Software applications

Definitions related to software applications, including tech terms about software programs for vertical industries and words and phrases about software development, use and management.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA, ACA or Obamacare) - The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (more commonly referred to as the Affordable Care Act, ACA or Obamacare) is a healthcare law passed by Congress in 2010 during the administration of President Barack Obama.
PeopleSoft - PeopleSoft is an e-business software product line owned by Oracle.
performance management software - Performance management software is designed to improve business performance by spurring employee productivity.
perpetual software license - A perpetual software license is a type of software license that authorizes an individual to use a program indefinitely.
personal health record (PHR) - A personal health record (PHR) is an electronic summary of health information that a patient maintains control of themselves, as opposed to their healthcare provider.
pharmaceutical detailing - Pharmaceutical detailing is a 1:1 marketing technique pharmaceutical companies use to educate a physician about a vendor's products, hoping that the physician will prescribe the company's products more often.
PHI breach (protected health information breach) - A PHI breach is unauthorized access, use or disclosure of individually identifiable health information that is held or transmitted by a healthcare organization or its business associates.
Photoshop - Photoshop is an image creation, graphic design and photo editing software developed by Adobe.
point of care (POC) testing - Point of care testing (POC testing or POCT) is medical testing performed with the patient, outside of a laboratory setting.
polygenic risk score (PRS) - A polygenic risk score (PRS) is an expression of someone's likelihood of having or developing a particular medical condition.
population health management (PHM) - Population health management (PHM) is a discipline within the healthcare industry that studies and facilitates care delivery across the general population or a group of individuals.
Portable Document Format (PDF) - Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format that has captured all the elements of a printed document as an electronic image that users can view, navigate, print or forward to someone else.
PPD file (Postscript Printer Description file) - A PPD (Postscript Printer Description) file is a file that describes the font s, paper sizes, resolution, and other capabilities that are standard for a particular Postscript printer.
precision medicine (PM) - Precision medicine (PM) is a rapidly evolving development in healthcare in which physicians and other caregivers consider differences in genes, socioeconomic status and lifestyles when devising treatment regimens for patients.
predictive text - Predictive text is an input technology that facilitates typing on a device by suggesting words the user may wish to insert in a text field.
presentation software - Presentation software, also known as graphics presentation applications or presentation graphics programs, is a category of software used to create content where information is often represented in a graphical or visual way.
principle of least privilege (POLP) - The principle of least privilege (POLP) is a concept in computer security that limits users' access rights to only what is strictly required to do their jobs.
problem list - A problem list is a document that states the most important health problems facing a patient such as nontransitive illnesses or diseases, injuries suffered by the patient, and anything else that has affected the patient or is currently ongoing with the patient.
product development (new product development) - Product development -- also called new product management -- is a series of steps that includes the conceptualization, design, development and marketing of newly created or rebranded goods and services.
productivity software - Productivity software is a category of application programs that help users produce things such as documents, databases, graphs, spreadsheets and presentations.
Project Nightingale - Project Nightingale is a controversial partnership between Google and Ascension, the second largest health system in the United States.
public domain - Public domain is a designation for content that is not protected by any copyright law or other restriction and may be freely copied, shared, altered and republished by anyone.
push notification - Push notification, also called server push notification, is the delivery of information from a software application to a computing device without a specific request from the client.
R/3 - R/3 is the comprehensive set of integrated business applications from SAP, the German company that states it is the market and technology leader in business application software.
radiology information system (RIS) - A radiology information system (RIS) is a networked software system for managing medical imagery and associated data.
rapid mobile app development (RMAD) - Rapid mobile application development (RMAD) uses low-code/no-code programming tools to expedite the application creation process for mobile platforms.
reactive programming - Reactive programming is a programming paradigm, or model, that centers around the concept of reacting to changes in data and events as opposed to waiting for an event to happen.
real-time application (RTA) - A real-time application is an application program that functions within a time frame that the user senses as immediate or current.
recommendation engine - A recommendation engine is a system that gives customers recommendations based upon their behavior patterns and similarities to people who might have shared preferences.
records information management (RIM) - Records information management (RIM) is a corporate area of endeavor involving the administration of all business records through their life cycle.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) - Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) is an enterprise Linux operating system (OS) developed by Red Hat for the business market.
Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) - A Regional Health Information Organization (RHIO) is a group of organizations within a specific area that share healthcare-related information electronically according to accepted healthcare information technology (HIT) standards.
registered health information technician (RHIT) - A registered health information technician (RHIT) is a certified professional who stores and verifies the accuracy and completeness of electronic health records.
remote desktop - A remote desktop is a program or an operating system feature that allows a user to connect to a computer in another location, see that computer's desktop and interact with it as if it were local.
remote patient monitoring (RPM) - Remote patient monitoring (RPM) is a subcategory of homecare telehealth that allows patients to use mobile medical devices or technology to gather patient-generated health data (PGHD) and send it to healthcare professionals.
rendering - In 3-D graphic design, rendering is the process of add shading, color and lamination to a 2-D or 3-D wireframe in order to create life-like images on a screen.
replenishment - Replenishment is the controlled and regular movement of inventory from an upstream point on the supply chain to a downstream location that requires sufficient stock to cover demand.
request for proposal (RFP) - A request for proposal (RFP) is a document that an organization, often a government agency or large enterprise, posts to elicit a response -- a formal bid -- from potential vendors for a desired IT solution.
reseller - In information technology, a reseller is a company that typically purchases IT products or services from a product manufacturer, distributor or service provider and then markets them to customers.
RHIA (Registered Health Information Administrator) - An RHIA, or registered health information administrator, is a certified professional who oversees the creation and use of patient health information, including analyzing that data.
Rich Internet Application (RIA) - A rich Internet application (RIA) is a Web application designed to deliver the same features and functions normally associated with deskop applications.
Rich Text Format (RTF) - Rich Text Format (RTF) is a file format that lets you exchange text files between different word processors in different operating systems.
robotic process automation (RPA) - Robotic process automation (RPA) is a technology that mimics the way humans interact with software to perform high-volume, repeatable tasks.
robotic surgery (robot-assisted surgery) - Robotic surgery is the use of computer technologies working in conjunction with robot systems to perform medical procedures.
round robin - A round robin is an arrangement of choosing all elements in a group equally in some rational order, usually from the top to the bottom of a list and then starting again at the top of the list and so on.
sales force automation (SFA) - Sales force automation (SFA) software is programming that streamlines the collection, analysis and distribution of data in a sales pipeline.
SAP Business One - SAP Business One is an ERP software platform specifically intended for small and medium-sized businesses (SMBs).
SAP BW (Business Warehouse) - SAP Business Warehouse (BW) is a model-driven data warehousing product based on the SAP NetWeaver ABAP platform.
SAP ERP - SAP ERP is enterprise resource planning software developed by the company SAP SE.
SAP Integration Server - SAP Integration Server is the central component of SAP XI (Exchange Infrastructure), the company's enterprise application integration (EAI) product.
SAP NetWeaver - SAP NetWeaver is a technology platform that allows organizations to integrate data, business processes, elements and more from a variety of sources into unified SAP environments.
SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) - SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) is a category of software application program for process control, the gathering of data in real time from remote locations in order to control equipment and conditions.
screen scraping - Screen scraping is a data collection method used to gather information shown on a display to use for another purpose.
security information management (SIM) - Security information management (SIM) is the practice of collecting, monitoring and analyzing security-related data from computer logs and various other data sources.
SELinux (Security-Enhanced Linux) - SELinux, or Security-Enhanced Linux, is a part of the Linux kernel that acts as a protective agent to the operating system.
Service Data Objects (SDO) - Service Data Objects (SDO) is the name of a specification designed to streamline the processing of SOA (service-oriented architecture) data from diverse sources such as XML documents, relational databases and Web services.
seven wastes - The seven wastes are categories of unproductive manufacturing practices identified by Taiichi Ohno, the father of the Toyota Production System (TPS).
SharePoint farm - A SharePoint farm is a collection of servers that work in concert to provide a set of basic SharePoint services to support a single site.
SharePoint Online - Microsoft SharePoint Online is a collection of cloud- and web-based technologies that make it easy for organizations to store, share and manage digital information.
shareware - Shareware is software that is distributed free on a trial basis with the understanding that the user may need or want to pay for it later.
shell program - A shell program is software that provides users with an interface for accessing services in the kernel.
sideloading - Sideloading is the installation of an application on a mobile device without using the device's official application distribution method.
single pane of glass - A single pane of glass is a management console that presents data from multiple sources in a unified display.
single-tenancy - Single-tenancy is an architecture in which a single instance of a software application and supporting infrastructure serves one customer.
Six Sigma - Six Sigma is a business methodology for quality improvement that measures how many defects there are in a current process and seeks to systematically eliminate them.
skeuomorphism - Skeuomorphism is when something is designed with extra ornamentation to make it resemble another object so it is more familiar.
