Everything you need to know about healthcare mobile app development

Searching causes, symptoms and solutions to a health problem?  This is the epoch of digitalisation and in a few clicks your phones will display hundreds of health applications. The outbreak of COVID-19 made people largely depend on remote consultation and telemedicine.

Who would have thought that wearables and monitoring devices would keep people away from healthcare centres and hospitals? All diagnosis and medication are available at your fingertips. Technology has so advanced that the healthcare industry is leveraging the maximum benefits.

The demand for mobile apps is skyrocketing and this revolution has attracted investors and entrepreneurs to start and endow in healthcare mobile apps. Healthcare mobile apps are bridging the gap between technologies and people who are benefited within their daily routines and needs. 

The evolution of the internet, smartphones and wearables have paved a new path in the healthcare industry called mHealth. mHealth is a concept of using mobile devices and wireless technologies for healthcare to ensure the healthiness of the people. For example, there are advanced health apps installed on mobile devices and gadgets to monitor the physical condition of a person and  guide them on how to stay fit. There are several main segments of healthcare mobile apps available in the market. Many are intended for diagnosing, monitoring, preventing, controlling and also for treating health conditions anytime anywhere with zero interruption. Medical simulators are also available in markets which have become a main component in the mHealth concept. mHealth apps are expanding and growing daily and the revenue generated by the mobile apps have gone rhapsodically. 

Why do people prefer healthcare apps? 

Nowadays smartphones and wearables act as mobile diagnostic devices. These devices especially help us to stay healthy with the help of advanced technology. The impact these technologies could make during this pandemic times is plethoric. The number of people using these smart health apps have increased immensely because people have become accustomed to using these apps to process their health data on a routine basis.

Healthcare apps and their features

Telemedicine

Healthcare apps are installed on patient’s smartphones to monitor and track health issues. This tracking will help doctors to advise and provide treatment and rehabilitation processes at home itself. Patients can communicate directly with doctors by video consultation or through direct calls. 

Knowledge Acquisition

Mobile has become one of the fastest and easiest platforms to find and browse information. With the help of healthcare apps, people are finding it very easy to search and connect with the healthcare industry, doctors and medical professionals. Doctor’s appointments and waiting at the hospital lobby has now become things of the past. With the availability of healthcare apps and wireless technologies people can connect and talk with doctors from anywhere and get prescriptions updated on their personal dashboards.

Monitoring and Tracking

Using the smartphone or smartwatch we can monitor our daily activities like heart rate, blood sugar, blood oxygen, physical activity and more, and sync it with other medical devices. The data can be shared and transferred to other devices, so that the doctors and medical professionals can track and monitor patient data anytime.

Education and Training

Healthcare mobile solutions support the work of doctors, medical professionals, medical students, and interns of medical universities. Practitioners have to keep a track of a lot of patient information and find it hard to remember all the data stored. Healthcare apps help them to filter and search and manage the patient records effectively and precisely. So it’s not just the patients who benefit from the healthcare app, the healthcare professionals also reap the benefits of such apps.

Benefits of Healthcare apps for Business Owners:

1. Increased customer loyalty by providing them the best in class experience. Users usually prefer apps which are very user friendly and easy to access the medical data. Make an appointment, view the test results and browse information online at the luxury of their homes.
2. Create a healthcare app which gel with the customers by offering features like regular notifications about services, news, promotions, special offers, and appointment reminders. This will increase customer retention and convert potential customers to loyal customers.
3. Attract new customers through app ratings and reviews in the app store.
4. Save the time of medical professionals by integrating the healthcare app with the clinic’s centralized database. Doctors can track patients’ electronic records, test results and history by reducing the time spent on paperwork and improving the quality of services.
5. Develop an app that can streamline all the glitches in the medical industry.

Apps for Patients

Healthcare apps for patients are mainly used for scheduling doctor’s appointments, fitness and well being, health management, mental well being, Telemedicine, etc. 

There are apps to:

1. Reduce anxiety, improve sleep, increase focus and stabilize mental well being.
2. Stay fit and track the amount of calories to maintain a healthy diet .
3. Maintain mental health like coping with negative emotions, happiness to enhance life quality and balance work and life to increase productivity.
4. Monitor weight and improve the overall health of its users.

Healthcare apps-Development process

1. Design the software
2. Start software development 
3. Ideate screen layout
4. Write code that logically unifies each screen
5. Provide the interface which connects the front end of the application with the backend where the data is stored. 
6. Rigorously test the app as it is an important phase in healthcare app development
7. Integrate points with other systems and services
8. Test whether data sent/received is correct or not 

Compliance to consider in developing Healthcare app

Healthcare is a vital matter to deal with, so there will be a lot of sensitive information and the audience who uses the app should trust on the safety and security of the app. The developer has to consistently work on every aspect of the app.

Safety and Privacy

Every patient’s medical data is very vital and needs to be secured and preserved. The software developed should be protected against cyber attacks and data breach. The app must comply with international and national privacy requirements and the rules of working with medical data.  

Data encryption

It should be ensured that all patient related data should be shared or transferred through encrypted channels. Developers who work on healthcare app development should ensure that they follow and comply with certain standards. All the data stored in the app should be encrypted and protected from any cyber attacks.

APIs and Integrations

To use wearable technologies the app should be integrated with other devices and tools. When these two components integrate each other the transfer of data should be consistent. 

Multiple devices and channels

Before developing an app we should think about its ROI and growth points. Will it need a website only for marketing purposes or to promote their products. If it is a healthcare app for a clinic or dispensary do we need to integrate with CRM for medical staff and professionals. We need to think over these touch points before developing the app.

Conclusion:

The statistics show some interesting facts about the mobile medical apps market worldwide. In 2017 , the total global market was valued at around 2.4 billion U.S. dollars. It is estimated that the market will grow to over 11 billion dollars by 2025.

So if you feel that it is time to develop a healthcare app, we at  Webdura are all ears!