Healthcare Software Development Company

Sthenos Technologies is a US-based, EDWOSB and WOSB-certified healthcare software development company headquartered in Tysons, Virginia, with an office in North Bethesda, Maryland. We build custom healthcare software: secure web and mobile applications, AI and machine-learning systems, and cloud platforms, and we modernize legacy clinical and administrative systems. Our delivery is built to support HIPAA and to pass the security and compliance reviews healthcare organizations require. Through our partner NeoSOFT, we deliver at enterprise scale while a senior Sthenos team stays accountable on every engagement.

Custom healthcare software development services

Patient and provider web apps: secure portals, dashboards, and workflow tools for clinical and administrative teams.
Healthcare mobile apps: native and cross-platform apps for patients, providers, and field staff, integrated with your systems.
AI and machine learning: predictive models, document and image processing, and AI assistants, engineered for production and clinical-grade reliability.
Cloud and data platforms: architecture, migration, and data pipelines built to support HIPAA, on AWS, Azure, and Google Cloud.
Interoperability and integrations: connecting to EHR, scheduling, billing, and other systems, with attention to standards such as HL7 and FHIR.
Legacy modernization: re-platforming aging clinical and administrative software while preserving data integrity and compliance.

Built to pass a healthcare security review

Healthcare software fails when security and compliance are an afterthought. We build them in: access controls and audit logging, encryption in transit and at rest, a documented SDLC, and architecture designed to support HIPAA and your customers’ security questionnaires. We work with your compliance and IT teams rather than around them.

From prototype to production-ready

Many healthcare teams now build a working prototype, sometimes with AI tools, then stall before launch because production in healthcare means security, privacy, and reliability that a demo never had. We take prototypes, including AI-built ones, from proof of concept to secure, scalable, monitored production, with the compliance controls healthcare buyers require.

Who we build healthcare software for

Health systems and provider groups: clinical and operational tools that fit real workflows.
Digital health and healthtech companies: senior engineering capacity to build and scale a product.
Payers and administrators: secure, auditable systems for claims, eligibility, and member data.
Government health agencies: as an EDWOSB small business (NAICS 541511, active on SAM.gov), we support federal, state, and local health programs.

Why healthcare teams choose Sthenos

Senior, accountable team: a senior Sthenos lead owns your engagement, not a rotating bench.
Security and compliance first: we build to support HIPAA and to pass customer and regulator security reviews.
Boutique focus, enterprise scale: through our partner NeoSOFT we can scale a team quickly while keeping that accountability in front.
EDWOSB and WOSB certified: a certified small business for agencies and primes with set-aside and supplier-diversity goals.

Healthcare software development FAQs

What is healthcare software development?

Healthcare software development is the design and building of software for healthcare organizations, such as patient portals, clinical and administrative tools, healthcare mobile apps, and data platforms, built to support privacy and security requirements like HIPAA.

Is your software HIPAA compliant?

We build software to support HIPAA: access controls, audit logging, encryption, and a documented development process, designed to pass your security and compliance reviews. HIPAA compliance is a shared responsibility across your organization, hosting, and operations, and we engineer our part to support it.

Do you build custom healthcare software for government health agencies?

Yes. Sthenos is an EDWOSB and WOSB-certified US firm (NAICS 541511, active on SAM.gov) that builds and modernizes custom software for federal, state, and local health programs.

Can you integrate with our EHR and other systems?

Yes. We build integrations to EHR, scheduling, billing, and other systems, with attention to healthcare standards such as HL7 and FHIR.

Can you take an AI-built healthcare prototype to production?

Yes. Moving prototypes, including AI-built ones, from proof of concept to secure, monitored production built to support HIPAA is a core focus for us.

Two things decide a healthcare build before the first sprint: the interoperability standards the systems on the other side already speak, and the regulations in scope beyond HIPAA. Every name below links to what it covers, who publishes it and where it lands in a build.

SBA certificationsWOSB and EDWOSB

Active 5 March 2026 to 5 March 2029.

Primary NAICS541511

Active on SAM.gov.

HeadquartersTysons, VA

With an office in North Bethesda, Maryland.

AccountabilityA senior lead

A senior Sthenos lead owns your engagement, not a rotating bench.

On this page

The interoperability standards we name
The regulations that decide the architecture
Compliance built in, compared with retrofitted
How healthcare app development runs
Healthcare software development cost
What you receive
What to ask any custom healthcare software developer
The Sthenos services a healthcare programme draws on
More about healthcare software

The interoperability standards we name, and where each one lands

Each name links to what it covers, who publishes it and where it shows up in a build, on our healthcare software development services page.

HL7 v2admissions, orders and results messaging through an interface engine.

FHIR R4modern APIs, patient facing applications and EHR app registration.

USCDIthe data classes to name in a data contract rather than describe in prose.

C-CDAreferral, discharge and transition of care documents.

DICOMimaging archives, viewers and any workflow with a study attached.

X12 837claim and encounter submission from providers to payers.

X12 835remittance advice, payment posting and reconciliation.

ICD-10diagnosis and inpatient procedure coding, and most downstream analytics.

CPToutpatient procedure coding and every charge capture screen.

