Everything You Need to Know About Healthcare App Testing to Do It Right

Testing expenses can take up 40% of the overall software development budget. You shouldn’t be surprised by such figures. How so? Because testing is, arguably, the most quality-defining process for your product. And for healthcare applications, QA can literally be the difference between life and death.

So, today, let’s talk about how you can make sure that your software is tested outstandingly well and what your team should know to do it.

Understand the Specifics of Software Apps

When it comes to healthcare software testing services, there are many overlapping aspects and similarities. But to create an exceptional product is to know its specifics. So, whether you’re developing a web app or a medical device, testing needs to be tailored to the unique characteristics of each. Let’s review how this works on a few examples.

For web apps, focus on:

• Cross-browser compatibility for seamless experiences across various browsers.
• Multi-platform accessibility to accommodate users who rely on distinct devices.
• Security testing to protect customer data and foster user trust.

For healthcare mobile app testing, the priorities are:

• Operating system variation validation to ensure compatibility with different OSs.
• Support of device-specific features like GPS or a camera.
• Optimized user interfaces to secure pleasant UX and responsiveness.

For desktop software, center on:

• Operating system compatibility to provide reliable operations for everyone.
• Accommodations for larger screens to balance between polished UI and functionalities.
• Advanced features for professionals to ensure that healthcare experts can fully benefit from the software’s qualities.

And for medical devices, emphasize:

• Regulatory compliance to gain user confidence and avoid legal issues.
• Real-time data acquisition for quick and dependable data acquisition and transmission.
• Interoperability with healthcare systems for smooth integrations with broader healthcare systems.

These instances don’t mean that these are the only aspects you should test. It’s more about paying increased attention to elements that users find critical. For example, you wouldn’t spend too much time on functional UI testing for healthcare app. Instead, you’d emphasize verifying that a diagnostic imaging device can efficiently share results with an EHR system.

Such a nuanced approach to testing ensures that healthcare technology meets the highest standards of functionality, usability, and safety.

Know What to Test in Your App

Comparatively, software types’ particularities aren’t much of a hurdle when you consider the ecosystem of healthcare apps. For instance, these are the most popular options in 2024:

1. Electronic health records software.
2. Telemedicine software.
3. Hospital management software.
4. Health tracking apps.
5. E-prescribing.
6. Mobile health apps.
7. Remote patient monitoring.
8. Personal health record software (medical diaries).
9. Doctor on-demand apps.
10. Women’s healthcare apps.

Proper healthcare software quality assurance calls for a careful analysis of an app’s features. Good testing depends on functionality knowledge and, to some extent, business goals.

So, we can’t dive into what apps need this or that testing more (that would take a hot minute). But we can outline tests without which healthcare software simply wouldn’t be.

Types of Testing to Run

• Functional testing – ensures the application functions as intended, covering features like patient registration, appointment scheduling, and data management.
• Performance testing – validates system responsiveness, stability, and scalability, crucial for handling various loads and simultaneous user interactions.
• Security testing – focuses on safeguarding sensitive patient data, preventing unauthorized access, and ensuring compliance with data protection regulations.
• Usability testing – evaluates the user interface, navigation, and overall user experience to enhance accessibility.
• Compatibility testing – verifies the application’s compatibility across different devices, browsers, and OSs for consistent UX.
• Integration testing – assures seamless interaction between different modules or third-party systems for leveled interoperability.
• Compliance testing – ensures the application adheres to regulatory standards.

Functionalities to Check

• Installation/de-installation – securing easy application setup and removal.
• Onboarding process – providing intuitive user onboarding experience for healthcare professionals and patients (how well the app guides customers as they begin using it).
• Push notifications – verifying the functionality and timing of notifications for critical updates.
• Matching with a therapist – ensuring accurate matching algorithms in mental health apps.
• Client signs up/in/out – validating user authentication processes and account management.
• Client password resetting – testing the password recovery process securely.
• Losing network connection – assessing the app’s behavior in the absence of a network connection.
• Admin page – ensuring administrators have comprehensive control and access to vital functionalities.

