


Mobile health apps deliver amazing results. Healthcare mobile app development keeps changing and improving. With every app improvement, the entire healthcare industry advances.
Mobile-health-app innovations change patients’ lives.
While the core of healthcare services remains intact, the industry itself is ripe for technical disruption. Technical companies are moving deeper into the healthcare space—and vice versa. CEOs of health plans and health systems seek partnerships with outside organizations. Top of the list? A guaranteed secure, efficient, and cost-effective way to store and manage patient data.
Healthcare apps are gaining trust among patients.
Patients share personal information with their doctors through apps. A Deloitte study shows 28% – 53%* of respondents shared their personal information with doctors and would share essential information with family members in case of an emergency. (*Wide range was region dependent.)
Electronic health or eHealth means helping patients via electronic devices. The eHealth strategy receives strong governmental support.
Technology-enabled care (TEC) remains the end goal of many programs. It is a major growth point for patient-centric medical services. Digital solutions enable patient independence and active participation in a treatment process. Norway’s government encourages specialized health services in patients’ homes. Remote interpretation is the core of this plan.
For similar or lower costs, TEC helps overcome negative trends in the industry, including:
Despite the benefits, healthcare application development faces significant challenges. Digital transformation is inevitable. Demand outpaces this transformative undertaking.
IT Craft provides the best possible solution at the most reasonable price. IT Craft developers help startups and established companies launch healthcare solutions. Complexity varies. High quality doesn’t.
IT Craft is proud to be a trusted partner supporting the technical side of the following projects, among many:
Flexwise is a trusted platform for hiring temporary nursing professionals through a pre-selected pool of qualified employees.
Clinics administrators can directly negotiate with nurses on prices, schedule, and more. They can easily re-hire a temporary nurse when needed. In turn, nursing professionals can take jobs immediately after they are accepted.
Flexwise started as monolithic software that the development team turned into microservices. As a result, frequent updates are simple. Dockerization, test automation, and deployment automation decrease time and increase quality.
Arctrieval is a Web system for easy, secure communication between patients and medical institutions.
Arctrieval replaces an outdated paper-based process with a trusted digital system. It helps securely issue, receive, and exchange sensitive information from hospitals to patients. The system supports the entire cycle of patient request. Personalization and customization are available to synchronize with each user’s mailbox.
XPERTyme is a Berlin-based startup specializing in software for billable video-calls. Video-consulting, workshops, and seminars are possible through a secure platform. XPERTyme meets the needs of both individuals and groups.
consultations are among the platform’s top-priority categories. Secure calls are available via a link or a special invitation. This makes the call accessible only to the intended users. Integration of billing systems ensures professionals get paid for their services.
XPERTyme also offers white-label solutions for businesses. The platform provides easy integration, enhanced security, instant scalability for group calls, and more.
Four large end-user groups in the healthcare services market benefit from healthcare mobile apps:
get tools for diagnostics, treatment control, and patient management.
receive consultations and treatment, track health conditions and activities.
manage treatment process and treatment costs, patient history, staff workload, recruit missing specialists, and more.
exchange information with clinics and clients — securely.
Healthcare app developers help these groups in different ways. All processes must be done securely meeting both rigid standards of HIPAA and GDPR.
New trends arise to meet the challenges of healthcare industry. These challenges include:
When planning a healthcare app, consider the following healthcare app development trends:
Telemedicine tops the list of healthcare apps. COVID-19 patients often need help but do not want to put doctors, clinic staff, and others at risk. Telemedicine renders boundaries insignificant. Patients receive an appointment with a specialist from anywhere in the world. “Doctor-to-doctor” telemedicine apps are used to share advice between peers.
Different European countries have updated their eHealth legislation. Health institutions can now update legacy infrastructure with fewer hassles. The industry needs management systems to ensure consistency and security in treatment processes. Sensitive information will neither be lost nor stolen but shared between interested parties. eHealth management systems open up opportunities for startups in various healthcare areas.
Many players in the healthcare services market already use internal custom systems. But this is convenient only when information circulates within an organization. Organizations need cloud-based services for users to access, process, or share information constantly outside of an organization's network e.g., enable patients to book an appointment from home.
Healthcare industry generates a vast amount of impersonal, scientifically significant data. Analytic solutions help make use of collected data. Doctors can specify treatment methods. Clinics can assign workload. Insurance companies can build forecasts. AI helps refine models performing routine calculation tasks.
New cost-effective medical devices help doctors assist patients living in remote areas. Precise diagnoses, personalized care, and immediate reactions in emergency situations become possible. Wearable devices for constant patient monitoring become cheaper every year helping doctors’ track patients’ state. A privacy-first approach is the cornerstone for development of any new medical devices.
