Improving Healthcare with PowerApps Adoption

All businesses including the healthcare industry have to balance between keeping the technology used simple and also be easily accessible to everyone within the industry.

There is already a deep integration of technology into the healthcare industry but healthcare still faces a multitude of challenges. The need for healthcare to be more agile to deliver timely and effective solutions has increased over time. A suite of software applications such as Microsoft Power Apps can help make existing processes more efficient.

What are Power Apps?

Power Apps are a part of the Microsoft Power platform that can help organizations increase agility, reduce costs and improve efficiency. Power Apps offer a way to develop custom applications with the need of writing code and include tools like data analysis, process automation and virtual agents. Power Apps can be used to connect to multiple data sources such as Microsoft 365, SharePoint, SQL server and more. Power Apps can be used to design user interfaces and app logic using a drag-and-drop approach or natural language expression called Power Fx. Power Apps can run on both mobiles and browsers and their applications can be extended using Azure Functions and custom connectors. The platform itself is designed for simplicity, accessibility and scalability that makes it perfect for the healthcare industry. The PowerApps is itself built on Microsoft Graph, an API that can provide access to data from multiple apps.

This post will explore the benefits of using PowerApps in the healthcare industry, by streamlining work processes and also making information accessible.

Benefits of Using PowerApps for the Healthcare Sector:-

Data integration: The journey towards efficient and effective patient care starts with better communication and collaboration through diagnosis. PowerApps can be used for data integration and enable connecting to multiple data sources such as patient surveys, electronic health records, medical devices and more. PowerApps along with the Microsoft Common Data Services (CDS) allows practitioners to extract patient history from multiple sources such as Outlook, OneDrive, PowerPoint, SharePoint and more.

Compliance and security: General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) Compliance and other stringent healthcare policies require that the healthcare facilities keep an up-to-date record of all activities as per compliance standard. It has also become essential for healthcare providers to administer data policies, access controls and authorizations. PowerApps enables users to automatically connect to Microsoft's Active Directory Domain Service (ADDS) that can authenticate, authorize and implement all apps and user security policies. Microsoft has also listed out steps that enable customer data protection while using PowerApps that can be adhered to as per GDPR compliance standard.

Streamline workflows: The Healthcare sector usually has to work with a variety of apps to store, access patient information, send and collect appointments, reminders and much more. While the apps that are used fulfill their purpose, they often generate information silos that can be difficult to access across different departments. This can create new challenges as team members may need to learn multiple apps to access information and can also generate human errors. Developing apps built on one codebase using PowerApps allows integration with other tools that can create a single system of record. This makes it easier for the workforce to access information.

Boosting emergency response: Response during any medical emergency is critical for all healthcare facilities, and PowerApps allows healthcare businesses to build applications that can enable an effective and efficient channel of communication with patients. It can help monitor their health status and generate a call to action during an emergency situation. PowerApps can be used to build apps that can enable collaboration between frontline staff, doctors and nurses. The apps can allow easy access to patient status and medical records.

Resource management: The recent Covid-19 pandemic has shown how healthcare resources can get overwhelmed and cause the system to crash. PowerApps enables healthcare facilities to easily monitor, manage and execute critical tasks that can ensure that resource management does not break down. Apps can also be connected to other components like Power Automate and Power BI for more efficient management.

Product information: Correct Product information is critical in the healthcare industry. PowerApps can enable build apps that can easily determine the product attributes and other necessary information and allows customers and the healthcare team to access information as per need and increasing transparency.

Enhancing patient experience: PowerApps can help improve patient engagement and satisfaction by providing personalized and interactive services. By using PowerApps, patients can access their health information, book appointments, request prescriptions, provide feedback, and participate in surveys. For example, the Slot Booking app is an app that helps healthcare organizations schedule slots for various services.

Conclusion

PowerApps allows the development of custom apps without having any programming knowledge and is a great option for industries that rely on third-party applications. It's important to choose the right technology and it's equally essential to think about who will use these products. PowerApps is the right choice for the healthcare industry as they need to integrate with other apps for streamlining workflows, providing access to data and exchanging information. For healthcare companies looking to develop , partnering with consulting services for Power Apps can help them to conveniently access and share data on-the-go, regardless of location or time