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Healthcare systems across the world are criticized for the lack of accessibility and high costs of services. The COVID pandemic amplified concerns and triggered the rise of mobile medical applications that are tasked to fill this gap. The average wait time for a physician appointment in the United States is 26 days based on data from 2022. Using mobile app development solutions, patients can get quick access to a medical professional of any specialty instead of waiting for an in-person appointment. In this article, we will discuss the core features of mobile medical applications as well as explore how to develop a telemedicine app. Keep on reading to learn how software development services can help you build a bridge between patients and doctors and deliver an improved healthcare experience.
A telemedicine solution is a software that allows physicians to treat patients remotely with the help of telecommunication technologies, including video conferences, audio calls, emails, messaging, etc. Used interchangeably with telehealth, telemedicine covers a different set of services. What’s the difference between telehealth and telemedicine? The former is a much broader industry that includes services provided by the nursing staff, pharmacists, social workers, counselors, and more. Telemedicine focuses solely on the doctor-patient relationship and gives a platform for remote diagnostics, treatment, and follow-up. In turn, telehealth apps can educate users on healthcare and offer social support and training.
What makes 2023 the perfect year to launch your own medical application? The biggest driver for the telemedicine app development market was the recent pandemic. People partially or even completely lost access to healthcare due to hospital overcrowding, whereas physicians had to focus their energy on COVID patients. This led to thousands if not millions of people being neglected by the system. During this devastating time, the market has experienced a large emergence of medical applications. As a result, in just a few months, telehealth solutions became 78 times more popular.
Another vital factor is the consistent lack of medical personnel across hospitals, cities, and countries. Research from the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) shows that by 2033 the United States will experience a shortage of up to 139,000 physicians. Moreover, the trend is similar in most countries. Telemedicine apps can help alleviate some of the burdens on doctors and allow the healthcare system to deliver appropriate services.
Finally, the world has been completely overtaken by smartphones. With nearly 7 billion people (86% of the world’s population) owning at least one smartphone, the mobile app development market sounds like a highly lucrative investment. Creating a mobile telemedicine solution will give you access to a potentially endless list of users.
Telemedicine makes healthcare more accessible and affordable to patients as well as facilitates a better work-life balance for the medical staff. This prominent field can potentially improve the quality of medical care and reduce the burden on the entire healthcare system. In this part of our telemedicine app development guide, we will explore the benefits of telemedicine apps for patients and physicians.
Accessibility: There could be multiple reasons why a patient would put off going to the hospital. Some people struggle to find time in their busy schedules, while others cannot afford the traveling fees. Finally, residents of remote areas often have no access to healthcare at all. Using a telemedicine app, people can contact a doctor at any time and from any place.
Time savings: We’ve all experienced long wait times at the doctor’s office. Even getting an appointment in the first place can be a challenging task taking weeks or even months to see a specialist. Although not every health issue can be dealt with over a video call, this can alleviate some of the stress. Patients can receive preliminary diagnoses, health tips, and further instructions via a telemedicine application.
Consistency: Traditionally, patients are able to see their clinician a few times a year in the best-case scenario. Doctors are notoriously overworked and cannot facilitate regular visits for every patient. Using mobile solutions, they can receive continuous and consistent care.
Improved healthcare services: Using telemedicine apps, patients have a chance to improve their health and quality of life. Without the challenges of conventional healthcare, people can connect to their clinicians and receive the care they deserve. As a result, patients can establish a healthier lifestyle and maintain it with the help of their doctors.
Schedule flexibility: Physicians who practice online have more autonomy and flexibility. They can set the time slots that accommodate their schedule which helps them establish a healthier work-life balance.
Optimized workflow: Telemedicine applications are not only for video calls and contact information. They can improve communication across the healthcare facility by capturing and storing patient data. Furthermore, such solutions can serve as task management tools and help physicians optimize their workflows.
Reduced costs and increased revenue: Telehealth applications can also decrease overhead costs associated with patients’ admission. Now doctors no longer need to allocate their funds toward office rent, equipment, utilities, etc.Moreover, the unlocked funds can now go towards attracting more patients, which will eventually increase revenue.Using mobile solutions, they can focus on providing the best care possible with less worrying about finances.
Enhanced patient engagement: The ability to call or message a physician at any time fosters trust between a patient and a doctor. This allows physicians to spend more time with each patient, educate them on self-care, and help them maintain a healthy lifestyle in the long run. As a result, your customers will enjoy a more personalized experience, which will decrease dissatisfaction and reduce no-shows.