These are just a few functionalities without which healthcare software wouldn’t even go beyond “acceptable” quality. There are many more features that vary across app types and categories. So, you shouldn’t forget about advanced or highly specific attributes either. For instance:

1. EHR systems may include features that offer real-time clinical decision support. They provide healthcare professionals with alerts, reminders, and evidence-based guidance during patient care.
2. Pharmacy apps may include a drug interaction checker. These present information about potential interactions between different medications.
3. Intelligent pill reminders may adapt to the user’s response patterns. And they need to adjust notification frequencies based on consistent adherence or specific user preferences.
4. Some mental health apps include crisis intervention features. Such software offers immediate support or connects users to emergency services in times of distress.

All in all, testing healthcare applications is like completing a puzzle game. Only when all the pieces are perfectly aligned – compliance, functionality, and user-friendliness – the software can evoke that feeling of satisfaction and pride.

Make Documentation the Backbone of Your Testing Strategy

Let’s take a break from the technical side of software. What do you need to ensure that your app is tested well? We have three words for you:

1. Knowledge.
2. Strategy.
3. Experts.

Knowledge secures a unified understanding of your software, its uniqueness, and how to make an irresistible product. Strategy helps make sure that you have an optimized roadmap to your goals. Expertsz ensure that everything is done to the highest degree of excellence, from collaboration to project quality.

We’ll begin with the resources you’ll need to build a result-driven testing process.

Software Specification Requirements (SRS)

Requirements serve as the foundation document. They outline the functionalities and requirements of the healthcare app.

An SSR document for a telemedicine app details feature specifications for, say, video consultation, appointment scheduling, and secure patient data transmission.

QA Strategy

A QA strategy provides an overarching approach for quality assurance. It encompasses methodologies, tools, and resources used during testing.

When testing a healthcare software app, it might emphasize regulatory compliance, interoperability, and security testing to ensure data confidentiality.

Test Plan

A test plan delineates the scope, objectives, resources, schedule, and overall approach to testing.

For an EHR system, a test plan may detail the phases of testing, such as unit testing for individual modules, integration testing for seamless data flow, and user acceptance testing (UAT) for end-to-end validation.

Test Strategy

A test strategy outlines the high-level testing approach. It includes the types of testing, resources, and schedule.

A test strategy for a medical device may define the strategy for performance testing to ensure the device accurately captures and transmits real-time patient data under varying loads.

Test Cases

Test cases provide detailed scenarios and steps to be executed during testing to validate specific functionalities.

For a pharmacy app, a test case may outline steps to test, for example, the prescription refill process. It’d include verifying the correct scanning of prescriptions, accurate medication information display, and successful order placement.

Checklists

A checklist serves as a quick reference for critical items to be verified during testing, ensuring comprehensive coverage.

A checklist for a mental health app may include items like validating therapist matching algorithms, confirming secure data storage, and testing crisis intervention features.

Side note: you don’t need both test cases and checklists. It’s either this or that, depending on your needs.

Understanding these test artifacts’ goals is crucial for a systematic testing process. So, if you need a refresher for your grasp of testing documentation – give our article on testing documentaion a read.

Consider Healthcare App Testing Uniqueness

As for the knowledge your team should have to increase the chances of creating an awe-inspiring app, consider the point below. They outline aspects of healthcare software that ought to become the holy grail of your testing efforts.

Advanced Data Security & Privacy

• Healthcare apps handle highly sensitive patient information, including medical history, personal details, and treatment plans.
• Stringent regulations mandate the protection of patient data. Non-compliance can lead to severe legal consequences.
• Ensuring robust data security and privacy measures builds trust among users.

Impeccable Compliance with Regulations

• Healthcare is one of the most regulated industries globally. Adherence to regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, and FDA guidelines is mandatory.
• Regulations are designed to ensure patient safety, effective treatment, and the ethical use of healthcare technologies.
• Non-compliance can result in hefty fines, legal actions, and damage to the reputation of both the healthcare provider and the application developer.

