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Healthcare Mobile App Development: Step-by-Step Guide with Business & Technical Insights

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Christine Kocharyan
Healthcare Mobile App Development: Step-by-Step Guide with Business & Technical Insights
Are you contemplating the idea of healthcare mobile app development?
You are on the right path, as the market of mHealth apps is predicted to grow in leaps and bounds.
According to Fortune Business Insights, the market was estimated at 11.17 billion in 2018 and is predicted to grow to 47.57 billion by 2026. The current situation with the COVID-19 pandemic has proved that such solutions will be on the rise during the years to come.

You can bite off a part of this lucrative multi-billion pie if you decide to invest in medical software development. This article will tell you how to turn your medical app ideas into a successful business. As you read, you will get insight into the following aspects of healthcare app development:

  • the most trending types of healthcare mobile apps
  • Addevice’s expertise in healthcare mobile app development
  • step-by-step process of medical app development
  • basic and flagship features to include in a healthcare app
  • technical aspects of healthcare app development
  • how to protect your app from failure
  • key regulations for healthcare application development
  • medical software app development services

Let’s dive into business and technical details!

MAIN TYPES OF HEALTHCARE MOBILE APPS

After you decide to invest in medical software development, it is time to learn about the main types of applications. They are divided into professional healthcare apps and personal healthcare apps. Let’s learn which apps belong to each category and how to offer value for end-users.

APPS FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS

Mobile apps for healthcare professionals
As the name entails, this category is dedicated to apps for healthcare professionals. They aim to simplify the work of medical professionals and streamline operations within clinics.
  • Medical personnel communication apps

Applications of this group are designed to improve the process of communication between medical personnel. Such healthcare apps usually support text and voice messaging, as well as file sharing, and act as the access point to electronic health records. Overall, the use of such apps aims to streamline the decision-making process.

  • Patient communication apps

Such apps are very important for medical establishments striving to build loyal relationships with patients. Healthcare apps for patients of this type allow to share information about medical conditions with a patient’s relatives, photos, medical records, and timely updates.

  • Medical records apps

Mobile healthcare applications of this type are designed to help medical personnel update information on patients’ conditions, like blood pressure, examinations, symptoms, run of the disease, and other vital information. The collected data can be used for further treatments and adjustments.

  • Barcode scanner apps

The main goal of such health management apps is to help hospitals spend less on expensive barcode scanners. Medical personnel can scan such barcodes with their smartphones and get access to the needed information within seconds.

  • Medicine dosage apps

Calculation dosage of medicine for each patient based on age, weight, overall medical conditions, etc. can be a tedious job. Healthcare mobile app development can simplify the task with the help of a dedicated application that automatically calculates data based on stored patients’ data. It is possible to move further with such apps and enable them to predict the incompatibility of medicine.

  • E-prescription apps

Healthcare app development can easily simplify life for doctors, patients, and pharmacies. Such applications allow doctors to prescribe medicine, check its availability, and send prescriptions to pharmacies. Patients can choose the pharmacies that they frequent and medicine will be automatically sent there.

  • EHR and EMR apps

Electronic health records (HER) and electronic medical records (EMR) help doctors get information about patients for further use during treatment. Medical software development can revolve around such apps and provide doctors with fast and secure access to the results of examinations and laboratory tests, medical scans, etc.

  • Appointment apps

Such solutions require a complex approach to healthcare mobile app development. These are used by patients to make appointments with their doctors and by doctors who plan their schedule, meetings, manage working hours, and much more. By syncing data from the doctor’s calendar with patients’ data, apps of this type help avoid overlaps and conflicts in schedules.

  • Medical training apps

Medical workers never stop their education. They always need to hold their finger on the pulse of the latest findings, developments, researches, and approaches. Medical information apps allow to get access to the latest information in different spheres and upgrade doctors’ skills.

  • Telehealth mobile apps

The situation with COVID-19 changed the situation in telemedicine app development. American Medical Association issued research stating that from February 2020, telehealth apps have grown by 100% and will reach the peak of popularity in the following months.

