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9 Considerations for a Healthcare mobile app developer

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olivia cuthbert
9 Considerations for a Healthcare mobile app developer

A study by the GMC showed that 30% of doctors used a mobile app in 2011 (Visse, BJ, and Bouman, J. 2012). Today, that figure is as high as 83%.

 

Research Guidance report shows mobile health app market will reach $26 billion by 2017

 

Top mHealth publishers are responsible for more than 3 million free and 300,000 paid downloads in the App Store in the US. More than 97,000 such apps list in various app markets.

 

Most of them are health and fitness apps that allow users to track health parameters and gain exciting insights into their fitness levels.

 

It is the best time to develop a mobile health app.

 

App development starts with a good understanding of what you want the health app to do, who you will use it for, and what environment it will work in.

 

As a developer, you should establish flawless and unambiguous requirements early in the project or even phases subject to development practices.



Here are the nine things to consider when developing a mobile healthcare app.

 

1|  Target hardware

 

As an app developer, you usually target more than one platform, which can be a desktop in addition to tablets and smartphones.

 

The way smartphone users interact with an app is different from how they interact with apps on their tablets; smartphone users prefer the speed of information over length.

 

Enterprise healthcare solutions are more often uses on a tablet. Apps optimized for a tablet may contain more features than their counterpart on a smartphone.

 

A patient engagement app is more likely to be optimized for tablets, while a "call a doctor" app is more likely to be optimized for smartphones.

 

However, most apps developed for a smartphone work seamlessly on a tablet and vice versa. iPhone apps work on iPads unless they are formed/check-based apps.

 

2| Interoperability

 

One of the most important factors to consider when developing healthcare mobility solutions is their interoperability with hospital staff's existing clinical management system.

 

If you have seen the staff, doctors, nurses, receptionists, ward boys, etc., all carrying tablets at all times, you will know what I mean here.

 

Today, the company's mobility solutions for healthcare, including medical planning software, are cloud-based to facilitate interoperability.

 

However, in developing countries, hospitals still tend to use traditional hosting, even when installing standalone software, to avoid cloud hosting costs.

 

It may be necessary to build an app compatibility layer on top of the existing setup in such cases.

 

3| UI/UX considerations

         What is UI UX Design? Why Should You Learn Them Together? | Springboard Blog

UI/UX plays a significant role when it comes to developing a healthcare app. It is because, in the healthcare app, both patients and doctors often enter data.

 

As a developer, you need to ensure that the app design is user-friendly, as patients need to regularly enter their medical details and appointments.

 

Similarly, doctors need to record their visits and update each patient's history.

 

Usually, patients using a health app are vulnerable when seeking solutions to their medical problems.

 

Given their state of mind, you need to make sure that your UI/UX, including fonts, colors, and text, does not evoke a negative image.

 

It should be supported so that users feel happy and positive when using the application.

 

4| API components

            

As the name implies, an application programming interface (API) is a process, tool, or routine that performs a specific task or interacts with software or its module.

 

components of an API for a healthcare mobile app developer

 

Social networking apps and advertisers rely on APIs to deliver information on an ongoing basis.




You may need to add API components for patient engagement solutions to authenticate your device to access the central patient repository.

 

In addition, you may need additional APIs from vendors and suppliers. Note that not all APIs are open to third parties.

 

5| Develop iteratively


It is a fairly common fact that the best software and applications in the world are developers iteratively.

 

It would be best to consider following an agile program that helps developers deliver code that works iteratively.

 

By iterative, I mean building an application in a slow progression, such as adding features one by one. More agile development needs to be learned and practiced before developing an application.

 

6| Data security

 

Application developers today avoid storing application data on the device for security reasons.

 

Health mobile app developer data security

 

If the clinical management system your app connects to limits the number of concurrent API requests, you may need to store data on the app's server.

 

Application servers are built for speed, not security, so they are not difficult to break into. Developers need to encrypt the data stored on their servers.

 

In addition, the transmission of data between the device and a secure remote server is open to interception by government agencies and rogue organizations, and individuals.

 

Thus, where security is a priority, as in healthcare applications, developers must require end-to-end encryption or send data only over secure communication channels.



7| Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

 

As the name implies, a minimum viable product is an essential product that works in production.

 

However, it would be best to be extra careful not to put all your capital into the MVP itself, as there is still a long way to go in healthcare app development.

 

MVP will help you a lot in getting customer feedback. You shouldn't be complacent at any stage of app development.

 

Moreover, you need to take this feedback seriously and incorporate it into your app to increase its chances of success.

 

8| Security of the device

 

Data security firm Arxan claims that Android apps are less secure than iOS apps.

 

Health mobile app developer device security

 

Many cybersecurity advocates are opposed to developing apps for Android at all when it comes to apps where security is more important than anything else.

 

Android accounts for over 80% of the current smartphone market. It is not happening.

 

Smartphone manufacturers will fill the security gaps in Android with their solutions.

 

The Samsung Knox is one such example, which allows the separation of work and personal activities. It is a big step forward, as most organizations today have a BYOD policy.

 

Blackberry is also making every effort to offer the same level of security for which its devices were once famous.

 

In addition, our developers suggest that there are certain lines of code that you can add to make your applications more secure.

 

However, not much will change until Google steps in and fixes once and for all the security problems with its famous mobile operating system.

 

9| App testing in healthcare

Healthcare App Testing - Testbytes  

Testing every mobile app is necessary. However, when it comes to mobile solutions for healthcare, releasing an app without properly testing its functionality can have fatal consequences.

 

The risks increase because healthcare apps contain confidential patient medical data.

 

In addition, whether you use manual or automated testing, you must test healthcare apps in the following ways.

 

You should test for security and various forms of authenticity, such as PII, PHII, and HIPAA compliance.

 

  • In the case of a fitness tracking application that requires geo-location services, you should carefully verify the validity and accuracy of all of these services.
  • To create a real-world scenario, test the application in the event of poor connectivity.
  • Test the performance of your app by setting high load and performance benchmarks.
  • Check the compatibility of your app by testing it on different platforms such as iOS, Android, Windows, and other browsers.



| Nothing else matters

 

Ultimately, your app's fate is determined by need, usability, and usability.

 

In this single-use society, especially for apps where app usage often lasts only a few weeks, the actual value of a healthcare app is determined throughout the usage period. If you are thinking to build a health care app there are many company software development companies that can help you in building a customized healthcare app.

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