How does telemedicine work and what kinds of applications can you create? Before we move to specifics, let’s discuss the most common types of telemedicine app development solutions.
Video conferencing: These types of applications are ideal for follow-ups or non-emergent cases. They mediate between a physician and a patient to discuss treatment plans, and medications, and answer common questions. If a person is under the weather but is not suffering from severe pain, hopping on a video call is a great alternative to a visit.
Remote patient monitoring: Such systems are powered by the Internet of Things (IoT). These devices or sensors are connected to the patient via wearables or other tools that track their vitals and send data to the cloud. For example, a patient has a device that monitors their heart rate and transfers this information to the clinician. As a result, doctors have up-to-date information about the patient’s vitals and can make informed and timely decisions.
Prescription delivery: Connecting pharmacies and patients, prescription delivery apps streamline the process of purchasing medications. Patients can upload their prescriptions to the app, which is then verified, filled, and delivered to the customer. Especially for people with disabilities or serious health problems, applications like these can be life-saving.
In this section, we’ll dive into the list of concrete features you need to implement for both the patient and doctor-sides of the app. Keep in mind that telemedicine app development cost is highly contingent on the amount and complexity of features you implement.
Registration: This feature allows patients to input their contact, insurance, and financial information. Registration needs to comply with Electronic Health Records (EHR) standards and facilitate document uploads.
Payment gateways: Integrate a few payment systems into the application to give users choice. You can use systems like Stripe or Braintree as well as PayPal, debit and credit cards, and even cryptocurrency for financial transactions.
Video calls: The backbone of telemedicine app development, video calls are what connect patients to doctors. This feature offers a more personal experience and allows physicians to create and foster a trusting relationship with patients.
Messaging: If a patient’s inquiry is not serious enough to warrant a video call, allow them the option to message their healthcare provider. This feature should include media exchange so that users can send an image or attachment.
Scheduling: Include a calendar to help patients choose the most convenient time slot to arrange an appointment. This feature should also allow patients and doctors to change or cancel appointments to ensure a smooth workflow.
Notifications: Whenever an appointment comes up, both patients and doctors should receive a reminder. Notifications can also pertain to regular checkups, prescription renewals, and test results. Users should be able to choose how they want to be alerted: within the app and/or via email, text message, or push notifications.
Reviews: To improve user experience, allow patients to rate and review clinicians within the application. This can be useful to both doctors and patients. While physicians can enhance their services using feedback, patients can assess which specialist is more suitable.
IoT integration: Using the technology, you can provide continuous healthcare services to your patients. Using wearables, your customers will generate health data that is uploaded to the system. Physicians can later access this information to make informed diagnoses. Moreover, they can set alerts for patients to be notified whenever a certain metric changes.
Pharmacy integration: To facilitate a holistic approach, you can connect your telemedicine app development solution to a pharmacy. In conjunction with other features, this will allow you to provide end-to-end experience to patients. As a result, patients can have an online appointment, receive a prescription, and get their medications delivered from the comfort of their homes.
Health tips: Another helpful feature that you can develop is daily or weekly evidence-based health tips. These can serve as an invitation to open the application and continue to use it even outside of appointments.
Doctor’s profile: Unlike the patient’s profile, the physician’s page should include information related to their education and experience. Doctors could also enter more personal data such as spoken languages, interests, hobbies, etc. to help create a rapport with patients. Finally, based on customer reviews, you can mention the rating of the physician.
Electronic Health Records (EHR): Doctors should have access to the patient’s health data, including history, medications, allergies, demographics, and more. This function needs to be highly secure to avoid data breaches and leaks.
Doctor’s calendar: Whenever a patient chooses a timeslot, a physician has the option to accept, decline or offer an alternative time. The calendars are then automatically updated to avoid double-booking. This feature replaces manual administrative tasks and allows nurses to devote more time to patients.
Video and messaging: Doctors should also have various communication options to be able to reach out to their patients. Video conferences are ideal for appointments, while texting can be used to answer some questions, explain test results, or hold quick follow-ups.
Payment processing: Using this feature, clinicians can create and issue bills, send reminders, and process payments. Additionally, you can offer report-generating functions to help doctors stay on top of their finances.
