Healthcare Software Development: A Practical Guide for 2026

Introduction

Healthcare software development is becoming a strategic priority as providers and HealthTech teams improve patient experiences, streamline clinical operations, and protect sensitive data while connecting to existing systems. The teams that win are the ones that design for security, interoperability, and long term maintainability from day one.

The business case is clear. McKinsey estimates technology driven innovation could create 350 to 410 billion USD in annual value by 2025, and the KMS overview cites a projection that the global healthcare enterprise software market could grow from 3.9 billion USD in 2024 to 5.44 billion USD by 2031 at a 5.68 percent CAGR. In the sections below, we break down what to build, how to choose solution types, what trends matter in 2026, and how SotaTek ANZ can support delivery across discovery, engineering, integration, and quality.

What is Healthcare Software Development?

Healthcare software development is the process of designing, building, integrating, and maintaining digital solutions used by providers, payers, and HealthTech companies to deliver care, run operations, and manage health data. It spans everything from patient apps and portals to clinical workflow systems and enterprise platforms, but it is defined less by features and more by the requirements that come with healthcare.

The Differences between Healthcare Software Development vs "Regular" Software Development

What makes it different from “regular” software development:

• Regulatory compliance first: Product and engineering decisions must align with applicable regulations and standards such as HIPAA, GDPR, MDR, or FDA requirements. Missing audit trails, weak access controls, or gaps in documentation can delay go live and, in some contexts, increase legal and financial exposure.
• Data privacy and security: Healthcare systems handle protected health information (PHI), so even simple patient facing apps typically need strong encryption, strict access control, and clear logging and monitoring practices to reduce risk.
• Interoperability by design: Healthcare relies on many systems working together, so data exchange standards such as FHIR and HL7 should be considered from the earliest architecture stage, not added later as an integration patch.
• Risk and safety management: For SaMD or SiMD, safety is part of the product definition. A faulty dosage calculation, an incorrect clinical rule, or a broken device integration can have real world consequences, which is why validation, traceability, and risk controls matter throughout delivery.

Healthcare Software Development Market Overview

Healthcare Software Development Statistics

Types of Healthcare Software Development

Healthcare software can be grouped into five practical categories based on who uses it and how it connects to the broader care ecosystem. This structure helps teams define scope, integrations, and risk early, especially when dealing with regulated workflows, sensitive data, or clinical decision making.

Types of Healthcare Software Development

Patient software development

These solutions focus on patient engagement, self management, and access to care across mobile apps and web portals.

Common examples:

• Remote monitoring and vitals tracking for chronic care
• Mental health apps with mood tracking and guided support
• Medication management with schedules and reminders
• Wellness apps for fitness, nutrition, and activity tracking
• Virtual assistants and chatbots for support, booking, reminders, follow ups
• Telemedicine for remote consultations and follow up care
• Wearable connected apps for real time health data capture

Diagnostics and treatment software

These systems support clinical assessment, decision support, and treatment workflows. Depending on intended use, they may require stronger safety and risk controls.

Common examples:

• E prescribing and digital prescription workflows
• AI tools for diagnostics support and workflow automation
• Clinical decision support systems for evidence based decisions
• Medical imaging analysis for X ray, MRI, and CT workflows
• Smart diagnostics for early detection and risk scoring

Information systems and data exchange

This category forms the data backbone of care delivery. Success depends on interoperability and integration reliability.

Common examples:

• EHR systems for history, documentation, and care coordination
• RIS for imaging scheduling, reporting, and workflow
• LIMS for lab workflows, sample tracking, and results sharing
• PACS for storing, retrieving, and sharing diagnostic images
• HIE platforms for secure cross provider data sharing
• Blockchain based records for tamper resistant logs and traceability

Management software

These tools improve operations, patient engagement, and financial workflows across healthcare organizations.

