We build telemedicine apps, EHR and EMR systems, hospital management software and patient portals with HIPAA-aligned practices.
Healthcare software is held to a higher bar than ordinary apps. Patient data carries legal duties around privacy, access and audit, and your system has to exchange records with EHRs, labs and pharmacies instead of trapping them. We build encryption, role-based access, audit trails and HL7 or FHIR interoperability into the product from the first sprint, with the scope agreed up front and the source code yours on delivery. See what a build costs in our custom software development cost guide.
What every build includes
Healthcare software development is building the systems clinics, hospitals and health startups use to treat patients and run operations, such as telemedicine, EHR and EMR, hospital management and patient apps. It differs from ordinary software because patient data demands encryption, strict access control, audit logging and HL7 or FHIR interoperability. Timeline Digital builds these systems with HIPAA-aligned practices end to end. Healthcare builds typically start around $50,000, and you own the full source code on delivery.
Most requests fall into four product types, and each one carries its own clinical workflow and compliance load. Telemedicine apps connect a patient and a clinician over secure video, with scheduling, intake forms, consent capture and notes that flow into the record. EHR and EMR systems are the clinical record itself: charting, problem lists, medications, orders and results, where the audit trail and access rules matter as much as the screens.
Hospital management systems run the operational side, covering admissions, bed and ward management, pharmacy, billing and reporting across departments, so they need to talk to the clinical record rather than duplicate it. Patient portals and companion apps give people their own results, appointments, messages and prescription refills, which raises the bar on identity verification and on keeping one patient from ever seeing another patient data. We build all four, and we design the interfaces between them up front so the data moves cleanly.
Security in healthcare software is a set of specific controls, not a marketing line. We encrypt protected health information at rest and in transit, encrypt sensitive fields individually where regulation calls for it, and enforce a role and tenant check on every endpoint before any record is returned. Every view and every change to a record is written to an immutable audit trail, so you can answer who saw what and when. Logins use multi-factor authentication, and we host under a Business Associate Agreement on AWS or Azure with encrypted, access-logged backups.
Interoperability is the other half. We build FHIR R4 REST interfaces for modern integrations and HL7 v2 messaging where older hospital systems require it, so your product exchanges records, lab results, orders and appointments with EHRs, labs and pharmacies. We treat HIPAA as a set of practices we build to and document for your compliance team, not a certification we claim. The legal compliance status sits with you as the covered entity, and we give you the controls and the evidence to stand behind it.
Four phases. Compliance tracked alongside features, with a working demo at the end of every sprint.
We sit with your clinical and operations leads to map the real workflow, the data you store, and who is allowed to see it. We document the PHI you handle, the access roles, the audit needs and the HIPAA-aligned controls each part requires, then agree the scope and the data model in writing before any feature is built.
A clickable prototype of the core flows, charting, scheduling or patient intake, reviewed by the people who will actually use it. Catching a missing consent step or a wrong order of fields here is far cheaper than after a doctor is mid-shift.
Two-week sprints with a working demo at the end of each. Encryption, role-based access and audit logging are built into every feature as it lands, not bolted on later. HL7 or FHIR interfaces, e-prescribing and lab links get built in priority order with your feedback after every sprint.
Penetration testing, access-control review, load testing and a HIPAA-aligned controls checklist, then a staged rollout. You receive the full source code, the deployment, the audit logs and a handover so your team and your compliance officer can run and account for it.
Next.js and React with TypeScript. One codebase serves the patient portal, the clinician dashboard and the public site, with accessibility built in so screen-reader and keyboard use are not an afterthought.
ASP.NET Core or NestJS for the clinical core, where strong typing and clear module boundaries reduce the chance of a bug touching patient data. Every endpoint checks the role and tenant before it returns anything.
PostgreSQL or SQL Server with encryption at rest and TLS in transit. PHI columns are encrypted at the field level where regulation calls for it, and backups are encrypted and access-logged.
