Working in healthcare or pharma means you know complexity.
Whether it’s managing sensitive data, coordinating care across departments or keeping up with ever changing compliance and regulations.
As the pressure to modernise grows so does the need for innovative tools to help you keep up.
Microsoft Power Apps is the solution that’s making this possible. It’s transforming healthcare by enabling providers to enhance patient engagement, improve operational efficiency, and maintain data security.
It’s enabling healthcare providers, researchers and pharma companies to build custom apps that solve real world problems without needing to write code.
Whether it’s improving staff efficiency, supporting remote patient care or driving better data use – Power Apps is proving digital transformation doesn’t have to be slow or expensive.
It can be fast, collaborative and most importantly impactful.
Additionally, Power Apps helps healthcare staff improve communication and collaboration, manage appointments efficiently, and enhance patient outcomes.
This blog post will explore what Power Apps is, how it’s helping healthcare professionals and why it’s becoming the go-to solution for innovation in one of the world’s most important industries.
Introduction to Microsoft Dynamics 365 Power Apps
Microsoft Power Apps is a low-code platform that enables healthcare providers to build custom applications with minimal coding knowledge.
As a key component of the Microsoft’s Power Platform, Power Apps offers a range of tools for building, deploying, and managing custom applications, making it an invaluable asset for the healthcare industry.
The platform is designed to help healthcare providers streamline their operations, improve patient care, and enhance overall patient outcomes.
With Power Apps, healthcare providers can create a wide range of applications, from simple patient intake forms to complex electronic health records systems.
The user-friendly interface and a variety of pre-built templates and connectors make it easy for healthcare providers to get started with app development.
One of the standout features of Power Apps is its high level of customization.
Healthcare providers can tailor their applications to meet their specific needs and workflows, ensuring that the solutions they create are perfectly aligned with their operational requirements.
Additionally, Power Apps provides seamless integration with existing healthcare systems, including electronic health records systems and practice management systems, allowing for a smooth transition and enhanced functionality.
With Power Apps, healthcare providers can create innovative solutions that improve patient engagement, streamline clinical workflows, and enhance operational efficiency.
The platform’s low-code nature enables healthcare professionals to develop custom applications quickly and cost-effectively, transforming the way they deliver care and manage their operations.
What is Microsoft PowerApps?
PowerApps is a low-code development solution part of Microsoft’s Power Platform.
It provides capabilities to build custom business applications without the need for extensive coding knowledge.
It’s designed for speed, flexibility and integrations – so teams can quickly create tailored solutions that fit their needs and connect to other applications in the Microsoft ecosystem such as Teams, Office365, SharePoint, Dynamics 365 and hundreds of third-party connectors for external systems.
Power Apps utilizes a well-defined data model to build robust applications, ensuring structured solutions for healthcare providers.
Apps built with Power Apps can run on mobile devices, tablets or desktops and can be customised to meet specific needs such as tracking lab samples, managing clinical trials or digitising patient intake forms.
Model driven apps enable the creation of structured applications focused on data models and business processes, ideal for complex healthcare solutions.
The beauty of this solution is the low-code nature. It enables healthcare professionals and IT teams to work together more closely, bring ideas to life faster and more cost effectively.
How can PowerApps help the Healthcare Industry?
The healthcare industry operates under multiple layers of regulatory and compliance requirements, data sensitivity and the need to protect patient safety and confidentiality at every stage of care delivery.
Microsoft PowerApps offers practical solutions to these challenges by enabling understanding through Power Platform Licensing: An Overview:
- Digitalising paper-based processes
- Better communication and collaboration
- Custom workflows for research or trials
- Integrated analytical dashboards for data driven decision making
- Patient engagement
- Automating administrative tasks to enhance operational efficiency and reduce manual errors
Power Apps improves patient satisfaction by streamlining appointment scheduling and patient monitoring, reducing wait times, and ensuring timely, personalized care.
Additionally, Power Apps enhances healthcare operations by streamlining various aspects of healthcare delivery and management, leading to improved patient outcomes and operational efficiency.
Microsoft Ecosystem
One of the key strengths of Power Apps is its seamless integration with the wider Microsoft ecosystem.
This makes it a great fit for healthcare organisations already using tools like Microsoft 365, Teams, SharePoint or Dynamics 365.
Additionally, Power Apps integrates seamlessly with existing systems, allowing healthcare providers to optimize processes and improve patient care through customizable applications.
Applications built with Power Apps can be embedded directly into familiar platforms like Teams so staff can access key tools such as patient logs or resource requests without having to switch systems.
Integration with SharePoint and OneDrive means secure, mobile access to forms and documents and Microsoft Dataverse brings data together in one place for better decision making.
Power Automate enhances integration with tools like Power Apps and Dynamics 365, streamlining data flow and operational efficiency in healthcare settings.
Backed by Microsoft’s enterprise-grade security and compliance this level of integration helps healthcare providers work more efficiently, collaborate more effectively and maintain full control over sensitive information.
Enhancing Data Accessibility
Power Apps provides healthcare providers with a range of tools for enhancing data accessibility and streamlining data management.
The platform allows healthcare providers to build custom applications that offer easy access to patient data, medical records, and other critical information, ensuring that healthcare teams have the information they need at their fingertips.
One of the key advantages of Power Apps is its ability to integrate seamlessly with existing healthcare systems, including electronic health records systems and practice management systems.
This integration allows healthcare providers to create customized applications that provide real-time access to patient data, enabling more informed decision-making and improved patient care.
In addition to data accessibility, Power Apps offers a range of tools for data analysis and visualization.
These tools allow healthcare providers to gain insights into patient outcomes and identify areas for improvement, ultimately leading to better health outcomes.
