How to Develop a Healthcare App in 2023?

How to make a mobile health app that will bring both benefits and profit

In the technological progress era, creating a patient management system and automation of medical institutions is possible. People can constantly monitor their physical condition, so it’s essential to know how to build a medical app. This article also focuses on thoroughly studying mhealth examples for the most convenient use for each individual.

What Is an App in Healthcare?

The healthcare application is an information platform for doctors and patients to systematize human medical data. The mobile healthcare apps offer patients remote doctor’s appointments, access to personal patient records, or online consultations.

What is a valuable app? This tool guarantees the protection of patients’ rights and even the submission of an automated electronic complaint. The patient can get acquainted with all available medicines composition and the possibility of receiving free medicines in hospitals.

All available services of health care facilities or clinics are listed in the hospital apps. Then the patient chooses the most optimal types of services for him by location and cost. The person demonstrates symptoms, informs about the disease course, and receives medical solutions through a video communication system.

Types of Medical Apps

◉ mHealth apps for patients

About 50,000 health programs are available in online app stores, and the use of these initiatives is growing significantly. The program’s advantages include more excellent user activity in maintaining their health and saving on the cost of physical health care. This type of app provides a detailed list of your daily habits and helps you rethink your attitude towards prevention.

A significant disadvantage of the program is that it can’t fully replace the process of physical medical treatment. Then the person should still consult with medical professionals on various issues while using the program. Programs can only provide general medical data, so medical opinions are critical in this case.

◉ mHealth apps for providers

The app helps healthcare providers track the progress of their patients without the need for a physical examination. This tool can determine heart rate, respiration rate, and blood glucose. Through the program, the provider reviews and sends patient data to the relevant areas of medicine.

The disadvantage is still the physical participation of people in the formation of diagnostic data for laboratory tests, such as blood or urine tests.

◉ mHealth apps for medical administration staff

The use of mobile devices and medical applications helps medical staff quickly monitor symptoms and correctly diagnose a patient. Specialists can provide various medical opinions and make diagrams and forecasts for the healthcare industry. However, it isn’t easy to track the competence of health professionals within the clinical setting. A medical expert also can’t be sure of the patient’s integrity regarding symptoms, complaints, and potential diagnosis.

Examples of MHealth Apps

You can see a selection of the most famous examples of mhealth apps:

◉ Kry. A 24/7 platform of high-quality medical care from qualified doctors, psychologists, and even nurses. The cost of using the program is determined according to the registration region.

◉ CareZone. This platform focuses on the safe and affordable structuring of your health data on your smartphone. The application periodically informs people about the processes of caring for adults and children.

◉ Headspace. The platform idea is to harmonize the psychological state of people through unique methods of meditation, therapy, and psychiatry. The online platform reduces stress, relieves mental focus, and improves concentration and sleep.

◉ PatientsLikeMe. The platform guarantees a personalized approach to each patient, communication with peers, and individual medical services. The appendix emphasizes the importance of patients’ experience in the medical industry in treating various conditions of their health.

◉ Hinge Health. This platform is a kind of mobile health app for patients specializing in the digital treatment of the musculoskeletal system. Through the use of opioids, portable sensors, and personal providers, it’s possible to alleviate patients’ pain in real-time.

◉ Blood Test Application. This program creates a personal user account where blood test records are stored. The software analyzes the latest test results for optical character recognition. The application also helps users independently understand and track the results of blood tests.

◉ OneRemission. The program provides cancer survivors with the necessary post-cancer services for their physical and psychological well-being. The application deals with the definition of diet, a set of physical exercises, sleep duration, and minimization of stressful situations.

How Much Does It Cost to Make a Medical App?

The more complex the concept, the more expensive the mhealth app development. If the application concept is quite tricky, then the technical development of the medical program will be costly. All user interface elements take a lot of time to develop and A/B testing.

The most expensive health program in the United States is developed for $ 64,000 per program with simple features. In Western Europe, the price for a project is € 48,000 with simple functionality and about $ 24,000 in Eastern Europe. MVP development price fluctuations range from $ 2,400 in Eastern Europe to $ 6,400 in the United States.

The cost of a healthcare app primarily depends on:

⤇ analysis of competitors’ markets;

⤇ number of platforms for placement;

⤇ application of additional technologies;

⤇ the complexity of design and animation;

⤇ software development provider;

⤇ the number of databases in the program.

The average cost of developing medical programs is approximately $425,000. About 50% is occupied by program development. About 35% of providers spent less than $ 25,000 on developing mobile applications. Then only 12% had a budget of more than $ 500,000. Potential success depends on the high level of financial security of the initiative.

