Comprehensive Guide on Developing an Outstanding Telemedicine App!

Comprehensive Guide on Developing an Outstanding Telemedicine App!
“The global telemedicine market was valued to be 40 Billion USD in the year 2019. By the year 2026, it is expected to grow exponentially and cross 175 Billion USD”
These statistics forecasted by Statista, a renowned market research and statistics portal, indicate the soaring scope of the telemedicine apps and similar other healthcare IT services. The transformations that these digital advancements have brought in the healthcare domain are revolutionary. Especially in today’s unprecedented times of COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown situations, these solutions are all the more in demand. No wonder why several hospitals, healthcare providers, and even individual practitioners are looking forward to developing customized telemedicine apps and software solutions
If you too are here for a comprehensive knowledge of telemedicine app development like a doctor-on-demand app, this blog is for you. We have outlined the vital details required in the development process. Let’s delve into details.

What is a Telemedicine App?

Telemedicine apps, also known as telehealth apps are the tools used for the delivery of healthcare services by the providers to the patients, usually from remote locations. These healthcare apps use new-age technologies to ensure relentless communication between both parties and bridge the gap between them. These facilitate the diagnosis, assessment, and treatment of the patients without the need to be physically present at the hospital or clinic. Thus, the telemedicine apps are widely being used for remote medical assistance as people are increasingly drawn towards such advanced technologies to monitor their well-being.
Healthcare organizations or individual care providers deliver various services to the patients. Based on the services, these apps can be categorized as
  • Apps to find general physicians or specialized doctors and book appointments like doctor-on-demand.
  • Interactive apps to communicate via phone calls, video calls, etc. with care providers or physicians for consultation.
  • Smartphone-based apps to exchange health records, prescriptions, etc.
  • IoT-based apps using wearable devices or other medical devices for remote monitoring of health conditions like sugar levels, heart rate, blood pressure, etc.

Top-notch Advantages of Telemedicine App Development

Patients get instant access to all kinds of healthcare specialists without the need to travel to their clinics or hospitals as they can consult the doctor through the app itself using video/audio calls and one to one chats. Minor health issues like fever or cold can be addressed immediately using video calls and also patients can get ePrescriptions through the app. All the records are saved digitally and there isn’t the need to maintain the paper records. These apps provide them authorized permission to text the doctor and enable healthier conversations. They can easily and conveniently access these apps from any device sitting at the very comfort of their homes. It lowers the cost of traveling and saves efforts, thereby ensuring better satisfaction.

Advantages for Care Providers

Using these telemedicine solutions, care providers can simultaneously treat more patients. It enables extensive patient reach. They can remotely monitor the discharged patients’ health. These apps offer them the freedom to better manage their work leading to fewer missed appointments or cancellations. Also, these apps enhance the collaboration with colleagues on patient cases. Saved medical documents, integration with EHRs or EMRs, etc. help the doctors to monitor the patients efficiently, ensure better patient engagement, and improve decision-making.

Significant Steps to Create a Telemedicine App

  • Research about the target patients, competitors, best telemedicine apps in the market. Collect and analyze the data to plan the project with attention to detail.
  • Decide whether you want to develop an MVP or a fully-functional app and decide the features accordingly.
  • Choose the right platform, whether Android, iOS, or both and web applications according to your end-goals, target demography, budget constraints, etc.
  • Brainstorm on the right technology stack for backend development, frontend development, database, cloud environment, payment gateways, etc.
  • Choose between Custom build and SAAS (Software as a service). SAAS does not allow much customization whereas custom build can be personalized both look-wise and functionally.
  • Design the app for a captivating look and feel considering the factors like user experience, user interface design, etc. since aesthetics hold monumental importance.
  • Choose rich telemedicine API that allows integrating real-time communication like WebRTC, OpenTok, Twilio, Acuity, etc.
  • Ensure top-grade security and HIPAA Compliance for protection and privacy of sensitive medical data and personal information.
  • Once developed, test the app rigorously for final quality assurance. Make sure it works flawlessly and as planned.
  • Deploy the app live into the app stores for the target customers to download and start using it.
  • Ensure timely maintenance and upgrading of the app as per the latest trends and requirements of the patients, as they are crucial to provide better services.

Set of Crucial Features to be Incorporated

For architecting a successful telemedicine app, it is crucial to have at least the basic features in the app. So whether you decide to go with an MVP model or want a fully functional app with advanced features, we have listed important features accordingly.

Feature Set for an MVP Model

  • Appointment scheduling option for booking appointments, rescheduling, cancellations, etc.
  • Detailed profile creation
  • Communication facility through In-app chatting, audio/video calling, etc. for on-the-spot consultation with patients
  • Geolocation integration for knowledge of the address of the respective doctor, clinic or hospital
  • Multiple payment gateways for safe and secure transactions
  • Backend database i.e. cloud storage for recording communications, storing medical records, etc.

Advanced Feature Set for a Full-fledged App

  • Reviews and rating option for patients
  • Group chatting and calling functionality for doctors to collaborate with his colleagues and the patient.
  • E-Prescription module for enabling patients/doctors to access prescription of medicines and drugs remotely
  • Integration with EMR for instantly accessing accurate patient health data for better diagnosis
  • Ability to integrate with EHR using wearable devices, IoT devices, and health kits like Apple’s Healthkit and Google’s Googlefit to fetch health data and thereby get a better understanding of the patient’s condition.
  • A separate module for medical assistants to update notes, health data, etc.
  • Chatbots as a helpdesk alternative

Key Challenges Faced

While building telemedicine applications, you may face several challenges like language barriers where patients cannot communicate their health conditions correctly. Also, there could be other challenges in making the apps HIPAA complaint, implementation of UI/UX, backend integration, etc. The development team may even face some challenges while considering the scalability of the apps.
To mitigate the above challenges, businesses should consult healthcare app development companies for developing robust, secure and scalable telehealth apps.