SNOMED CTproblem lists and clinical documentation queried by meaning, not by string.

LOINClabs and vitals, so one test means the same thing from two sending systems.

RxNormmedication lists, allergy and interaction checking, reconciliation across systems.

NCPDP SCRIPTelectronic prescribing, renewals, cancellations and their responses.

eCQMsquality reporting, and the fields it forces you to capture correctly.

Figure 1. Where each standard lands in a build

The five stages the standards catalogue tags, with the standards that land in each. A standard appears in two columns where the catalogue tags it twice. Source: the standards table on our healthcare software development services page, where every entry carries its publisher and the page that was read.

The regulations that decide the architecture

HIPAA is the one everybody names, and it is rarely the only one in scope. Each rule below is set out with its source and who it binds.

Rule	What it reaches, and where it is set out
HITECH Act of 2009	Breach notification, on a clock that starts at discovery.
42 CFR Part 2	Substance use disorder records, under a stricter consent model than HIPAA.
21st Century Cures Act information blocking rule	Export, access and API behaviour as a compliance surface.
FDA 21 CFR Part 820	The quality management system regulation for finished device manufacturers.
Software as a Medical Device	The question that decides the regulatory pathway, and therefore the plan.
FDA 21 CFR Part 11	Electronic records and signatures in life sciences and clinical trial systems.
CCPA	Consumer privacy rights where the product is not a covered entity.

Compliance built in, compared with retrofitted

Each control a compliance-ready build includes is cheap to build in and expensive to add later. The four below are from the table on our healthcare software development services page, in its own words.

Built in from the start

What it means in the code

Access control: role and purpose-of-use checks on every route, enforced centrally.
Audit logging: who saw which record, when, and why, in a store nobody can quietly edit.
Encryption: in transit and at rest, with keys managed outside the application.
Data retention: rules per data class, and deletion that reaches every copy including backups.

Retrofitted later

What it costs then

Retrofitting authorisation across an existing API is close to a rewrite.
You cannot reconstruct history you never recorded.
Key rotation designed in later means downtime.
Deletion requests are the hardest thing to bolt on.

How healthcare app development runs, step by step

The four steps below put in order what this page, our healthcare software development services page and the contact section at the foot of this page already say happens.

Call and discoveryA call at your convenience, then a short, bounded discovery. Whether the software could be a medical device is settled first, because it decides the regulatory pathway and therefore the plan.
Access and dataIntegration access is requested rather than built, so the request starts before the project does, and the source data is profiled before anyone sizes the cleanup.
Roadmap, then sprintsA costed roadmap before we commit to a build, then working software every two weeks, with access control, audit logging, encryption and retention rules built in.
Review and go-liveThe other side's security review, clinical validation for anything used in a consultation, and go-live in the hospital's change window.

Healthcare software development cost: what drives it

Our rates are $150 to $250 per hour, depending on the seniority and mix of the team, and a typical project runs $50,000 to $200,000. We will not publish a price for a build we have not scoped, because the same feature list costs different amounts in two different hospitals. What moves the number falls into three groups.

Published hourly rate band $150 to $250

$0$250 per hour

Core scope

The number of user roles and how far apart they are, whether purpose of use has to be enforced and not just role, how much of the workflow is clinical, and whether the software could be a medical device.

Integration

The number of systems and who controls each one, which standard each interface actually speaks, how much terminology mapping is in scope, and data migration.

Operational

Environment count and separation, retention and deletion, the evidence an auditor asks for, and who supports it afterwards.

Each driver is explained, with what it changes, on our healthcare software development services page.

What you receive

None of it is an attestation. It is the material your own audit stands on, and it comes out of the build rather than being assembled for a questionnaire.

A costed roadmap before we commit to a build.
Working software every two weeks.
The access control model, written down: which roles and purposes of use reach which routes.
The audit log and its design: who saw which record, when, and why.
The encryption arrangement: in transit and at rest, keys managed outside the application.
The retention and deletion rules, per data class, with deletion reaching backups.
Data lineage you can show an auditor, on the de-identified healthcare analytics and research datasets we build.
The repository and the cloud accounts, in your name from the first commit.

What to ask any custom healthcare software developer

Five questions to put to every developer you are comparing, us included. The comparison behind them is on our healthcare software development services page.

Axis	Ask this	Why the answer separates vendors
Certification	Which certifications are audited and which are self-declared	Then ask for the report date.
Integration	What they have integrated with, by name and version	Epic experience and a completed Epic App Orchard review are different claims.
People	Who on the team has worked under a BAA before	Handling PHI is a habit, not a policy document.
Deletion	How they handle a deletion request	Watch whether backups come up unprompted.
Location	Where the engineers physically are	Data residency and BAA coverage both depend on it.

The Sthenos services a healthcare programme draws on

A healthcare build is rarely one service. These are the ones already sold on this site, each linked to the page that describes it, so you can see what is in scope before the first call.

If the gap is people rather than a project, and you would rather hire software developers into your own team, that is our staff augmentation service: engineers who join your team and work under your direction.

Where this is set out in full. Every standard and every rule above links into the catalogue on our healthcare software development services page, where each entry carries its publisher, the wording taken from that publisher, and where it lands in a build.