Do you remember the last time you booked your appointment with a doctor at a clinic’s reception counter? Or when you visited a doctor in person – especially since the Covid-19 pandemic? If you say it was a long time back, welcome to the age of mHealth!
mHealth or mobile health is the use of mobile phones, apps, and other digital technologies in the healthcare industry. A healthcare app is an integral part of mHealth and helps eliminate several healthcare industry challenges.
If you provide healthcare services, knowing how a mobile app can benefit the healthcare industry is important.
Importance of a Healthcare App
The total global mHealth market is forecast to reach nearly $100 billion in 2021 – a five-fold increase from $21 in 2016. That’s indeed a big jump.
Coming to how a mobile app can help the healthcare industry, there are several challenges that it can help overcome.
A. FOR HEALTHCARE SERVICE PROVIDERS
1. Management of Patients and Expenses
Challenge
Manual tracking of patients’ records is always a prominent issue in traditional medical consultations. Doctors are so swamped that they often find it hard to remember each patient’s history and keep the data handy during every follow-up. At times, multiple screenings and tests may cause billing errors and add up the extra cost of treatment.
Solution
With a mobile app, a doctor can access the patient’s complete history on the go. The patient doesn’t have to worry about carrying their records on every visit to their doctor. Digitized records save both doctors’ and patients’ time. Doctors can fill and send prescriptions to the patients online via the healthcare app itself.
Medical calculator apps can help patients determine risk scores and patients’ vitals like BMI, weight, BP, etc., to suggest proper medication. Hence, access to patient’s data on the fly helps cut down on paperwork and billing issues.
2. Access to Knowledgeable Medical Information
Challenge
Staying abreast of the latest developments in the health industry is indispensable. Sometimes, it becomes difficult to catch up with so much news flooding the healthcare sector for healthcare providers.
Solution
A mobile app gives access to medical info at the fingertips. Be it medical journals, new research, studies and findings, publications, or more, physicians and consultants can access them all to stay updated.
3. Patient Tracking and Engagement
Challenge
Calling a doctor to book appointments or visiting doctors every time may not be a wise idea. It consumes time and leads to errors, in some cases, of miscommunication of availability. Lack of real-time communication without the need for in-person visits poses challenges in patients’ tracking and engagement.
Solution
A mobile app provides chat features, a video call option, and messaging to connect healthcare providers and patients remotely. It also reduces the burden on doctors or consultants by reducing the number of in-person visits for minor ailments and check-ups. This way, doctors’ daily efficiency also improves.
B. For PATIENTS
1. Medication Management
Challenge
Some chronic conditions like diabetes, blood pressure, heart diseases, etc., require strict medication schedules. Managing medications may be cumbersome – especially for those with hectic daily schedules.
Solution
A healthcare app helps patients manage their medications better. It allows them to set pill reminders and medication tracking for the day.
2. Access to Medical Reports
Challenge
Taking time out of busy schedules to collect medical reports from diagnostic centers can be messy. Carrying them in a file on every visit to the doctors adds to the pain further. Apart from this, there is also the hassle of putting these together chronologically.
Solution
A healthcare app enables patients to manage and access their reports online easily. They can check the reports within the app and share them with doctors instantly. This saves their time to collect hard copies of reports and maintain a folder for them.
3. Payments and Insurance Cover Claims
Challenge
Cashless payment and claiming cashless medical insurance at the time of patients’ discharge from hospitals can lead to a last-moment hassle.
Solution
A healthcare app provides one-page checkout to make payments more manageable. It also enables you to carry your medical insurance documents with you to make insurance cover claims faster. Nowadays, various insurance companies are typing up with healthcare service providers to save time to further patients’ convenience and save their time and resources.
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How to Make an App for Healthcare Services
1. Decide on the App Type
There are various types of mHealth apps out there.
There are clinical and diagnostic apps for practitioners to collect, analyze, and share their patients’ data. They can also access electronic health records, lab results, and digital imaging, diagnose illnesses, and schedule appointments.
Remote monitoring apps enable patients to stay at home while doctors can track their heart rate, oxygen level, blood pressure, and other vitals remotely.
There are productivity apps that enhance healthcare providers’ efficiency. They provide home healthcare, internal communication, and help healthcare providers stay compliant with patients’ privacy laws.
There are also clinical reference apps that offer practitioners and consultants to refer to International Classification of Diseases Clinical Modification (ICD), E&M coding, and other specialized research and studies.
So, decide on the type of app before you think of how to make an app for healthcare.
2. Ensure Data Security
Ensure that your app is fully compliant with patients’ data security and confidentiality laws applicable in your country. For instance, Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and National Health Service National Program for IT (NPfIT) govern patients’ confidentiality measures in the US and UK respectively.
3. Focus on User Interface, User Experience, and Functionalities
How to make an app for healthcare that drives engagement? One of the crucial factors is to keep your healthcare mobile app design appealing and easily navigable. Your app’s interface should be easy-to-use, interactive, and most importantly – responsive!
Also, decide on the functionalities to include per your requirements. You can include some general mHealth app features like virtual appointment scheduling, medical reports, remote consultation, telemedicine, etc.
4. From Scratch or Launch-Ready Framework
Building a healthcare app from scratch or using a pre-built ready-to-integrate framework is still a question point. Well, here’s my two cents for you.
Though there is no fixed criterion to decide between the two, it’s generally recommended to go for a scalable ready-to-integrate framework for your app, especially if you have just started your journey and are tight on budget and resources. As your business expands, you can keep customizing your functionalities and keep your app in line with your goals.
Launch Your HealthCare App In No Time with AppJetty
Now that you’ve learned how a mobile app can benefit the healthcare industry, it’s high time you entered mHealth with your health app. If you are still unsure about how to make an app for healthcare or are looking for instant app creation services, you’ve got us on your side.
Our MageMob App Builder can take your healthcare app to everyone’s pockets in a matter of days. You can enter the world of mHealth with our fully scalable and customizable app development framework. It’s got the support for all the native app features and saves you a huge fraction of the investment on your app’s full-scale build.
Our development team can discuss your customization requirements and customize the app builder to fit your needs if you want. Even if you have requirements for different, we’ve got you covered. Our development team can guide you on how to make an app for healthcare from the ground up.
So, let’s join hands to help you serve the world with your healthcare services!
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