The advent of the internet has brought dangers and threats and fantastic economic opportunities. You’re all in agreement that you know Google better than your mother. As everyone knows, any program can’t work until you give it your data. Due to sensitive data breaches, businesses may suffer losses of tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars.
There is a considerable risk that third parties will use patient information illegally, especially in the healthcare industry. In such cases, developing apps that comply with HIPAA is a significant first step against data breaches. A collection of introductory rules that must be clung to while developing healthcare apps is comprehended as HIPAA-compliant app development.
In this post, we will examine the fundamentals of HIPAA before heading over a crucial inventory for developing applications with the support of a HIPAA compliance consulting company that coincides with the law.
What is HIPAA?
Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is the full name of the rule. It was initially constructed in 1996 to control the US healthcare industry. According to a federal statute, national benchmarks must be conceived to prevent the disclosure of confidential patient health information without the understanding or consent of the affected individuals.
Privacy and confidentiality are the cornerstones of the HIPAA Act, two essential ideas in patient care. The statute was documented before the advent of digital technology; thus, it has experienced multiple evolutions.
How to Construct a HIPAA-Compliant Mobile App?
Developing a HIPAA-compliant app is more problematic than standard app development. It needs meticulous attention to detail and rigid allegiance to precise rules and procedures, which can only be accomplished by teaming with HIPAA compliance consulting services.
Seek Expert Assistance
The mobile app development approach is complicated and convoluted, particularly when factoring in HIPAA compliance necessities. Therefore, it’s paramount to pursue help from proficient healthcare application developers who comprehend the nuances of constructing apps in the healthcare domain. These specialists can audit and evaluate your current HIPAA compliance preparedness. You can employ an in-house expert or outsource the procedure to a third-party connoisseur.
Understand Patient Data
Healthcare institutions control confidential patient data, which can be accumulated, shared, disseminated, or maintained via a mobile application. It’s crucial to analyze and identify what falls under the scope of Protected Health Information (PHI). Experienced HIPAA compliance solutions can help you understand which data types must comply with HIPAA regulations. This is a vital first step in app development for adequately designing the database.
After this analysis, determine what data can be excluded from sharing through the mobile application.
Building the Application
Based on Physical and Technical Safeguards, experts can transition from planning to creating the app, adhering strictly to HIPAA compliance guidelines.
Healthcare applications are often polylithic, necessitating reactive technologies for scalability, which align well with HIPAA compliance.
The development process begins with gathering information about the application and understanding client requirements. Next, HIPAA compliance experts develop and design a prototype. After development, the application is tested using simulated users, ensuring security, which is crucial for a HIPAA-compliant mobile app.
Developers focus on the app architecture and ensure compliance with government healthcare software requirements. Testing is vital for assessing encryption strength and involves using fake data to verify gateways and authorization processes. Adhering to Identity and Access Management (IAM) practices is essential for developing security measures and authorization aspects, aligning with access controls to build HIPAA-compliant apps.
Additionally, HIPAA-compliant app development may require less commonly used technologies such as SOAP, RPC Calls, and REST, which are prevalent in the healthcare industry.
Conclusion
In addition to having a concept and development strategy for your healthcare solution, ensuring your mobile app complies with HIPAA regulations is crucial. Focus primarily on implementing security measures to protect PHI and ensure data integrity.
HIPAA regulations can be demanding for software developers, who need meticulous attention to fully comprehend and adhere to them. Misinterpreting or neglecting these regulations can lead to significant risks and penalties. Therefore, when seeking a healthcare app development company, select a team of developers already well-versed in HIPAA compliance and can help you build an application that aligns with these rules and your objectives.
