your testing efforts sorted. We will examine your healthcare software’s requirements, build a testing plan that covers all aspects of your software, and identify tools and frameworks that will support your testing efforts.
Since your healthcare software will manage sensitive patient data, we will also perform risk management consulting to identify testing risks and build risk mitigation plans.
Healthcare Software Testing Outsourcing
If you’re looking to outsource the testing efforts for your healthcare application, Geneca is ready to get to work. Similarly to our consulting services, our team will examine your solution to build a healthcare software testing strategy that covers all the requirements and workflows. We will set up a testing environment and load test data that will allow our team to fully test your software before deploying.
Once our team has completed all the testing and verified there are no defects, we will produce complete documentation of our healthcare software testing process and results with evidence of compliance with data regulations.
If you want to feel confident when it’s time to deploy your healthcare software solution, reach out to Geneca today for our testing services. We have a team of experts ready to get to work and provide you with a confident product release.