Extensive Integrations with Third-Party Systems

• Healthcare apps often need to interact with other systems to provide comprehensive patient care.
• Ensuring accurate data exchange between different systems prevents errors in diagnoses, treatment plans, and medication management.
• Integrations offer healthcare professionals access to complete and updated patient information at all times, enhancing the efficiency of healthcare delivery.

Testing on Real Devices

• Healthcare apps are accessed by a diverse user base using various devices. Testing on real devices ensures that the application functions correctly across different platforms.
• Each device has its unique interface and interaction methods. Testing on real devices helps optimize the user experience, taking into account factors like screen size, touch gestures, and processing power.
• Real device testing helps identify platform-specific issues that might not be apparent in emulators, ensuring a smoother user experience.

Simulating Real-World Scenarios

• Healthcare apps need to function reliably under diverse conditions, such as network fluctuations, low battery, and varying user behavior.
• Simulating real-world scenarios is crucial for healthcare apps dealing with emergency services. It ensures the app’s responsiveness and reliability during critical situations.
• Understanding how the app performs in real-world conditions contributes to enhanced user satisfaction.

While these aspects should be the main focus of testing, you should note that they are also incredibly difficult to perfect. Why is that? Because healthcare software is exceptionally intricate. And making it as close to the ideal as possible entirely depends on the specialists in your team.

We go into more detail on how expert knowledge helps overcome the challenges of healthcare software testing in the previous post addressing healthcare QA challenges.

Create a Team That Fulfills Your Goals

Now, to make sure that all your plans are carried out exactly as you envision them, you need the right people. Building effective QA for healthcare app involves assembling a diverse set of specialists. Precisely what roles you need will depend on project complexity, budget and deadlines, phase of life cycle, etc.

So, at this moment, consider these essential specialists and what they can do for you:

#1 Manual QA Engineer – runs manual healthcare app testing, ensuring a comprehensive evaluation.

• Creates testing documentation.
• Executes manual test cases.
• Runs exploratory and basic usability testing.

#2 Automation QA Engineer – develops automated testing (AT) scripts to expedite repetitive testing processes.

• Develops automated test scripts.
• Defines automated testing coverage.
• Maintains test suites.

#3 General QA Engineer (manual + AT) – combines manual and automated testing expertise for a holistic strategy.

• Secures a composite approach to testing.
• Designs test cases for manual and scripts for automated testing.
• Quickly switch between manual and automated testing.

#4 Test Manager – oversees the testing process, ensuring alignment with project goals and timelines.

• Creates the overall test strategy.
• Manages team resources.
• Ensures collaborative communication.

#5 Release Manager – coordinates the release process, managing deployments and ensuring smooth transitions.

• Coordinates product releases.
• Plans deployment.
• Monitors post-release processes.

#6 QA Lead – governs the QA team, overseeing testing strategies and providing guidance.

• Guarantees strategic planning by aligning testing efforts with the overall project goals.
• Offers guidance and mentorship to the team.
• Focuses on continuous improvement, refining testing processes, and knowledge transfer.

Each specialist in the testing team plays a distinct role. But only collaborative efforts secure a remarkable healthcare app. So, choose your experts wisely.

Set Up the QA Process Carefully

If you decide to cooperate with a QA company, especially if you’re doing it for the first time, pay attention to how they begin the work. It’s not a few specialists jumping on your project and figuring stuff out as they go. Everything, from your first meeting to post-release procedures, should be agreed upon in advance.

Let’s overview how testing software applications should go using QA Madness’s model as an example.

Introductory Call Followed by an Estimate

The very first meeting should work as sort of a “vibe check.” Your potential QA outsource crew should get to know your product, needs, and goals. In turn, you ought to learn more about their abilities, expertise, and modes of cooperation. At this stage, you should also settle on an estimate to plan your budget.

Tip: ask if the QA team has experience working with healthcare software. On its own, it’ll be a huge benefit. Yet, it will also let you know how the organization approaches projects that need more than a “traditional” testing method.