Hire Mobile Medical App Developers

It isn’t effortless to do without healthcare app developers’ help, given the technical elements’ complexity. Configuring the required number of screens, program states, all buttons, content strategy, and server structure requires professional skills and time. 

Hired developers of different levels, from project managers to testers, can work out the basic logic of the project. They also deal with the optimal elements’ location, ensure ease of use, and are engaged in licensing.

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How to Build a Medical App in 7 Steps?

Step 1: Define your client.

How to make a medical app, and for whom? It’s crucial to segment the cold audience regarding demographics, health, and treatment methods. Then the program can provide personal advice on checking symptoms and taking medication. When divided into categories of people, it’s easier to make recommendations for further treatment, for example, by stages of severity of the disease (cancer).

Step 2: Investigate the area.  

How to create a healthcare app that is more attractive than others? The program should stand out in its value among other competitors. The uniqueness may lie in more helpful information, the broader experience of the staff, exciting content, and affordable prices for services.

Step 3: Consider the features.

These mhealth applications offer a wide variety of features that they actively use in their practice for successful promotion.

These are some of them:

• visual analytics, a diagram of the progress of treatment

• reports of diagnoses

• video calls for consultations

• bot with notifications for patients (electronic prescriptions)

• 24-hour access anywhere

Step 4: Beware of the challenges.

It’s necessary to take care of user convenience, attractiveness, and flexibility of professional healthcare apps. The platform should contain an optimized font and text size and easy and fast navigation. 

The concept of challenges for mhealth is based on three main pillars: 

▶ Building trust

▶ Healthcare legislation compliance

▶ Security and Privacy 

The patient should not be burdened with unnecessary information. It’s essential to strike a balance between the smoothness and effectiveness of the program for different categories of people.

Step 5: Estimate the costs

How to develop a healthcare app? First, you need to understand which wearable devices the program will work with much more efficiently. Then determine whether the program will support IOS or Android. Such segmentation should be adapted to the age categories of people. If the program strategy extends to different placement platforms, then the chance of coverage is much higher.

Understanding more comprehensive functionality, faster results, and additional requirements during development involve high costs. A high price doesn’t always mean good quality work – on average, 25-240 $/hour of application development.

Step 6: Find a way to capitalize your app

To further promote the healthcare apps, you need to check the accuracy and relevance of the data in the system. Then provide the app with the required number of calls to action to encourage users to download it. Paid apps on social networks and email distribution for potential users are excellent options to increase downloads. These well-known platforms, such as Instagram and Facebook, attract many subscribers.

Step 7: Find a partner

What is an app in healthcare for your business model? Further development of the application depends on the successful choice of a partner. For example, GoodFirms, Clutch, and The Manifest can cooperate in personal health development. Also, our professional experts can demonstrate their high level of skills and help develop appropriate software.

The Future of MHealth App Development

It can be assumed that medical devices will significantly impact medical institutions and healthcare organizations. It will be easy and convenient for people to get medicine in the online store and consult doctors remotely. “Health on the phone” will be the basis for communication between doctors and patients. 

The medical institutions will join the mHealth application initiative and adapt to remote treatment and counseling of patients. Patients and doctors will be very familiar with the following issues:

▶ What is a mhealth app?

▶ How to develop a medical app?

In Conclusion

Medical devices greatly facilitate the diagnosis and treatment process for doctors and patients. Even the elderly learn how to develop a health app. The daily routine will be replaced by modern analytical technology. You can find detailed information from mhealth application developers and our Engagement Manager.

FAQ

□ Is there a need to adapt health programs to HIPAA requirements?

→Yes. Being aware of the application of HIPAA standards is an integral part of developing software for health services. There are two criteria for determining whether HIPAA will regulate a program. The first is the type of object that the program uses. And the second is the type of data that the program generates, stores, and provides.

□ What would you advise me to create a practical mhealth application?

→ It’s essential to follow the seven critical steps for developing a mobile medical application that has already been outlined above. These stages guarantee the effective functioning of the application.

□ Is it even possible to apply a blockchain to medical software?

→ Yes. Blockchain is an effective digital tool in medicine. It improves data security, makes medical records more accurate, and reduces the operational costs of managing and storing information.

□ What criteria determine the competitiveness of my app?

→ (1) Convenient physical device size & (2) general wireless network access.

□ Is it possible to create a medical application in a short period?

→ Yes. However, the level of relevant information, user-friendliness of the interface, terms of use may still be at a low level. This way, potential customers will be looking for much better mobile applications.

□ How can we help you with your app?

→ We can present to you the main advantages and disadvantages of different types of medical applications. Our team is happy to help promote your app in social networks, including effective paid advertising. We can advise you on reliable partners or consult with our Partner Engagement Manager.