IoT integration: IoT has been a huge contributor to telemedicine app development. IoT-powered devices transfer data to the clinician’s workstation to provide them with real-time health information. This function facilitates remote patient monitoring and minimizes the need for in-person visits.
Telemedicine app development cost is contingent on a few crucial factors, including functionality and complexity of the app, tech stack, and vendor. When it comes to choosing an IT partner, you can go for a local agency or hire someone from abroad. Outsourcing of telemedicine app development is a cost effective solution for your business. Another cost-saving factor is launching a Minimum Viable Product (MVP) before releasing a fully-fledged product. This allows teams to test their idea with limited functionality and gradually expand it in future iterations.
Additionally, telemedicine app development cost is contingent on the type of development. Traditionally, native app development is 30% more pricey compared to cross-platform. However, it’s recommended not to prioritize affordability over technical reliability when it comes to the medical field. For example, if your system lacks proper security, this can lead to devastating outcomes. Breaching of your customer’s private data, including financial, insurance, and health information can take a huge toll on the reputation of your company and may lead to financial and legal complications.
If you need to know exact costs to build a telemedicine application, reach out to the experts at NIX to get a firm estimate. You can share the details of your project with us and we will find the perfect solution for your needs at a fair cost for top quality.
Telemedicine app development comes with a slightly different set of rules. Due to the specificity of the industry, you’ll be handling sensitive data that cannot be disclosed. The cost of the error can result in severe legal complications. Let’s take a look at the biggest concerns businesses have during the development process.
Compliance with industry regulations: It’s no surprise that health information is highly sensitive and requires the utmost level of protection. Depending on your location, you might need to comply with different data protection laws, including HIPAA in the US, PIPEDA in Canada, and GDPR in Europe. However, the legal standards may vary from state to state which is why it’s recommended to conduct additional research.
Security: Cybersecurity is another critical issue that you need to be mindful of during telemedicine app development. Make sure not only your app but also your vendors and third-party services are in full compliance with the law. Any breach of data may result in irreparable consequences for your business.
Inclusivity: Especially in the medical field, inclusivity and accessibility become increasingly important. Take this concern into account during the UX/UI design stage by creating a layout that caters to people with various disabilities. On top of that, make sure to use inclusive language when talking about patients and their conditions.
The process of software development is long, complex, and expensive. However, with the appropriate planning and a good team, your app will be worth the investment. Let’s get to the meat of the topic and learn how to develop a telemedicine app.
Every project begins with an idea. To validate your idea and make sure there is demand for it, you must start with thorough market research and business analysis:
In telemedicine app development, you have two standard team options: hire in-house developers and/or outsource mobile app development. Hiring an in-house team can facilitate smoother communication and allow you to retain full control of the operations. At the same time, it’s the most expensive option due to the costs of recruitment, office station and equipment, benefits, taxes, and more. But why do companies outsource? Outsourcing is a more affordable option that implies the delegation of the project or its parts to a third-party vendor. Although you might lose some control over the project, choosing a reliable partner will make a difference and allow you to focus on your core and strategic activities. Take time to vet thoroughly before collaborating with an IT agency to reach maximum benefit.
The freemium model basically comprises two versions of the application: free and paid. The free version offers basic features that allow customers to explore the app’s functionality and discover potential benefits. The paid version extends these features and provides users with more advanced functions.
The premium model charges users a one-time fee and provides access to all features. Although you will be able to make more money initially, the long-term projections are not that great. On top of that, there are a plethora of free applications in the market that users are likely to prefer.
The subscription-based model is arguably the most ubiquitous monetization approach across industries. The app charges a weekly, monthly, or yearly fee which generates a consistent cash flow for the business. You can also create different tiers and offer different sets of features for different prices. Considering that people are largely used to paying subscriptions for streaming, mobile data, audiobooks, etc., this model can be a great choice for telemedicine app development solutions.
The commission-based model takes out a fee from each patient-doctor transaction. These fees will most likely be allocated to the patients which will increase the cost of services. However, they might appear hidden from the user and included in the total bill. All in all, this type of monetization can be a good option for telemedicine app development.
The in-app purchases model is another common monetization strategy that involves charging users for extra features. For example, you can include prescription delivery services for an additional fee. However, it’s important to deliver an app that functions without these extra charges.