Discussing Test Coverage & Other Details

After the preliminary aspects are worked out, define exactly what you need the QA team to do. And don’t be shy – tell them everything: what you expect of them, how you’d like everything to be done, and when. Identify the scope, objectives, and resources required for testing. This stage will serve as the backbone for your cooperation.

Tip: if you haven’t worked with a QA company before, ask for a comprehensive consultation or a QA lead. Both will help you devise a better strategy, such as what and how to test, how many specialists you’ll need, etc.

Getting Familiar with the App

This stage is very important. And if your QA partner doesn’t show involvement here – drop them. To realize your vision for the product, the team should understand the app’s functionalities, user base, and key features. For a healthcare project, not having an in-depth grasp of its specifics is like looking for a needle in a pool of other needles.

Tip: don’t view this phase as a waste of time or try to rush it. Sure, the team must adhere to the deadlines. But for medical software, it’s better to spend some time to truly understand it instead of getting to testing right away. In the case of the latter, you’ll spend even more resources on going back to fix everything that was missed.

Documentation Writing & Approval

Here, the QA team should provide you with documentation that details who will work on what, what they will test, how they will provide reports, etc. And remember, this needs your full approval. In other words, take the provided documentation with a grain of salt and make sure it suits your expectations.

Tip: secure the involvement of project stakeholders in this stage. They will help modify the testing process to better fit project goals, timelines, and resources.

Testing & Reporting

This is the active stage of your collaboration. The QA team executes test cases and presents real-time reports on identified bugs, bigger issues, and improvement ideas.

Tip: create a fast feedback loop between QA specialists and developers. It’ll help speed up testing and guarantee better outcomes via continuous dialogue.

Change-Related Testing

When the QA team identifies bugs and the dev crew amends them, always go for retesting and regression. They ensure that any modifications to the application don’t break the product and actually improve it.

Tip: never skip regression. For healthcare projects especially, rechecking everything twice is better than ending up with a compliance violation or a buggy interface that frustrates users.

Releasing the Build & a Quick Check on Production

After you’re done with the bulk of the work, secure the final assessment. It’ll help make sure that everything goes as you want it to. And if something isn’t working out, this is the time to make adjustments to the testing process.

Tip: testing in production might be a magnificent advantage for healthcare apps. It lets you “conduct an in-depth product review in a real-world setting”. Yet, you should also be aware of the risks this process has. You can find out more about them in one of our earlier articles about testing in production.

A New Sprint

Testing doesn’t end after the product goes live. In fact, it should never end at all. Only via continuous testing you can better your product and reach new heights. The good thing is that you don’t have to start anew. You proceed with what you have and focus on iterative testing, documentation updates, and continuous improvement in subsequent sprints.

Tip: make sure you establish a robust knowledge base. Everything the QA team has done and documented will help you with project advancement and insight transfer to keep product standards the same and rising.

Plan Your Budget with These Aspects in Mind

Last but not least, let’s talk about money. When you’re working on healthcare software, you should be prepared to invest comparatively more into it. But we don’t say this just so that you spend more. On the contrary. You ought to plan your budget in advance and account for the factors that may increase the overall testing cost.

So, beware that you might need to expend more if your project:

• Involves complex medical algorithms, vast integrations, and extensive data processing.
• Requires a large testing team, thus calling for extra training and coordination.
• Needs to integrate with multiple external systems, such as laboratory information systems or medical devices.
• Decides to invest in advanced automated testing tools, hence needing licensing, coaching, and maintenance.
• Wants to work with in-house testing teams or outsource to specialized testing firms. Each has its associated cost structure. And QA outsource usually is more cost-effective.

You can find many ways to optimize your software development in terms of expenses. Just remember not to compromise quality.

To Sum Up

Testing healthcare applications is a multifaceted process. And only by understanding the nuances of testing such projects, you can achieve unprecedented results. It sure won’t be easy. But in the end, it will be worth it. So, choose your QA strategy and team carefully. Because this will probably be the decision that determines your product’s fate.