If you look at various industries, they are evolving and expanding one after the other with the help of mobile technologies. The healthcare industry is also reducing the technological gap in the era of current global changes. The increasing popularity of mHealth has helped this industry to bridge the gap. In addition, digital transformation's benefits helped mobile healthcare open up new opportunities for mobile apps and startups.
There are some categories in this mobile healthcare industry. Every category covers different needs and is growing in a different direction. You can immediately get billions of customers across the globe by investing in this industry. The process of developing a mobile healthcare app is quite complicated. It requires specific permissions, regulations, and a DEM team's proficiency. This rundown of healthcare app development needs can help you start your project.
Concept of Healthcare App Development
Developing a healthcare app involves planning, designing, and developing. It also ensures value proposition and compliance. Commonly used healthcare apps aim to enhance hospital experience, assist medical services, and transform health records into digital data. These healthcare apps can be divided into two types based on purpose –
Apps for Doctors
These apps help doctors monitor patients, schedule appointments, and other advanced solutions.
Apps for Patients
These apps help patients book appointments, offer online consultations, and receive quick support with recommendations.
Think About This Before Starting Your Healthcare App
Identifying the starting point for creating your healthcare app sometimes becomes tough. We can split this into these stages - planning your business, developing it, and marketing. Based on this division, consider the following six aspects while starting with your app.
1. Knowing the Target Audience
Since you are not developing an entertainment app, the healthcare app should focus on customer requirements. You can consider customer needs such as medicine delivery, tele-health, and health tracking.
2. Creating User Guide
This mobile app aims to provide more comfort. It indicates that UX/UI design needs to be as simple as possible. You can also provide a user guide if needed.
3. Communication Portals
These apps are targeted to address health issues. The users of these apps want to communicate with experts and require constant support. You can make your app more reliable by providing support functions.
4. Convenient Design for Users
These apps can be less interactive and sweet but are user-friendly and straightforward.
5. HIPAA Compliance
Your app must comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act to be considered professional.
6. Validating Your Idea and Functionality Testing of the App
Once you deploy your app, you should test it among real users. Thus you can validate its functionality and also adjust it to user requirements.
Requirements for Developing the Healthcare App
1. Healthcare apps are unlike entertainment apps; they have a detailed approval procedure. Depending on their target market, these apps must be GDPR-compliant and meet the HIPAA standard. They also need to match the regulations of security and privacy.
2. The HIPAA Compliance applies to every medical app that involves the collection, possession, and distribution of healthcare information. So if you are willing to launch your healthcare app on the American market, it must meet HIPAA standards.
3. The apps that are GDPR-compliant follow the rules related to the collection, storage, and usage of personal data across EU countries. In May 2018, these rules were introduced, and governments have applied considerable fines for breaking them.
4. Different markets have different laws and regulations. For example, the PIPEDA act has been imposed in Canada for using personal info in apps. The Data Protection Act 1998 is considered a guide for healthcare apps in the United Kingdom.
5. Performing online payment transactions through healthcare apps is another important aspect while creating a secure app. A PCI SSC organization assists with compliance with the necessary aspects and receiving a license.
6. Instead of a cross-platform, you can prefer native application development, which is more secure. These apps deliver smooth and reliable performance when developed and designed for a specific operating system.
7. It is mandatory to follow the guidelines and rules of the Apple App Store and Google Play Store related to handling sensitive and personal data. This helps in getting their approval while developing a healthcare app.
The Process of Healthcare App Development
After understanding your goals, healthcare app developers usually start with an idea and develop the app. Once your purpose is defined, you can proceed with the implementation of the project. Here’s the roadmap for healthcare app development!
Identifying Challenges
It is essential to identify the challenges before you start developing your app. There are some possible challenges, such as competitors, required features, barriers, and regulations.
Knowing the Target Audience
Identifying your audience helps you decide on a strategy and build the best app that addresses users' requirements. The parameters for research can be age, gender, interests, location, and average income.
Creating an Interactive UI/UX
The significance of design is undoubted, and we have already mentioned that. Users pay attention to your design, and hence it must deliver functionality.
Choosing Monetization Model
Your app must have a business model with an action plan to generate revenue. It can be in-app ads, premium features, or subscriptions.
Building MVP
Verify your concept and project with a Minimum Viable Product and improve it further based on user feedback.
Characteristics & Features of a Promising Healthcare App
You can consider the following core characteristics of healthcare apps:
Reaching the Population
You can reach a broader population that uses smartphones through your app. This feature of mobile apps has significantly changed the healthcare industry.
Availability of Apps
The penetration of the technology can be better with device compatibility and simplicity of apps.
Accessing Wireless Internet
The internet connectivity for mobile phones is a powerful weapon that can keep us connected whenever needed.
Tethering with Individuals
Better support can be delivered with detailed information about the user and reduced delays in communication that give more precise data.
Live Video Conferencing
The live video conferencing feature will help patients consult with doctors in real-time, without having to visit the clinic. This approach is super convenient in cases of minor ailments or follow-up doctor visits.
Integration with Wearables and Medical Devices
Integration with wearables and other medical devices will help doctors to access the medical data of patients collected by these devices. This way, doctors will be able to make data-driven treatment decisions for obtaining the best results. Also, medical providers will be able to provide patients with a detailed statistical report about their health condition and progress. Such an engaging experience will be popular with patients.
Integration with EMR/EHR
This feature is an important requirement for telemedicine apps. EHR (Electronic Health Records) digitally stores crucial patient data like lab test reports, medication records, radiographic pictures, etc. EMR (Electronic Medical Records) tracks the medical treatment history of patients. Healthcare apps integrated with EHR/EMR systems consolidate patient records in a single place, process patient data fast, and eliminate redundant data. This not only saves time for doctors & patients but also facilitates telehealth billing.
Conclusion
I hope, this post has provided a clear idea of the best practices to follow for healthcare app development and the important features to consider. If you are looking for an experienced, connect with us to build your app.
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