UX/UI is not about having superior technology but rather about making your app truly understandable and appealing to your customers. In this case, your target audience includes both medical personnel and patients. The main goal of the UX design stage is to develop a layout that makes the user experience as smooth and effortless as possible. Considering medicine is not the easiest of sciences, this poses a challenge to your team. It’s recommended to keep the design simple and easy to use. On top of that, avoid using medical jargon and deliver copy that anyone can comprehend, regardless of education level.
Another vital aspect is navigation and inclusivity. A huge portion of hospital visitors are elderly people who might struggle with technology. How can you develop a telemedicine app that can be tackled even by the least tech-savvy user? To simplify the learning curve, provide options to enlarge fonts, zoom level adjustments, and text-to-speech features. Additionally, include big call-to-action buttons with seamless navigation and a chatbot that can offer shortcuts.
Once your UX wireframes are ready, set up a focus group to run an initial user testing. Using the collected feedback, alter the designs to satisfy your target audience.
Once you have finalized the design, you can move on to the coding process. Most companies choose to develop an MVP, a functioning version of the application with minimum required features. The main objective is to deliver the bare functionality to the end customer in order to collect valuable feedback with minimal expenses. Software development is expensive, which has boosted the popularity of MVPs in the industry. Here is a quick run-through on the MVP development:
Tech stack: Select the right set of tools that are necessary to build the application, including languages, platforms, frameworks, libraries, and more. Factors like scalability, costs, and security should be taken into account at this point.
Backend and infrastructure: Behind the scenes of the app, the backend is where you handle requests and transactions and deal with databases and APIs. Devoting time to this part is highly important as this will be the backbone of the entire solution.
Feature implementation: At this stage, start coding the functionalities of the app that we previously covered. This not only includes features but also the user interface and navigation.
Quality assurance is a crucial phase that allows developers to test the solution and make sure it functions properly and safely. Your QA team will run numerous tests to ensure the app’s performance, scalability, speed, and more. However, in telemedicine app development, there’s another factor when it comes to security. Namely, you need to guarantee compliance with industry regulations and privacy laws.
The final step in our telemedicine app development guide deals with post-release activities. When the coding is done, it’s time to deploy the product to app stores and the web. You can make the solution available on iOS, Android, Windows, and macOS to reach wider audiences. This step is simply submitting the app to said marketplaces and waiting for approval. Upon public release, your team will provide ongoing maintenance, issue new features, and continuously fix bugs. Additionally, monitor user feedback and take it into consideration when creating new functions or removing old ones.
One of our success stories is a company whose goal was to build an app that provides answers to health-related questions in real-time. The main challenges included team diversity and the need for continuous integration and continuous delivery adoption. Additionally, the app needed to be designed to work with real-time data and be able to run a pharmacy delivery service.
In collaboration with the client, NIX developed a telemedicine app development solution that runs on both iOS and Android. Here;s how the app works:
Learn more about our telemedicine app case to discover how we tackled the client’s challenges. If you are interested in fulfilling your telemedicine app development idea, don’t hesitate to reach out to our specialists at NIX.
According to Statista, the global telemedicine market will skyrocket to almost $460 billion by 2030. Given the rising popularity of IoT devices and the high costs of healthcare, telehealth applications make a great investment.
Depending on the app’s complexity, technology, and the chosen IT vendor, the costs vary from $60,000 to $150,000. However, adding IoT and AI-powered features is likely to drastically increase the telemedicine app development cost.
There are a few monetization models companies can employ to make a profit. However, the most common ones include subscription-based, freemium, and commission-based strategies. A subscription-based model charges a weekly, monthly, or yearly fee to allow users access to the features. The freemium model offers two app versions: a free one with limited functionality and a paid one with full access. Finally, a commission-based model charges a fee on every transaction between the patient and physician.
The basic functions of a telemedicine MVP can be divided into two categories: patient and doctor features. Patient features should include registration, payment options, video and text communication, scheduling, and notifications. The doctor side comprises similar functions but integrates an EHR system and a physician profile.
In the medical field, developers have to not only protect the app from breaches and hacks but also ensure compliance with regulations. Telemedicine app development solutions need to be in alignment with data privacy laws like HIPAA and GDPR. Depending on your location, you may need to comply with state-level laws which is why we advise you to conduct location-specific research.
Natalie is a HIPAA-certified expert with high-grade knowledge in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries with 5+ years of experience. She helps CIOs, CTOs of medical organizations, and founders of agile healthtech startups get the most valuable tech solutions for fundamental digital reinforcement in patient care, automation of operational processes, and overall business progress.
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