Patient-centered care, also known as person-centered care, is focused on allowing patients more autonomy regarding their treatment. Practitioners aim to create more of a partnership dynamic between themselves and the patient, and patients are encouraged to ask questions to understand everything the practitioner is telling them. Patient-centered care is critical, as it facilitates a good relationship between practitioners and patients, dramatically improving health outcomes, adherence levels, and trust. 

Cloud-based software, or Software as a Service (SaaS), refers to software applications hosted and operated on remote servers, typically accessible via the internet. It’s a broad term that involves the delivery of hosted services via the internet, which can either be private or public. Before cloud-based services, software was installed and run on individual computers or local servers. Therefore, data isn’t stored in one location with cloud-based services but maintained across multiple remote data centers using a ‘cloud computing framework.’ 

Open source software development refers to the collaborative process of creating and distributing software that allows the source code to be freely available and modifiable by anyone. Users and developers are granted the freedom and right to study, modify and distribute the open-source software. Open source software is rather than proprietary software, in which users legally agree that they will not alter the existing software, and the backend of the software is kept private. Here are some benefits and limitations of open source software development.

Virtual development teams are quickly becoming the norm in most industries and organizations. With the right approach, they can be highly effective as they leverage global talent and optimize collaboration. However, time zones and the lack of face-to-face interaction can cause team members to feel isolated or to have communication breakdowns. That’s why virtual teams must have specific methods and tools in place to ensure a sense of culture and collaboration present in their online workplace. 

Without data security, patients, practitioners, and third-party organizations are at risk of hackers or loss of sensitive healthcare information. Patients have the right to know that their personal data is being protected, and organizations must be able to avoid the financial and legal consequences of a data breach. It's also important to note that accurate medical information is the basis of diagnoses and effective treatment, meaning that data that is vulnerable to tampering places patients at risk. 

Custom software development offers ‘tailor-made’ software solutions based on each company or organization’s specific needs and requirements. This is opposed to ‘off-the-shelf’ software, which is more of a one size fits all solution, where there are generally less unique requirements and features. Custom software is essential for healthcare organizations because technology such as medical service websites, medication reminder applications, doctor-patient communication platforms and Electronic Health Record systems tend to be more complex.

User acceptance testing, or UAT, is essential to a product’s lifecycle. Usually at the end of the software testing process, UAT involves testing software by end-users or proxies to determine if it's acceptable to their standards and the software's intended requirements. It usually occurs after unit, functional, system, and regression testing. UAT can ensure defects are fixed before releasing a product, as the cost of fixing them post-release can be much higher. 

Aging in place is a term that refers to older adults (aged 65 and older) being able to live independently in their own homes without having to move to assisted living facilities. As the population of older adults increases in the US, so does the need for assistive technologies and strategies that allow them to continue to live independently, decrease infection rates, and keep in touch with loved ones. 

The Business Analyst (BA) role is a crucial component of an effective agile software development team. BAs have many responsibilities ranging from managing requirements between stakeholders and the development team to gathering, analyzing and documenting user stories. 

Tech debt, or technical debt, occurs when development work accumulates after the release of a product. The name originates from the concept of financial debt, as you might take out a loan in order to reach a goal faster, but then you will need to later repay that debt. Tech debt works similarly, by cutting out certain development protocols prior to a release to help the product release move forward faster. But like debt, the missed development pieces and issues need to be resolved post-release.

User experience and user interface design are two very essential parts of digital product development. However, these key roles are often not clearly defined, and although they have overlapping skill sets, it's important that a distinction between them is made. But what are the differences between them, and why is this distinction so important? 

Healthcare has become increasingly more digitized over the past decade and it has greatly accelerated since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. This shift from more traditional healthcare practices has improved outcomes, yet the implementation of healthcare technology hasn’t met all expectations. Many practices have been met with resistance from patients as they try to navigate the technological world and leverage digital health solutions. But, why are practitioners and patients alike finding it difficult to fully integrate digital healthcare? 

Test driven development (TDD) is a software development process that’s often combined with an agile approach to development, which involves converting software requirements into automated test cases or unit tests before pieces of functioning code. This method replaces the common process of software being developed first and being tested as a separate subsequent step. 

Product Owners are the glue that holds software companies together, especially those using the Agile methodology. Their responsibilities include tracking the progress of a project from the onset, and communicating with all parts of the team in order to ensure a smooth process. Here are 4 main Product Owner responsibilities, and why they are absolutely essential to every software or tech-enabled organization. 

In 2021, the global developer talent shortage already amounted to 40M workers worldwide, which is predicted to increase to 85.2M by 2030. Companies around the world are at risk of losing huge sums of revenue due to this talent shortage. So, what’s caused such a drastic change in the tech development market? 

In 2001, something called the ‘Agile Manifesto’ was born with the intent of creating a more flexible software development process. Agile software solutions are meant to continually evolve through the use of collaboration and self-organizing, cross-functional teams. Although this methodology has been widely implemented, there are still many mixed opinions on whether the Agile approach is the most effective in all situations.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is a term that describes the “interconnection via the internet of computing devices embedded in everyday objects, enabling them to send and receive data” (Oxford Languages Dictionary). Examples range from wearable devices to smart home security systems and usually entail day-to-day things. 

Explainability is a characteristic that allows for the ‘behind the scenes’ of an AI system to be understood by a person. Artificial intelligence surrounds us in our daily lives - anything from your Google Assistant or Alexa to unlocking your smartphone with Facial Recognition can be categorized as AI. These technologies allow for the digital world to transform into something accessible and convenient, and understanding how they aid us in our everyday lives is essential.

As the technological world rapidly evolves, often certain groups of people find it difficult to keep up. This includes adults ages 65 and over, as their experiences with digital information technology can be limited. So how can we create a more inclusive digital world?