Final Words:

For a decade or so, telemedicine app development has gained traction and has turned out to be a lucrative investment for healthcare companies and other hospital bodies. It not only ensures better hospital management, but also contributes to enriching patient experience. It also offers a competitive edge over other top players in the market.
With this, we come to the end of this article. We hope this blog was helpful. Do comment and let us know your thoughts.
For any other queries, mail us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com !

The Real Essence Of HIPAA Compliance

The Real Essence Of HIPAA Compliance
Healthcare app development company
If you are an entity in the human services area and have a portable application that bargains with verified PHI data, then chances are that you would need to be HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) agreeable.
Social insurance like hospitals, clinics, insurance agencies, etc., and even business firms who have created mHealth or EHealth applications rotating around PHI, fall under the ambit of HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act). All things considered, gathering data does not expect you to be consistent, but rather sharing the data expects you to be.
Requirement movement under the HIPAA Security Rule has gained traction lately. HIPAA compliance sets up a different degree of protection, data security, and rupture warning necessities for human services suppliers and other secured substances. In its initial HIPAA compliance requirement days, the Office for Civil Rights of the Department of Health and Human Services (OCR) for the most part centered on the HIPAA Privacy Rule, has recently imposed developing accentuation on Security Rule implementation also.

SIGNIFICANCE OF HIPAA COMPLIANCE:

HIPAA Privacy gives the patients their rights over health data and regulates who can retrieve that data. The HIPAA Privacy Rule applies to all types of people regardless of whether the communication channel is electronic, composed, or verbal.
When your application is HIPPA-compliant, it simply means that you meet the standards set by US Health & Human Services, and user data that you hold is also secured.
Most entities of Practice Management System in Healthcare IT Services that collect and share patient information are concerned about HIPAA privacy rule since non-compliance can turn out to be a costly affair.
Hospitals & companies attract a heavy fine for HIPAA violation that could even run into millions of dollars – there are several cases of hospitals being levied a heavy penalty for violations of a data breach.
HIPAA security was intended to safeguard the patient and their privacy. Each social insurance organization is required to have a consistent division, so that whenever you feel there is a consistence concern or rupture of information; you can contact the office to determine your issue.
If you are thinking about mobile application development that involves PHI data, healthcare app developers working with the providers you have engaged with, need to make sure to design HIPAA-compliant apps.

HIPAA COMPLIANCE AND POLICY:

HIPAA compliance objective was to make a lot of uniform electronic medicinal services exchange codes. Security was normally a noteworthy worry with the progressions examined in HIPAA security, and it was a testing issue, so Congress punted the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to propose controls to ensure the protection of wellbeing. HHS replied by proposing a protection control that was finalized in 2000.
If you are seeking mobile application development services already or contemplating it, you need to evaluate what levels of HIPAA compliance you need. This will depend on the PHI (data) you hold and the amount of the data you are sharing. If you are getting the app developed through a mobile application development company, then the app development company should be informed about HIPAA compliance right in the development stage because they have to work on privacy & security rules.
The health information of a patient should be protected and for which the Practise Management System (PMS) needs to be effective and systemized. If any organization is found violating the HIPAA privacy norms then they shall be heavily penalized and fined. Presently, there are many websites and apps that have incorporated a mechanized Practise Management System which enables them to store and retrieve data efficiently and more safely.
a mechanized Practise Management System which enables them to store and retrieve data efficiently and more safely.

HIPAA COMPLIANCE AND ITS JOURNEY:

In the initial years of HIPAA security, many organizations were perplexed but later on, people got familiar with it. From 2003 to 2005, there were many cases registered against lab assistants who tried to misuse the data of the patients. The number of cases kept increasing till 2008, which then led to the formation of corrective measures and actions.
With the advent of advanced technology, the gates for HIPAA policy are wide open and concrete. This will put every organization under scanner and scrutiny. As per the HHS statistics, over 274 breaching incidents took place in the year 2013. The issues related to HIPAA security keep increasing every year. With people excessively resorting to social media, the privacy of patients’ data faces threat and becomes a matter of concern. Presently, more than 2 million patients’ data is affected due to organizations posting the medical data on various social media platforms.
The Health and Human Services department intends to open up new channels of communication to control the crisis situation. Every business needs to understand and be prepared about the upcoming risks and issues related to HIPAA compliance. Organizations must also keep in mind their medical reputations and medical data. By now, it clearly depicts that HIPAA security has evolved by leaps and bounds in these years and as the technology grows so will the scope and field of HIPAA compliance to prosper. Click here to check out the cost of developing HIPAA compliant apps.

Conclusion:

HIPAA compliance brings confidence in patients because they believe that their information will be secure. Therefore, the healthcare industry has been able to see the other side of the story; it is more than just the costs.
For any technical assistance in building HIPAA compliant apps, reach out to Biz4Solutions, a distinguished Healthcare app development company, known for providing high-end software development services to the global clientele.