Slack software - Slack software is a cloud-based messaging application that enables the personnel in an organization to connect and collaborate.
smart home app (home automation app) - A smart home app, sometimes referred to as a home automation app or a smart home automation app, is an application used to remotely control and manage connected non-computing devices in the home, typically from a smartphone or tablet.
Snapchat - Snapchat is a mobile app that allows users to send and receive "self-destructing" photos and videos.
SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms) - SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -- Clinical Terms) is a standardized, multilingual vocabulary of clinical terminology that is used by physicians and other health care providers for the electronic exchange of health information.
SOA registry - An SOA registry is a resource that provides controlled access to data necessary for governance of SOA (service-oriented architecture) projects.
SOA repository - An SOA repository is a database containing the software and metadata that constitute an SOA registry.
social computing - Social computing is the collaborative and interactive nature of online behavior.
social network - A social network is a website or app that lets people connect with each other on a common platform.
soft copy - A soft copy (sometimes spelled 'softcopy') is an electronic copy (or e-copy) of some type of data, such as a file viewed on a computer's display or transmitted as an email attachment.
software - Software is a set of instructions, data or programs used to operate computers and execute specific tasks.
software agent - A software agent is a persistent, goal-oriented computer program that reacts to its environment and runs without continuous direct supervision to perform some function for an end user or another program.
Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) - Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) is software that performs a medical task without being part of a hardware device.
software audit - A software audit is an internal or external review of a software program to check its quality, progress or adherence to plans, standards and regulations.
software package - A software package is a group of programs bundled together into a product suite.
software-defined networking monitoring application (SDN monitoring application) - An SDN monitoring application is a software program that oversees the traffic in a software-defined network (SDN) as a component of network management.
spam filter - A spam filter is a program used to detect unsolicited, unwanted and virus-infected emails and prevent those messages from getting to a user's inbox.
speech analytics - Speech analytics is the process of analyzing voice recordings or live customer calls to contact centers with speech recognition software to find useful information and provide quality assurance.
SQL injection (SQLi) - A SQL injection (SQLi) is a technique that attackers use to gain unauthorized access to a web application database by adding a string of malicious code to a database query.
Squid proxy server - Squid is a Unix-based proxy server that caches Internet content closer to a requestor than its original point of origin.
stack overflow - A stack overflow is a type of buffer overflow error that occurs when a computer program tries to use more memory space in the call stack than has been allocated to that stack.
standard business reporting (SBR) - Standard business reporting (SBR) is a group of frameworks adopted by governments to promote standardization in reporting business data.
state management - Application state management is the process of maintaining knowledge of an application's inputs across multiple related data flows that form a complete business transaction -- or a session -- to understand the condition of the app at any given moment.
stateful app - A stateful app is a program that saves client data from the activities of one session for use in the next session.
stateless app - A stateless app is an application program that does not save client data generated in one session for use in the next session with that client.
static analysis (static code analysis) - Static analysis, also called static code analysis, is a method of computer program debugging that is done by examining the code without executing the program.
storage at the edge - Storage at the edge is the collective methods and technologies that capture and retain digital information at the periphery of the network, as close to the originating source as possible.
storage virtualization - Storage virtualization is the pooling of physical storage from multiple storage devices into what appears to be a single storage device -- or pool of available storage capacity.
supplier relationship management (SRM) - Supplier relationship management (SRM) is a systematic approach to evaluating and partnering with vendors that supply goods, materials and services to an organization, determining each supplier's contribution to success, and developing strategies to improve their performance.
supply chain execution (SCE) - Supply chain execution (SCE) is the flow of tasks involved in the supply chain, such as order fulfilment, procurement, warehousing and transporting.
supply chain planning (SCP) - Supply chain planning (SCP) is the process of anticipating the demand for products and planning their materials and components, production, marketing, distribution and sale.
systems integrator - A systems integrator is an individual or business that builds computing systems for clients by combining hardware, software, networking and storage products from multiple vendors.
tape backup - Tape backup is the practice of periodically copying data from a primary storage device to a tape cartridge.
team collaboration tools - Team collaboration tools -- also known as team collaboration software -- is a term used to define the different types of software and online services available to companies and individuals that enable them to feasibly work together on common projects, regardless of their physical location.
telehealth (telemedicine) - Telehealth, also referred to as telemedicine or e-medicine, is the remote delivery of healthcare services over the telecommunications infrastructure.