Smartphones have become the primary devices for almost everyone worldwide. Where they go, so, too, their smartphones. Healthcare apps can be a patients’ first choice when they need to book a consultation, receive medical records, find out the results of medical tests, pay for medical services, and more. The list of possible services is endless. A mobile-first approach is the future of healthcare services. And a must when you’re planning for one.
When starting healthcare app development, it is important to determine the feature list. Some features are common for many, if not all apps. The others will make the difference to help you stand above your competition.
The list of basic features for healthcare app development includes the following:
Implementation of basic and specific features highly depends on the end type. And note: every healthcare app must be HIPAA compliant 100% securing sensitive information. GDPR compliance is a must in the EU countries plus for anyone visiting the USA
Healthcare mobile app development is complicated at every level:
Every product owner needs to consider the following points:
The number of stakeholders is larger than the number of end-user groups. The treatment process includes several stakeholder groups interacting with each other:
When designing a new healthcare app, a product owner must keep in mind all possible stakeholders. They have different interests and interconnections.
Regulations.Healthcare apps must comply with HIPAA (USA) and/or GDPR (EU) regulations. Governments take an active part in creating legal framing for eHealth. Hence, product owners be mindful of legislative updates. Regulatory requirements are often seen as the biggest challenge.
Integrity.Locale-specific design with intent to integrate to a large market does not work yet. Custom solutions must be adjusted to the realities of a certain healthcare provider and workflow. To securely exchange data, healthcare apps might need to work well with existing, locally developed solutions. They might also need to work on available infrastructure or need a small investment into hardware.
Security.Medical apps process sensitive user data. Hence, they impose high requirements of coding standards, data exchange, and storage. Mistakes are costly. Avoid costly errors by using a third-party code inspection for a healthcare app.
Apps might cause indirect or unintended consequences. Product owners must be vigilant and insist on thorough user-acceptance testing.
End-user centricity.Medical treatment provides patients with medical help. This is what it’s all about. Patients get help at the right time, in the right place, using the right treatment methods—all at affordable costs. Mobile medicine apps make on-demand healthcare possible.
Quality and equality.The end goal of healthcare mobile app development is granting the same high level of medical services even in ‘medical deserts.’ People living in remote areas will also get timely consultations and receive treatment and observation from relevant specialists. Healthcare apps make the outpatient model possible.
To correctly determine the scope of work for your healthcare mobile app development project, check out this guide.
Ask the following questions. Write down your answers
These answers provide medical app developers with key information about any future product.
The essential six steps for successful healthcare mobile app development include:
Every organizational transformation is successful when it improves user behavior. Apps need to exceed user expectations.
This is possible when the development team helps the product owner define and design the app.
The following six-step healthcare mobile app development process will help design the software:
At the discovery stage, a development team discusses system requirements with the product owner. They also discuss functionality, timeline, budget, and possible implementations. Both a business analyst and a project manager conduct interviews with stakeholders to establish what the stakeholders really need. Software developers do code inspection if the product owner already has source code.
The discovery step saves client’s money in the future ensuring clients get what they want.
The business analyst and project manager draw up a project roadmap. The team prepares technical requirements and estimates.
The mapping step provides a detailed project plan with exact project goals, timeline, and scope.
UI designers prepare visual elements of the future app. When needed, UX designers help establish the right user flow. Software developers produce source code for app functionality and ensure it corresponds to app requirements.
The design and development step produces an intuitive system where users benefit from existing best practices.
Healthcare app development is successful only with thorough testing. For big projects, QA engineers introduce test automation. This saves time on testing activities and improves overall app quality. After source code is tested, DevOps engineers help deploy the latest version of healthcare app to the server.
The testing step prepares the software for a successful launch.
When the app goes live, stakeholders test it to ensure the new software corresponds to set goals. Stakeholders check app elements, app usability, response time, and other parameters. Based on their recommendations, the development team makes adjustments.
The user acceptance and adjustment stage fine-tune app quality and readies it for the market.
The team works on app updates. They introduce new features. Also, they monitor servers and install security updates to eliminate breaches. When needed, the development team helps with migration activities and integration of new third-party services.
The maintenance stage is ongoing throughout app’s life.
Anything else important?
Yes. Training.
Right after a healthcare app is launched, it is time to schedule a webinar or zoom call. Or, when life permits, train in person on site. Make sure users clearly understand how the new healthcare app improves their experience. This helps break any barrier of rejecting novelties.
