Common Testing Types in Healthcare Domain Testing
Testing is the only way to ensure that the healthcare application works as required. Having outlined the user expectations from healthcare software development services, you can see there are a lot of aspects to check when working on such projects. That is why the quality assurance for medical software is usually a multi-level activity that tests an app from different angles. Below are the key types of software testing for healthcare applications.
Load & Smoke Testing
Load and smoke testing refer to the basic software testing techniques: put the developed component under some level of load (in the case of smoke testing ― under the minimal one) and document the results. Smoke testing is used at the earlier stages of development to check how a program reacts to low pressure. The actual load testing takes place later and uses more realistic or even overstated levels of workload on the product.
Data Security Testing
Data security testing ensures the timely discovery of weaknesses in the application’s codebase. Data security testing becomes even more crucial for healthcare solutions, which deal with sensitive healthcare information on a daily basis. If this step isn’t taken seriously, it may result in data losses, unauthorized users, hacker attacks, and other accidents that might discredit the application. Security QA is usually performed as a penetration test, a sort of staged attack on the app’s digital system. Other than checking the hack-proof quality of software, data security testing can also exploit it in many different ways to come up with scenarios that would help to repel an attack when needed.
Compatibility Testing
A healthcare application is expected to work smoothly on every platform and with various types of software. And it’s worth noting that the number of possible hardware and software combinations can be staggering. This is why healthcare testing helps ensure that the software is equipped to work equally well on every platform, and that’s what device testing is all about. Compatibility testing checks how a program interacts with the ecosystem it is supposed to run on, including hardware, network, operating systems, and browsers. To check an application for compatibility, QA engineers try it on all devices, with all versions of operating systems, and in all browsers that were initially picked during the project planning stage.
Integration Testing
Integration testing studies how different modules of a software system integrate with each other. Depending on the technique QA engineers choose to run integration tests ― top-down, bottom-up, functional incremental testing, sandwich testing, or big-bang one ― it can be done at different stages of development. Also, during this step, all the software modules are tested both independently and as a whole. Integration testing helps ensure that a healthcare application displays steady performance even with new units being added to the original structure.
Usability Testing
This type of testing reveals how usable and ergonomic the medical software design of a particular application is. In order to make it more effective, QA teams might run UX/UI testing twice. First time, during the design phase, to reveal the unclear steps in the interface prototype, and the second time after the product’s beta version is developed. With the finalized product version, testers usually work with a focus group to get real-life feedback.
Regression Testing
Continuous testing of healthcare applications must also check whether the latest testing efforts did not negatively affect the solution. Regression testing helps achieve clarity and confidence in the testing process. This type of testing is responsible for verifying the correct operation of the solution after a recent update, which happens regularly at any healthcare organization. There are plenty of testing tools to help with regression testing, and it’s one of the types of QA that do well with manual testing but can truly benefit from testing automation.
Localization Testing
Localization testing is essential for solutions aiming for international reach and applies to products that are aimed to be used in different regions. Since healthcare regulations can vary greatly from country (state, province, etc.) to country, this should be reflected in the application’s local version as well. This includes such aspects of the application language, integrations widely used in the region, and even marketing strategy.
Compliance Testing
Compliance testing is something that should always be included in the test plan for testing healthcare applications. This type of testing aims at making sure that the application complies with the local government regulations, which can differ greatly from region to region. If you intend to build healthcare software to be used globally, use compliance testing to ensure that you are not breaking any local laws simply due to not knowing them. For example, in the US, all healthcare applications need to be HIPAA-compliant, which means that in the US, healthcare testing requires HIPAA to be taken into account, among other things.
Automated Healthcare QA: Why and How to Automate Healthcare IT Testing
Test automation has long been one of the most vital developments in the software testing industry. Ever since QA teams started automating testing, they have been noticing a stark difference in both the process and the outcome of testing. Naturally, a task as resource-intensive as QA testing in healthcare is also a perfect fit for automation, helping solve a number of challenges and bringing additional benefits to the product stakeholders:
- Higher test coverage. Automation helps you dramatically increase test coverage, allowing you to include test cases that would often be skipped due to the lack of resources for manual testing. This helps you test more scenarios, even ones that seem unlikely at the moment.
- Faster time to market. Automating the testing process delivers results faster, which allows you to test earlier in the SDLC, detect and correct issues at a higher rate, and time your releases better to beat your competition in the market.
- Better interoperability and cross-platform compatibility. Medical software is usually designed to operate on a myriad of platforms and work together with a myriad more of medical software and hardware products, and automation helps account for more possible combinations than manual testing.
- Higher ROI of testing. Automated testing is often associated with an elevated need for resource investment, and it’s true in the early stages of automation where the team needs to set up the entire process. However, the longer automation continues, the higher the ROI of testing is going to be.
- Increased quality of products. The benefits of automated testing are too numerous to list them all in one article. But, at the end of the day, we test software to create more functional, stable, secure, and usable products, and that’s exactly what automation helps achieve.
Right now is the perfect time to invest in automated healthcare QA: despite the level of innovation that has always been present in healthcare software, the industry is still falling behind on the automation trend. Only 15% of healthcare software providers embrace automated testing, which means that whoever starts automating right now will get the upper hand, releasing better-quality software at a faster rate.