Jan 04 2024
Management

4 Stages of App Modernization to Support Healthcare’s Digital Transformation

How can health IT take a measured approach to app modernization? Follow these key focus areas.

The range and roles of applications used in healthcare continue to grow, especially as providers and patients look for improved integrations and connected digital touch points. This includes mobile apps that provide personalized health information for patients or allow providers to access data on the go. Digitally enabled care access is supporting healthcare organizations reach their communities beyond hospital walls.

However, many health systems still rely on legacy apps that may require high levels of support, do not provide needed scalability or fail to deliver measurable business outcomes. Organizations that make a commitment to addressing the burden of legacy applications see many benefits: faster development, heightened innovation and increased efficiency. By leveraging scalable infrastructure and agile development, customer satisfaction grows, and risk is reduced. The results are certainly worth the effort.

Organizations must have a clear roadmap for app modernization if they are to reap the full benefits. Consider the following four stages of app modernization to support digital transformation.

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Stage 1: Application Assessment

The first step of any endeavor is to set goals. Analyze the current applications’ code bases and evaluate them against your modernization goals. How scalable are your apps? Are they easy to maintain? Are they efficient and useful? A holistic assessment engagement can offer a big-picture overview of multiple apps and provide you with a custom plan that helps you achieve your modernization goals.

Stage 2: Cloud Migration

As apps move to the cloud, many IT leaders simply default to a familiar public cloud environment and force their apps to fit the cloud’s feature set. Rather than letting the tail wag the dog, base your decision on the cloud service provider’s ability to deliver the specific services you need. This point becomes even more important when organizations are managing their core, edge and cloud data from the cloud itself.

EXPLORE: Application modernization supports healthcare’s digital transformation.

Stage 3: Application Modernization

Now that you have a clear understanding of your modernization needs and where your apps will live, you must create cloud-ready applications that will meet your needs. This probably means using modern technologies: containers to enable seamless deployment across multiple environments, microservices to allow each core function to be built independently, artificial intelligence to mine insights from vast amounts of data, and automation to streamline deployment and diagnostics.

Stage 4: Application Optimization

Application modernization is not a one-and-done process. As with any successful initiative, app modernization must be sustained over time. Application monitoring tools can help you ensure that your modernized apps continue to align with your people, processes and governance. Make sure to track key performance indicators in an ongoing process of assessment and keep taking steps to ensure that your apps and environment continue to meet your organization’s needs.

Michael Austin/Theispot
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