You get a secure solution, all regulations accounted.
Every product owner needs a team able to help launch their app while keeping in mind specifics of a healthcare domain.
Be wise! Choose a team able to collect and process needed information and build a relevant, reliable solution.
The right custom healthcare software development company substantially boosts speed of implementation.
When looking for a reliable healthcare software development company, consider these relevant factors:
crucial on both sides. Ensure the development team clearly understands the project’s main goals. Together discuss possible risks. Ensure the team keeps open dialog with you to discuss problems during the development process.
look for a team able to adapt to changing requirements. Your future healthcare app might need modifications. Make sure your team can do these with speed and accuracy.
start with a small, Sprint-long testing task. This helps you test drive the team’s services. Track how well the new team manages requirements. Ensure their workflow suits your needs.
make sure the team provides essential information about the project. Documentation and source code commentaries help you—the product owner—maintain control over the project.
An established custom healthcare software development company helps launch your app faster. It also helps maintain and update the app for reasonable costs.
The essential six steps for successful healthcare mobile app development include:
When a client contacts us and leaves a request, the request goes to a business development manager.
Based on the level of detail provided in a request, the business development manager forwards it either to a business analyst (BA) or to a project manager (PM). A BA clarifies all requirements. A PM provides a general estimate with possible timeline, budget, and cooperation model.
At this step, both the company and client sign an NDA to legally ensure information is kept secret. IT Craft always respects client confidentiality. The NDA gives clients the added assurance they might need.
The parties negotiate the details. If the parties agree, IT Craft prepares a contract which is then signed by both parties.
After the contract has been signed, a development team starts working on software.
The team usually consists of the following experts:
Please note, the number of developers and engineers assigned to a project is dependent on project size and complexity.
IT Craft teams use the Sprint approach when developing an app. Each Sprint lasts two weeks.
Each Sprint begins with planning and ends with debriefing. At the end of a Sprint, the client gets deliverables which he or she can test on a server. The client also gets a detailed report on all team activities and plans for the next Sprint.
Most often, team members work in parallel to shorten development timeline.
Usually, the development team designs several healthcare apps for a healthcare solution. The goal is to reach the most devices. This approach could be expensive for a startup building an MVP. Consult with the development team and decide which development strategy best suits you.
Innovations in science and technology today transform healthcare of tomorrow.
Digital transformation of healthcare continues. Healthcare apps improve the entire healthcare industry.
Digital solutions:
Stakeholders want further digitization of the healthcare industry.
We can do this with the current level of technologies.
Are you in or out?
Contact usAnton Suddia is a content specialist at IT Craft, a Web and mobile software development company. He is a big fan of cutting-edge technologies and enjoys wr iting about how new technologies improve our everyday activities.
Thanks for the post. In my opinion, the biggest challenge of all healthcare apps lies in bureaucracy. Although HIPPA and GDPR are really important, healthcare legislation lacks flexibility. If we want to see competition on the healthcare market, we need flexibility to ensure more opportunities for startups. I look forward to seeing if anything changes in 2021.
Thanks for the information. I wonder how much time it takes to develop and launch a healthcare app?
Viktoriia,
Thanks for asking. Unfortunately, there is no answer in advance. It can take you 6 – 9 months of intensive work on source code until you launch a healthcare solution on all major platforms (Web, iOS, Android). Usually, you can launch faster if you start an app for one platform and then expand to others.
However, the timeline can be extended to 12 months and more in case if a startup needs to pivot or makes significant changes in app requirements.
Thanks for sharing. I think telemedicine apps and online appointment systems become mainstream. They serve public safety helping prevent spread of covid. Also, telemedicine apps help patients stay in touch with their therapists from any location worldwide. They get the same level of medical services in the regions lacking qualified specialists.
Hi,
I want to note that updates and proper maintenance are crucial for any type of healthcare apps. If an app does not get regular updates, it becomes obsolete soon. On the other hand, regular updates extend app lifecycle. At some point, healthcare solutions can be transferred to the new technologies. As a result, business can reuse the same code base rather than start anew every several years.
Thanks for mentioning training in your post. Training is crucial for app success. If end users do not know how to use the new app, they will just ignore it.
When the product owner keeps user habits in mind, everyone wins. For example, many clinics already use software for management of patient records. Clinics staff can be accustomed to outdated systems and work effectively. When clinics administration wants to replace outdated software with a new solution that works differently, staff will simply refuse the novelties because they will spend more their worktime figuring out how things work!
Therefore, every healthcare app must be developed keeping end users in mind. Healthcare software development is preceded by user interviews and followed by user training.