Common examples:

• Healthcare CRM for appointments, communication, and engagement
• Pharmacy management for inventory and prescription workflows
  
• Analytics for outcomes, efficiency, and resource utilization
• BI tools for operational and clinical decision making
• Inventory management for supplies, equipment, and medications
• Hospital management for scheduling, ADT, and staff coordination
• Billing and RCM for claims, reimbursements, and reporting

Medical education and practice software

These solutions support training, simulation, and competency development for medical professionals.

Common examples:

• Simulation tools for scenario based skill building
• Learning platforms for progress tracking and competency milestones

Why Choose Software Development in Healthcare?

Healthcare software development can modernize care delivery by improving operational efficiency, strengthening data governance, and supporting better patient experiences at scale. In practice, medical centres tend to invest in software for five repeatable benefits.

Reducing costs

Well designed systems reduce repetitive admin work and paperwork by automating intake, registration, documentation flows, and records storage. Many organizations also choose cloud and subscription based delivery to reduce upfront infrastructure spend and shift costs into predictable operating budgets.

Minimizing medical data errors

Digital clinical records can reduce fragmented data handling and make information more consistent across teams, which is one reason adoption has become mainstream. For example, in the US, the Office of the National Coordinator reported that 96 percent of non federal acute care hospitals had adopted a certified EHR by 2021.

However, software alone is not enough. The biggest gains typically come when teams redesign workflows to reduce duplicate entry, standardize data capture, and limit manual conversions between systems.

Enhancing data security

Healthcare systems often process highly sensitive information, so security controls must be built in from the start, not added after launch. In regulated contexts, frameworks like the HIPAA Security Rule emphasize safeguards for protecting electronic protected health information, which informs requirements such as access control, auditability, and risk management.

Cloud can also be used in compliant ways when governance, contracts, and security responsibilities are clearly defined.

Improving patient provider communication

Patient-facing portals and telehealth tools make it easier to book appointments, message care teams, and follow up without unnecessary travel, which can improve access and continuity for many use cases. Telehealth is also widely discussed by major clinical institutions as a meaningful way to extend care beyond the hospital setting when implemented safely and appropriately.

Ensuring regulatory compliance

Healthcare software is often designed around compliance needs because records affect both clinical outcomes and billing operations. Depending on where you operate, this can include privacy and security obligations such as HIPAA in the US, GDPR in the EU, and privacy frameworks in ANZ like Australia’s Australian Privacy Principles and New Zealand’s Health Information Privacy Code 2020. 

Healthcare Software Development Trends 2026

Healthcare Software Development Trends 2026

VR and AR technologies

VR and AR are increasingly used in patient education, clinical training, and surgical planning by making complex procedures easier to understand and practice in immersive environments. For product teams, the opportunity is not only “3D visuals,” but measurable learning outcomes and safer workflows through guided simulations, structured scenarios, and feedback loops that can be audited and improved over time.

Internet of Medical Things (IoMT)

IoMT refers to applying IoT in the medical field, connecting devices such as wearable sensors and medical instruments to collect health data and transmit it for processing and analysis. In 2026, IoMT growth continues to expand remote monitoring, chronic care management, and device enabled workflows, but it also raises engineering requirements around data quality, connectivity gaps, device onboarding, and security controls across a wider attack surface.

AI and Machine Learning

AI and machine learning are being used to analyze large volumes of health data, support clinical decision making, and automate repetitive workflows, particularly in areas like imaging and predictive analytics.

Because AI can influence clinical outcomes, governance is becoming part of the build, including validation plans, monitoring, human oversight, and documented boundaries for intended use, which aligns with WHO’s guidance on AI governance for health and large multimodal models.

Blockchain for data security

Blockchain is being explored in healthcare for tamper resistant record keeping, permissioned sharing, and strengthening integrity and traceability across data flows. The practical fit is usually in auditability and provenance, such as tracking access or ensuring operational traceability, rather than replacing core clinical databases end to end.

Big data analytics

Big data analytics continues to expand in healthcare to support insight generation from records, imaging, and patient generated data, enabling better research support, risk prediction, and more personalized interventions. The main differentiator in 2026 is execution quality: strong data governance, interoperability, privacy controls, and bias awareness determine whether analytics outputs are reliable enough to drive clinical or operational decisions.