The platform is designed to meet the unique needs of healthcare providers, with features that enhance data security and compliance, ensuring that patient information is protected at all times.
Power Apps also provides a variety of pre-built templates and connectors, making it easy for healthcare providers to get started with app development.
With these resources, healthcare providers can create innovative solutions that improve data accessibility, streamline clinical workflows, and enhance operational efficiency.
By leveraging the power of Power Apps, healthcare providers can transform their operations and deliver better care to their patients.
PowerApps benefits for healthcare
PowerApps brings strategic and operational benefits for healthcare and pharma organisations:
1. Faster development cycles: Prototypes and live apps can be built and deployed in days not months.
2. Cost-effective: Reduces the need for bespoke software development.
3. Flexibility and scalability: Apps can evolve as needs change without having to start from scratch.
4. Data integration and visibility: Helps consolidate data from different systems into one place for better transparency and decision making. Power Apps helps generate actionable insights through data analysis, aiding healthcare providers in making informed, data-driven decisions.
5. Compliance-ready environments: Strong built-in data security and governance features to help organisations meet regulatory standards like GDPR and HIPAA. The importance of data driven decisions in enhancing healthcare delivery and operational efficiency is facilitated by the integration of various Microsoft tools.
Ultimately Power Apps enables healthcare providers and pharma teams to be more agile, responsive and patient focused without compromising on quality or compliance.
PowerApps use cases
Now we’ve seen how Power Apps can benefit the pharma sector lets look at some examples of how it can be used in real life scenarios.
1. Clinical trial management
Power Apps can streamline clinical trial administration by helping teams track participants, manage consent forms and monitor data collection in real time.
Custom apps can be built to log trial progress, flag deviations and ensure regulatory compliance across trial sites.
2. Sample tracking and inventory control
Pharmaceutical labs deal with high volumes of samples that need to be labelled, tracked and stored.
Power Apps enables real-time inventory management, helping teams monitor stock levels, expiry dates and sample locations through a mobile friendly interface that integrates with existing lab systems.
3. Quality assurance and incident reporting
Quality standards are crucial in pharma manufacturing. Power Apps can be used to log deviations, track corrective actions and manage audits in a structured digital format.
These apps replace paper based processes and ensure records are easy to access, share and update.
4. Equipment maintenance scheduling
Production and research equipment needs regular servicing and calibration.
Power Apps allows teams to create maintenance schedules, log service activity and receive alerts when equipment is due for checks reducing downtime and compliance with industry standards.
5. Field sales support
For commercial teams Power Apps can provide field reps with mobile access to up-to-date product information, sales data and customer histories so they can have more informed, productive conversations with healthcare providers.
6. Patient appointments management
Power Apps can manage patient appointments through automated scheduling systems, reducing human error and enhancing patient access.
Tailored applications can optimize appointment management, creating a more efficient healthcare workflow and significantly improving the overall patient experience.
7. Remote monitoring
Power Apps plays a crucial role in the remote monitoring of patients, particularly for managing chronic diseases and improving patient engagement.
Customized solutions facilitate efficient tracking of patient health and enhance communication channels in medical settings.
8. Virtual consultations
Power Apps facilitates virtual consultations, supporting remote healthcare services.
This is particularly beneficial for rural or underserved areas where healthcare access is challenging, ensuring patients receive timely and effective care.
PowerApps impact in healthcare
One of the most notable examples of the Power Platform impact in healthcare comes from the Surrey and Borders Partnership NHS Foundation Trust.
The Trust built over 30 custom solutions using Power Platform including a flu vaccination app that helped boost staff vaccination rates from under 50% to over 90%.
This shift not only improved workforce health during critical periods but also reduced the administrative burden on clinical teams.
Additionally, the use of Power Apps led to improved health outcomes by enabling continuous tracking of patients’ health metrics and facilitating timely interventions.
Similarly the Berkshire Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust introduced a Power App to digitise their patient referral process.
By automating what was once a 20 minute manual task the app brought that time down to just over 2 minutes saving the equivalent of 226 working days per year.
That’s time that can be redirected back into patient care.
Furthermore, Power Apps contributed to streamlining healthcare operations, enhancing patient care delivery and managing daily operations more efficiently.
Microsoft and NHS England: A national partnership
In 2024 NHS England awarded a major contract to expand the use of Microsoft’s Power Platform across the health service further cementing its place in the NHS’s digital strategy.
This partnership announced by Microsoft partner DigPacks will enable teams across multiple NHS Trusts to rapidly develop, deploy and scale their own low-code solutions.
This collaboration is revolutionizing the healthcare sector by implementing tailored applications that improve patient management and streamline processes.
The programme focuses on three strategic goals:
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Improve operational efficiency
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Reduce reliance on legacy systems
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Enable frontline staff to participate directly in shaping digital tools. Healthcare organizations are leveraging Power Apps to create customized applications that automate tasks, gather real-time patient feedback, and improve overall efficiency.
Ready to get started with Power Apps?
At Mercurius IT we help healthcare and pharma businesses transform the way they work with secure, scalable low-code solutions using Microsoft Power Platform.
Whether you’re looking to digitise manual processes, improve patient care or enhance operational efficiency our team can help you get started with practical, strategic guidance.
Power Apps offers healthcare solutions that improve efficiency and patient care through customized digital tools. Get in touch
Power Apps is a powerful tool that enables businesses to create custom applications tailored to their specific needs.
It plays a crucial role in workflow management by automating and streamlining various business processes, thereby enhancing overall workflow efficiency.
Our experts can guide you through the process of leveraging Power Apps to meet your unique business requirements.
