Healthcare, Page 17 Category

The digital revolution has gifted the healthcare industry with pioneering healthcare app solutions that have transformed its functioning altogether. Owing to their innumerable advantages, Healthcare Mobile Apps have been widely adopted by practitioners, patients, medical facilities, and insurance providers.

Here are some numbers concerning the market size of these healthcare apps:

This humongous demand for mHealth apps indicates that the Healthcare Mobile App Development market is booming with opportunities for businesses enterprises.

But, designing a flawless medical app solution that delivers a rich UX is no cakewalk. So, this post is meant for those who want to leverage this opportunity and create a healthcare app solution. The post enlists the key categories of healthcare mobile apps as well as the most effective strategies to implement during the entire app development process right from app ideation to monetization post-launch.

Healthcare mobile apps come in various categories. The noteworthy ones are as follows.

This category of mHealth apps come with the following functionalities:

These apps are integrated with wearable devices and EHR (Electronic Health Records) for real-time monitoring of medical conditions- tracking parameters like heart rate, identifying health risks in patients, electronic fetal monitoring for patients in labor (EFM), etc. Healthcare app developers often use machine learning techniques for pattern recognition when designing risk assessment apps.

Telemedicine apps commonly known as “doctor-on-demand” provide patients the convenience of receiving doctor consultations as well as treatment from the comfort of their homes or offices. Patients can choose from a wide range of practitioners, book appointments, attend the consultation session via video conferencing, and make payments using an integrated payment gateway. Some special features of telemedicine apps include:

Such applications keep doctors informed about the most recent healthcare information concerning diseases, medical conditions, symptoms about diseases, medications, etc.

These apps facilitate communication with clinical specialists in a healthcare facility and thereby improve the process of clinical decision-making. The features include messaging, voice chatting, file sharing, and maintaining EHR systems. Some examples are sending PACS and Lab results to doctors, EHR integration for editing patients’ records in real-time, and storing files on a cloud-based platform like AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, etc.

These apps are a blend of daily tips on healthcare and fitness, diet, nutrition, exercises, and training/courses for improving an individual’s well-being and state of mind. These apps also track sleep patterns and assist in practicing mindfulness.

The mobile app market is flooded with various outstanding solutions. Therefore, the healthcare app you have envisioned wouldn’t taste success unless it has a unique selling point. For this reason, you need to:

Having a word with the stakeholders of the healthcare industry such as doctors, patients, nurses, paramedical staff, etc. will provide insights on creating an end-product that is effective, practically handy, and genuinely helpful.

The following perplexing questions should pop up before you commence the development process.

Well, before you decide on the ideal blend of touch-points for your app, you must consider certain factors. We are living in an omnichannel world wherein digital users do not interact with an organization using only one channel, and so adopting a multi-touch-point strategy will work.

However, your touch-point strategy depends upon the preferences of your targeted audience as well. This is because the preferences of users belonging to different age groups are not the same. For instance, elderly consumers mostly prefer either a tablet or a website, whereas the youngsters are likely to interact with your healthcare solution using a mobile app and voice assistants like Google Home Skill or Alexa.

Another crucial decision is choosing the right approach – “Whether to create a full-fledged app at one go or build an MVP first and then gradually add features through updated versions?” Developing a feature-packed healthcare app may sound like a lucrative option, but for expediting the success of the app, the MVP-first approach is good to go with.

An MVP refers to the most basic version including all the essential features. The MVP-first approach is profitable because it speeds up the time-to-market. Furthermore, you get an opportunity to validate your app idea and can utilize user feedback to add the right set of features incrementally, thereby adding value to your product.

For promoting interoperability, it is necessary to integrate your app with EMRs and EHRs. Additionally, integration with fitness and healthcare wearables and utilization of AI algorithms for obtaining actionable and insightful inferences based on the collected data works wonders for optimizing healthcare outcomes. For this reason, you must ensure whether the corresponding APIs are available for commercial usage and if there is any need to open source your code after you use them.

For making your healthcare app HIPAA compliant, you need to adhere to the HIPAA Privacy Rule and the HIPAA Security Rule.

HIPAA Privacy Rule sets national standards in the United States for protecting the health records of individuals as well as their personal healthcare information including medical clearinghouses, health plans, etc., and the medical providers conducting healthcare transactions electronically. This rule limits the usage and disclosure of patient information without their authorization, provides patients the right to obtain a copy of their medical data and request corrections, etc.

As per the HIPAA Security Rule, apt technical, physical, and administrative standards have to be maintained for ensuring the security, confidentiality, and integrity of electronic medical data.

HITECH, the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act, mandates the adoption and meaningful utilization of health information technology in mHealth apps. It addresses the safety and privacy concerns related to the electronic submission of medical information and facilitates the civil and criminal enforcement of HIPAA regulations.

Healthcare apps require rigorous testing to ensure the creation of an impeccable end-product. This is because the bar for accuracy, quality, safety, and security is considerably high; and your app must conform to the highest standards of quality assurance before you publish it on the app store. Check out the standardized testing approach all medical app testers need to follow.

Take a look at the commonest app monetizing strategies.

I hope this post has enlightened you about the key areas you need to watch out for while developing a disruptive healthcare mobile app. Contact us for further queries.

