Getting Your Telehealth Operations in Gear with Automated Testing

With more health care companies turning to telehealth platforms to service patients, the onus is on the IT department to deliver the goods. 

By Guljeet Nagpaul

According to Technavio, the global telehealth market, spurred by the need for remote patient engagement due to the coronavirus crisis,  is poised to grow by $95.7 billion over the next four years. 

That figure accompanies a year-over-year growth rate of CAGR of over 25% through 2024.

That’s good news for health care providers and patients, who each benefit from a rejuvenated health care platform that delivers needed medical advice and health care services in digital mode, providing efficiency, speed of care, cost benefits, and most of all, safety for both parties involved in a two-way telehealth session.

The Need for Testing

There is a caveat to telehealth operational success, and it’s a significant one.

Any rosy digital patient engagement scenarios likely won’t become reality (at least anytime soon) unless healthcare IT departments conduct regular, different types of testing, including automated software testing that clears the path for full-bore telehealth products and services. 

The good news? Quality assurance and software testing outcomes are achievable with regular data software testing, in the form of test automation. 

The date bears that out.

According to a recent study by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, software breaches and bugs cost U.S. businesses $59.5 billion annually. Additionally, about 33 percent of those budget burdens could be eliminated through continuous data software testing.

The study also notes that U.S. businesses that have embraced automatic testing cite the following benefits:

— Faster testing cycles (88% of respondents)

— Improved testing coverage (71% of respondents)

— The ability to catch software bugs earlier (68% of respondents.)

Pure and simple, regular, automated software testing is required to guarantee that telehealth services can be delivered error-free, on-time and maximum data security involved. That allows digital healthcare products and services to roll out into hospitals and care centers as quickly as possible.

For health care companies engaged in telehealth services deliveries, the business benefits of automated testing are robust, with these upsides at the top of the software delivery list:

Managing high-volume software testing requirements. 

Automated testing enables health care IT managers to streamline their own patient testing rollouts with optimal results. 

Data shows that AI-based coronavirus testing can cut wait patient times by over 200%. 

Speed is of the essence in getting telehealth products and services up and running, allowing telehealth providers to test more, test more accurately, and get the exact data they need to produce positive patient outcomes.

Streamlining bookkeeping and paperwork. 

Historically, health care industry administrators staffers take days to gather, review and disseminate patient records data.

Now, systems administrators can run quality control testing programs at speeds that are multitudes faster than manual software testing modes. That translates into quicker patient engagements deliveries with telehealth services – often in minutes – while significantly reducing cost-intensive errors in the process.

Getting data out to providers during the pandemic. 

With COVID-19 forcing health care providers to intensify daily interactions with patients, automated, continual software testing gives doctor, nurses and clinicians the data they need to make better health care decisions when engaging with patients remotely. 

Good testing practices ensure the data health care practitioners are getting is robust, up-to-date, and is easily communicated to on-site health care professionals and to remote medical staff working remotely.

With better, safer, and more error-free digital tools in place, telehealth care providers can do what they do best – provide services and support for patients straightaway – without worrying about high-risk business continuity problems.

The Takeaway on Automated Software Testing for Health Care Providers

For health care companies looking to up their data software testing practices as they adapt to working patients remotely, there is a clear path moving forward.

Ideally, the focus should be on testing solutions that combine the best elements of human knowledge your company already has on hand with a good, dependable automated testing software package that delivers smooth data quality assurance with no breakdowns and that fits within your existing software development framework.

That should be the case for the short-term in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic and for the long-haul for any telehealth provider going forward.

Guljeet Nagpaul is the Chief Product Officer at AccelQ, the only cloud-based continuous testing platform that seamlessly automates API and web testing without writing a single line of code.