Such apps allow patients to visit doctors without leaving their homes. They can easily book a consultation with doctors and visit them online in a single application.

HEALTHCARE MOBILE APPS FOR PATIENTS

Healthcare mobile app development is beneficial not only for medical workers but also for patients. They get access to a simplified process of dealing with medical instances, which is the main disadvantage of medicine in many countries.
  • Telemedicine or doctor-on-demand apps

As we mentioned, such apps are on the rise. With their help, patients can visit doctors regardless of their location, even from across the globe. The best part about using telemedicine apps is the ability to consult with the best doctors and get the most qualified medical help anywhere in the world.

  • Urgent care apps

Such healthcare mobile apps for patients can be very useful in cases of urgent situations. Usually, they operate like a directory of the nearest hospitals, available doctors, automatic routes planning, and time estimation to get to the nearest hospitals.

  • Diagnosis app

Patients love googling their medical symptoms. So why not to help them with the task by providing applications with carefully collected data in different medical conditions and symptoms. You can integrate additional features that would allow you to get an appointment with a doctor based on symptoms.

  • Monitoring apps

Healthcare mobile app development of this type is a complex process. Applications are integrated with HER systems and wearable devices that allow monitoring patient’s medical conditions and notify hospitals about dangerous situations threatening the lives of patients. Such applications are very useful for people with chronic diseases.

  • Anxiety apps

Anxiety is a mental illness threatening the lives of millions. In the USA alone, there are over 40 million adults with anxiety disorders. Healthcare app development can help such patients by offering the best practices to clear their minds, calm down, release stress and to start thinking positively.

  • Dieting apps

If we talk about the most popular personal healthcare apps, nutrition and dieting apps are leading the game. They are useful for people who want to lose weight and eat healthily. Such apps usually provide information about food and give advice on how to stay healthy and fit. They can also have such features as calorie counting, progress chat, history of meals, etc.

  • Women’s health apps

Health applications of such type are designed to help track women’s health. They can combine a lot of features, like a calendar of periods, pregnancy monitoring, weight tracking, breastfeeding, and even online consultations and doctor appointments.

As you can see, medical software development is a diverse area concentrating on different types of apps. First, you need to come up with you healthcare app ideas; then, you can move to other steps, which are covered below.
 
 
 
 

After you have the answer to the first question, it’s time to move to healthcare apps market research. This step can be divided into various subtasks during which you identify your future competitors, analyze their applications, find main strong and weak points. You also need to understand your future target audience and know their pains. This way, medical software development will result in a powerful app that is designed to help. Make a list of the basic and additional features to include in your healthcare apps.

3. COME UP WITH THE BEST UX AND UI DESIGN

After you know which features to include in your application, you need to move to the next step where you design the interface of the app. If you work with an experienced professional, you won’t need to worry about this part. Professional designers will create the best design based on the data you collected. This stage is usually divided into UX and UI design.

4. DEFINE YOUR MONETIZATION STRATEGY

Depending on the type of mHealth app you are creating, you need to build a strategy that will allow your app to generate money. There are a few strategies you can utilize to make revenue, and they are reviews later on in the article.

5. CREATE THE FIRST VERSION OF YOUR PRODUCT

Start healthcare mobile app development with the creation of an app that includes the basic set of features. The main task here is to get an application that will help you test your idea. Also, the first version development might be limited to a single platform, iOS or Android.

6. TEST AND GET FEEDBACK

After you have the first app version, it’s time to launch it to the market and see how users will react. Such solutions like Mixpanel, Appsee, Localytics and the like will help you track user behavior and identify how they use your app. You can also ask them for their opinion and create questionnaires to understand what they think about your application.

7. ANALYZE DATA AND PLAN FOR IMPROVEMENTS

Healthcare mobile app development is an ongoing process where you constantly iterate your app and launch new features. Based on the collected data during the previous stage, you need to plan for further app improvements. Identify which features might lack and how you can improve customer experience and start developing the next version of your healthcare software project.

 
 
Learn more about Healthcare App Development here.
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Christine Kocharyan
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