The past many years have seen rapid progress in the medical software industry. Today, the medical practice industry has access to integrated, intelligent, and efficient software which is enabling the medical practice to improve the quality of their services by working as virtual assistants. The software as a medical device solution is helping healthcare practitioners, hospitals, and clinics to efficiently manage patients’ data log. And the technology is increasingly becoming more accessible to the entire healthcare industry, where today it’s not all about the comprehensive and large medical software but also tech-driven and standalone medical devices that are changing the redefining the healthcare services.
The software as a medical device comes into the picture as a standalone medical product that is meant to assist healthcare practitioners in making well-informed clinical decisions. These integrated and standalone software are equally suited to individual healthcare practitioners, as well as, hospitals and clinics looking to improve the quality of healthcare services.
The high demand for Medical software development is driven by its easy adaption process. The SaMD comes with not a hardware component, which makes the integration process much easier with limited barriers. And with the healthcare industry largely adapting to the technology, the quantity of real-time feedback from healthcare practitioners is also increasing, which in turn gives an opportunity to further improve the technology to meet the needs of the medical profession. However, the large scale uptake of software as a medical device (SaMD) technology is also opening up new challenges for healthcare regulators, as they have to come up with new regulations to ensure the safety and security of patients’ data, as well as, monitor the clinical effectiveness in the wake of technology adaptation.
Introduction to SOFTWARE AS A MEDICAL DEVICE (SAMD)
According to the definition of the Federal Drug Agency (FDA), the Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) is listed as the software that is designed and developed to perform specified medical functions (single or multiple). Now, going by the definition of FDA, Software as a Medical Device includes a different category of software like healthcare apps or more specialized medical software that is able to assist healthcare practitioners to diagnose or treat specific medical conditions.
A defining feature of SaMD is the fact that this type of medical software doesn’t need any specific hardware to operate, which means that Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) can be easily integrated with other non-medical computing platforms.
Benefits of Software as a Medical Device
There have been speculations about the increasing intelligence of Meditech, which may replace the role of doctors in the future. Honestly, while the Meditech including the Software as a Medical Device is advancing when it comes to intelligent decision making, the technology is nowhere near to substitute the role of healthcare practitioners. In fact, the role of SaMD is more apt as of assistance to the doctors, physicians, and other healthcare professionals by delivering them the insights into the data and enabling them to make well-informed clinical decisions. The increase in the analytical intelligence of Meditech, and automating capabilities does make a lot of difference when it comes to handling administrative and management burden related to the medical practice, as well as, to handle and analyze the massive volume of medical records.
Below we have come up with some core benefits of Software as a Medical Device (SaMD):
– Better Healthcare Services
As mentioned below, the primary role of software as a medical device is to assist healthcare practitioners to better manage their practice by automating various time-intensive administrative tasks. Also, such software enables healthcare practitioners to improve the quality of the medical services by making well-informed decisions, leveraging on the superior data analytics and processing capabilities. Thereby, by implementing the software as a medical device, healthcare facilities are better prepared to enhance their efficiency and accuracy of the medical services.
– Quicker Innovation
Another important feature of SaMD that sets them apart from other Meditech services is their inherently simpler and easier adaptation. Since there is no need for specific hardware to integrate with the SaMD, it’s easier to implement such software with the existing infrastructure with little overhead costs. Also, by utilizing the cloud connectivity offered by such software, healthcare practitioners are in a better position to share data across different platforms for the faster improvement of healthcare services.