Role-based access for doctors, nurses, admins and patients, SSO, multi-factor login and an immutable audit trail that records who viewed or changed each record. This is the core of HIPAA-aligned accountability.
HL7 v2 and FHIR R4 interfaces so your system exchanges records, lab results and orders with EHRs, labs and pharmacies instead of trapping data in one silo.
Hosted on AWS or Azure under a signed Business Associate Agreement, with CI/CD, encrypted backups, error tracking and uptime monitoring. The environment is built to pass a security review, not just to run.
WebRTC video with waiting rooms, recording controls and a documented data path, so a consult stays private and the session metadata is logged for compliance.
A senior team that has shipped regulated software: full-stack engineers, a healthcare-focused designer, QA and a delivery lead who tracks the compliance checklist alongside the feature list.
Fixed scope, fixed quote. You own the source code on delivery.
| Product | What it includes | Typical range | Timeline |
|---|---|---|---|
| Telemedicine or patient-app MVP | Scheduling, secure video, intake, consent, basic notes | $50,000 to $80,000 | 16 to 20 weeks |
| Hospital management system | Admissions, billing, pharmacy, reporting, role-based access | $80,000 to $150,000 | 6 to 9 months |
| Custom EHR or EMR | Charting, e-prescribing, HL7 or FHIR interfaces, audit trail | $120,000 and up | 8 months and up |
Ranges depend on the number of clinical workflows, the integrations required and the depth of the compliance review. Tell us your scope and we will give a fixed quote.
A healthcare software development company builds the digital systems clinics, hospitals and health startups use to treat patients and run operations, such as telemedicine apps, electronic health records, hospital management systems and patient portals. The work differs from ordinary software because protected health information carries legal duties around privacy, access control and audit. Timeline Digital builds these systems with HIPAA-aligned practices and HL7 or FHIR interoperability, from scoping through launch.
HIPAA-ready means the software is built with the technical safeguards HIPAA requires: encryption at rest and in transit, role-based access, multi-factor login, an immutable audit trail and a signed Business Associate Agreement with the hosting provider. HIPAA is a US law that organizations comply with, not a stamp a product gets certified with. We build to those controls and document them so your compliance officer can account for every safeguard, but the legal compliance status rests with you as the covered entity.
A focused telemedicine app with scheduling, secure video and basic charting takes about 16 to 20 weeks with a senior team. A fuller EHR or hospital management build with multiple modules, e-prescribing and HL7 or FHIR links runs longer, commonly 6 to 9 months, because each clinical workflow and interface needs its own design, build and security review. We agree the scope in writing first so the timeline reflects the real workflow, not a guess.
Healthcare builds start higher than ordinary apps because security, audit and interoperability are not optional. A focused telemedicine or patient-app MVP typically starts around $50,000. A hospital management system or a custom EHR with several modules, HL7 or FHIR interfaces and e-prescribing runs from $80,000 into the low hundreds of thousands. We give a fixed quote against an agreed clinical scope, and you own the source code on delivery.
HL7 and FHIR are the standards healthcare systems use to share records, lab results, orders and appointments with each other. You need them if your product has to exchange data with hospital EHRs, labs, pharmacies or insurers, which is most serious healthcare software. We build FHIR R4 REST interfaces for modern integrations and HL7 v2 messaging where older hospital systems require it, so your product reads and writes clinical data instead of locking it in a silo.
Security is built into each feature as it is written, not added at the end. We encrypt PHI at rest and in transit, enforce role and tenant checks on every endpoint, log who views or changes each record, and use synthetic test data instead of real patient data in development. Before launch we run penetration testing and an access-control review against a HIPAA-aligned checklist, and host under a Business Associate Agreement on AWS or Azure.
Bring us the clinical workflow and the patient data you handle. We will map the compliance controls, agree a fixed scope, and have a secured working demo in front of you within the first few sprints. You own the code, the audit logs and the deployment, start to finish.