Cloud transformation

Cloud transformation is accelerating as health systems migrate applications and data to improve scalability, speed of deployment, and real time access to critical information across distributed teams. At the same time, cloud in healthcare requires disciplined security design and shared responsibility clarity, which is why guidance such as ENISA’s cloud security measures for healthcare services is often referenced when planning controls.

Read more: Software Development Trends 2026 to Stay Ahead

SotaTek ANZ - Your Trusted Healthcare Software Development Company

Our Services

As a custom healthcare software development company, SotaTek ANZ delivers healthcare software development end to end, from discovery and UX to engineering, integration, testing, and post launch support. We help hospitals and clinics build and modernise solutions such as EHR add ons, patient portals, and healthcare CRM systems, with a focus on real workflows and scalable architecture.

Our service coverage typically includes:

• Custom product development for patient portals, clinician tools, and operational platforms, including EHR connected workflows
• Integration and interoperability engineering using standards such as FHIR, plus healthcare terminology and coding alignment where needed, including ICD 10 and CPT
• Medical imaging workflow development and integration support for DICOM based systems
• Data and analytics foundations to support reporting, care coordination, and performance tracking
• Quality assurance and testing across functional, regression, performance, security, and integration reliability
• Deployment and maintenance to keep systems stable, secure, and upgrade ready over time

Our Tech Stack

Our Healthcare Software Roadmap

SotaTek ANZ Healthcare Software Development Roadmap

Our Case Study SotaMed

SotaTek’s ecosystem includes SotaMed, a Made by SOTA product, focused on AI solutions for medical imaging and clinical workflows. One of the flagship offerings highlighted of the SotaMed product is PACS AI, designed to help healthcare organisations digitise imaging storage, retrieval, and collaboration across departments while supporting both standard and non standard imaging sources.

What SotaMed delivers

• • DICOM and Non DICOM imaging support, enabling storage and management of diagnostic images as well as images captured from devices that are not traditionally DICOM first.
  • Integration readiness for hospital environments, described as open software that can integrate with existing hospital systems such as HIS and EMR, helping imaging workflows fit into broader clinical operations.
  • Flexible deployment options including on premise and cloud models, which can support different IT strategies and infrastructure constraints.
  • AI supported workflow features, with the product page highlighting AI capabilities for diagnosis support and voice processing to improve clinician efficiency.
  • Standards and security posture claims, with SotaMed stating alignment with HL7, DICOM, and ISO 27001 on the product page.

Reported SotaMed impact metrics

• • 60% less documentation time
  • 10+ hospitals deployed
  • 1,000+ medical facilities supported

SotaMed - A Made by Sota Product

Why this matters in real hospital workflows

Medical imaging is rarely a standalone function. Imaging must connect to scheduling, clinical notes, reporting, and downstream care coordination. When imaging data is stored consistently, shared securely, and available across care teams, clinicians can collaborate faster and reduce delays caused by missing films, fragmented storage, or manual handoffs. PACS AI is positioned to address these operational gaps by standardising how images are stored and accessed while keeping the system compatible with both DICOM and non DICOM sources.

If you’d like to explore SotaMed, a Made by SOTA product, and see how PACS AI could fit your imaging and clinical workflows, contact SotaTek ANZ to request a demo or trial.

Conclusion

To conclude, healthcare software development in 2026 is increasingly defined by interoperability, security, and real world usability, not just feature delivery. Whether you are building patient facing apps, modernising EHR connected workflows, or scaling imaging and analytics platforms, the teams that succeed are the ones that design for compliance requirements, data exchange, and long term maintainability from the start.

SotaTek ANZ is a custom healthcare software development company that helps healthcare providers and HealthTech teams plan, build, integrate, and operate reliable solutions across web, mobile, and enterprise systems. If you want to discuss your healthcare software development roadmap or explore products in the Made by SOTA ecosystem such as SotaMed, contact SotaTek ANZ to schedule a consultation or request a demo.