If you have already built a fully functional Healthcare application, let us know your experiences in the comments section below.

The trend of delivering healthcare solutions via a Mobile Healthcare App is garnering popularity and recognition at a fast pace! Medical facilities, as well as providers, are heavily investing in healthcare app solutions to enhance the service quality and encourage the approach of patients’ self-management. These solutions usher in immense benefits like timely medical aid regardless of the patients’ location, reduced errors concerning diagnoses and treatment, improved doctor-patient communication, lesser medical expenses, and many more.

Yet, it has been observed that the adoption rate of healthcare apps is lower than expected despite the availability of endless options. The reason is simple. Most apps fail to satisfy the expectations of the end-users. So, before you proceed to hire a Healthcare App Development Company for crafting that perfect app for you, you must be aware of what features your target customers are looking for. Now, the million-dollar question is, “What do patients expect from a healthcare app?” Well, my write-up answers it all.

This blog throws light on the consumer expectations from a healthcare app and also provides guidance on the essential features to include in a patient-centric healthcare app.

Patients using a healthcare application generally prefer the following features:

Patients using healthcare applications belong to various demographics and so we cannot expect every one of them to be tech-savvy. For this reason, your app must involve an easy login procedure, preferably through a single ID card or a Google account. Its functioning should be such that the users receive the maximum output of healthcare information by providing minimum or precise inputs. An audio-based patient compliant portal will be a perfect example in this case.

If the first page of your app asks for too many details, the users are reluctant to survey further. Therefore, it is important to devise progressive reduction methodologies for integrating information and sections so that the patients’ contribution gets reduced.

Moreover, your app must stimulate self-explanatory navigation for switching between various interfaces. Hence, it is a good idea to implement virtual assistants or audio-based instructions in multiple languages, for guiding users as they sail through your app.

Furthermore, all aspects of your app should be visually likable and instantly available. Remember that the patients’ grasp on your app is dependant on factors like fonts, colors, theme, loading speed, and response time of the application.

Most apps fail to impress end-users owing to below-average user experience. As such, it is important to deliver an amazing digital experience by providing a user-friendly UI and eye-catching data visualization based on the target audience. For instance, if your target audience happens to be elderly individuals, it is advisable to opt for larger-sized app icons and texts.

Patients are going to stick to your app, only if it offers detailed, valuable, and actionable medical information. This is because patients prefer obtaining detailed information about their medical condition, and its causes; so that they can take necessary action based on the opportunities available. Hence, your healthcare app solution should provide all-inclusive and actionable details on a particular medical condition.

The online appointment scheduling facility comes with the following advantages for patients.

Besides appointment scheduling; modern-day customers, specifically those with chronic conditions, prefer receiving reminders concerning appointments, medicine timing, prescription renewals, follow-up schedule, and checking of vitals like blood pressure, heart rate, etc. Such reminders are provided via text message notifications and even phone calls. This strategy works wonders in retaining customers as well as attracting new ones.

Telehealth Video Conferencing has elevated doctor-patient communication to a new level altogether. It provides an effective platform where the patients can connect to their practitioners and avail of online consultations instead of physically paying a visit to the medical facility. Check out its distinct benefits for patients.

Wearable devices like smartwatches, fitness bands, and health trackers are quite popular amongst the masses. So, if your healthcare app has the ability to integrate with wearables, it would be widely adopted. Wearable devices collect crucial medical data like blood sugar levels, heart rate, tremors, sleep patterns, posture control, workouts, etc. enabling patients to know more about their fitness regime and manage their medical conditions in a better way.

Most patients these days look for HIPAA compliant healthcare apps to make sure that their healthcare data is protected and the personal information shared by them is not compromised. Patients are critical about the medical data shared as this data is used for insurance coverage as well. HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) mandates that any app accessing PHI (Personal Healthcare Information) must adhere to HIPAA regulations and security standards. A HIPAA compliant app ensures that sensitive personal information and patients’ data are protected.

Adding the feature of a patients’ community will add value to your healthcare application as patients wish to connect and interact with each other. For example, a patient who has been diagnosed with a specific health condition or disease would want to contact individuals suffering from a similar condition. This strategy allows patients to garner the much-needed comfort level and peer support, and is an excellent way to engage end-users.

It is advisable for app providers to build an MVP first instead of a full-fledged application as this is the best budget-friendly way to know what your target audience expects from the healthcare app. An MVP is the most basic and generic version of the envisioned app, with all the primary features and functionalities. In the case of a mHealth app, an MVP plays a vital role in generating actionable insights from the beta testers and early adopters. Once, you identify the areas of improvement through user feedback, promptly resolve the shortcomings and implement the necessary add-ons by launching updated versions. This will make your healthcare mobile app all the more convenient and accessible.

There is a high market demand for a highly functional and scalable healthcare app. However, in today’s dynamic and competitive market your app will fail to succeed if the right strategy is not adopted. Hence, all Medical & Healthcare Application Development Companies must possess clear visibility of the expectations of their target audience and plan accordingly. Be smart enough to read the patients’ minds and include patient-centric functionalities for building a game-changing app.

Contact us for further queries and assistance in hiring healthcare app development services!