Lessons Learned: The Pitfalls of Using Non-Healthcare-Compliant Platforms for Telehealth Applications
Building a healthcare application is complex and requires meticulous attention to compliance standards such as HIPAA. Recently, I embarked on developing a telehealth MVP, leveraging what I believed to be compliant tools. However, my experience underscored some critical considerations regarding platform selection and data privacy.
Initially, I chose a platform called Lovable, which promised streamlined AI code generation, integrated authentication via Clerk, and database management through Supabase. It also boasted features like security scans, making it seem like an ideal solution for rapid development.
After two months of development, I was prepared to launch. Yet, upon closer inspection of their privacy policies, I discovered a significant oversight: Lovable does not include a Business Associate Agreement (BAA). This omission is crucial because, without a BAA or explicit HIPAA compliance, handling Protected Health Information (PHI) can expose organizations to legal risks. Furthermore, their policies indicated that unless you are on an enterprise plan, they reserve the right to utilize your prompts to train their AI models—potentially feeding sensitive patient scenarios into proprietary algorithms.
While the combination of Clerk and Supabase could be made HIPAA-compliant, it would require extensive manual configuration, signing separate BAAs, and becoming well-versed in compliance protocols—none of which was straightforward or feasible within my timeline. Lovable itself, by design, operates outside the protected environment necessary for handling sensitive health data.
Faced with these realities, I had no choice but to abandon my initial approach and rebuild using specialized healthcare infrastructure designed with compliance in mind. Interestingly, this experience taught me that rushing to hack compliance into non-specialized tools often slows progress rather than accelerates it.
My advice to fellow developers: tools like Lovable are excellent for prototyping and exploring ideas but should be avoided for applications that handle PHI. Transparency about compliance capabilities upfront can save valuable time and prevent legal vulnerabilities.
Has anyone else encountered similar challenges, or did I overlook something? I’d appreciate insights and shared experiences to navigate these complexities better.
