Anyone will be able to get professional medical consultation, directly from their device. This kind of access to basic levels of healthcare will become vastly important, especially for people living in the suburbs, villages, areas affected by war, or the poorest cities in third world countries.
As well, having an easy and convenient way to schedule a doctor’s appointment or share health-related information can greatly benefit patients while also saving clinics lots of time and effort in their administrative duties.
These are all great reasons to develop a medical mobile app.
Any medical mobile app development process starts with careful planning that encourages what-if scenarios and helps businesses envision all risk-factors. Below, we’re guiding you through all steps of development, from planning to medical mobile app launch:
- Study current medical app market
- Put up a list of must-have features
- Outsource app development (in case you don’t have an in-house team)
- Develop according to privacy and security standards
- Test your app before submission
Below, you will find all details about every step of healthcare mobile app development.
The current state of medical mobile app development
Consumer surveys conducted in the USA report that a quarter of US adults use one or more health tracking apps and a third of physicians have recommended an app to a patient in the past year. Globally, around a billion smartphone users use a wellness or medical mobile app and this stat is estimated to triple in the coming years.
According to the 2021 IQVIA report, the top app stores already feature over 350,000 apps related to health and fitness or medical categories. As this innovative technology-enabled type of healthcare grows, hospitals and other relevant stakeholders have begun engaging in medical health app development to offer patients new, more convenient ways to collect and share health-related information efficiently.
However, not all of these digital interventions are successful. Many medical mobile apps are not living up to customer expectations due to poor user experience, confusing user interfaces, and unsatisfactory functionality.
To make an exceptional mobile app for patient care, it’s important to know where hospital app development has failed thus far. The main shortcomings of many apps currently on the market include:
- unclear structure that doesn’t address a specific problem;
- a lack of clinical input;
- poor usability;
- failure to comply with rigorous privacy regulations and security practices.
Health app development of meaningful solutions that are reliable, as well as compliant with the law, is a critical step in the adoption of medical apps among patients and care providers. There are many different types of medical mobile apps, but most fall into 5 common categories:
Source: Globaldev
Key medical app features of successful on-demand medical mobile apps
Developers are constantly looking for new ways to improve mobile medical apps. A crucial aspect of medical mobile apps is their ability to collect and analyze patient health information from several different medical devices. This often requires a wide range of potential features and can be challenging during mobile medical app development.
In order to develop a mobile health application successfully, it is important to find out what the target audience needs most and focus healthcare app development around the implementation of those essential features. Patient-oriented medical app development should always target the end user’s needs and should focus on delivering a great user experience.
Only 11% of medical apps currently on the market offer patients the most desirable functionalities. These include the ability to:
- access electronic medical records;
- view the schedule of doctors;
- book, change, and cancel appointments;
- access lab test results;
- get appointment reminders;
- get prescription reminders;
- request prescriptions refills;
- get notifications for the latest hospital news and events;
- download and upload reports such as X-rays, ultrasound scans, MRI scans, etc.;
- track and monitor weight and height changes, glucose and cholesterol levels, and other health indicators;
- call in a doctor and get emergency aid;
- view doctor profiles, their photos, publications, and records or credentials;
- view pop-up maps that show the route to hospital wards and sections, indicating the floor they are located on.
Read more – Create a healthcare app
