Comprehensive‌ ‌Guide‌ ‌For‌ ‌Healthcare‌ ‌App‌ ‌Development‌

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity: World Health Organization

Numerous industries are dealing with the incredible impact of digitalization, and healthcare is no exception. Fitness and healthcare mobile apps have made the life of patients and doctors much easier. Mobile app ideas for the healthcare industry have introduced many improvements to online medical mobile app in recent years.

Initially, the industry stayed away from adopting digital platforms to promote health facilities. However, with the widespread usage of online services, especially mobile technology, the healthcare industry leverages online medical services more securely and proficiently.

This blog will discuss various aspects of healthcare app development, including benefits, types of healthcare apps, how to build a healthcare app, and more.

Healthcare App Development: Market Overview

• mHealth held the dominant share due to healthcare professionals and patients’ increased adoption of mHealth technologies.
• The global market for mHealth apps was $38.89 billion in 2021, with a projected CAGR of 34.8% to reach $314.60 billion in 2028.
• Approximately 93% of physicians believe that medical apps can help improve a patient’s health.
• An Accenture survey revealed that nearly 75% of patients understand the importance of healthcare apps.
• Reportedly, the telemedicine app market will reach $17.14 billion by 2026.
• The prevalence of smartphones has led to 62% of users leveraging healthcare applications for health conditions.
• Currently, app stores offer over 350,000 apps for healthcare, providing a wide range of health-related services.

Additional noteworthy statistics:

• 34% of users rely on medical apps for exercise, 22% for nutrition, & 20% for weight loss.
• Whereas 9% of people used mobile health apps for tracking blood pressure, 8% for meditation, and 5% for managing chronic mental illnesses or stress.

Moreover, medical application development has made the traditional relationship between patient & doctor quite obsolete. There is an anticipation of tremendous growth in online medical services.

Crucial Advantages Offered by Healthcare Application Development

• Improve health data gathering
• Increase customer loyalty and engagement
• Minimize medical issues
• Lower spending for patients and hospitals
• Enhance communication between patients and doctors
• Save time for medical staff and healthcare workers
• Provide timely care and medication
• Book appointments

Different Categories of Healthcare Mobile Application Development

1. Mindfulness Application

Promising mindfulness applications combat anxiety, hone your focus, and provide meditation for better sleep. Such application helps people to take a break from their hectic life schedule, restlessness, and tension. With features like meditation sessions and exercises to calm your mind and breathing techniques. Doctor consultation app development helps people to stay relaxed and healthy.

2. On-Demand Apps

On-demand apps are revolutionizing the healthcare industry. From searching and ordering medicines to book an ambulance, an on-demand app helps users to avail of the required services with a couple of clicks.

3. Appointment Scheduling

It allows patients to schedule an online appointment with a healthcare expert easily. Patients can also schedule medical prescriptions, water consumption, calorie consumption, and sleeping times and set reminders to take their next dose of medicine.

4. Fitness and Wellness App

Fitness and wellness apps are primarily focused on promoting digital health app development services. The health and wellness apps emphasize different aspects of digital healthcare that include:

• Relaxation and stress reduction
• Fitness and sports activity tracking
• Weight loss coaching
• Pregnancy
• Pharmacy
• Diet and nutrition
• Sleep cycle analysis
• Meditation
• Hospital selection and appointment management
• Mental health with proper meditation

5. Self-Diagnosing

With the power of artificial intelligence, an app development company offer this feature that helps patients to diagnose themselves. Patients can diagnose themselves completely by checking blood pressure and sugar levels, checking symptoms, and analyzing overall medical status.

6. IoT Products

IoT is the most promising technology that strengthens healthcare products to offer a personalized experience. For example, a wearable healthcare application allows patients to monitor their health continuously. Users can track their physical activities, check their heart rate, blood sugar level, etc. and pay attention to the required medication. From monitoring patients’ health to sending real-time alerts, IoT finds its place in different areas like;

• Tracking Inventory, Staff, and Patients
• Augmenting Surgeries
• Pharmacy Management
• Wearables for immediate and timely assistance
• Remote Patient Care
• Emergency Care
• Virtual Monitoring of Critical Hardware

7. Applications For People On Regular Medication

These healthcare apps are best for senior citizens or patients on regular medication. It helps patients to manage their particular medical conditions and stay in touch with practitioners. Patients can have time to communicate regarding their day-to-day health issues.

8. Assistants For Pregnant Women

Women get more sensitive during pregnancy and look for complete pampering, care, and attention that supports them in dealing with extreme changes. Pregnancy apps help expecting parents to follow the required guidelines and take care of everything for the well-being of the baby-to-be. Pregnancy apps help expecting mothers manage and stay organized with every change their bodies adapt.

Let’s accept it, pregnancy is stressful. Deep meditation is much needed to relax mothers’ minds and bodies, and a proficient healthcare app developer is the greatest helping hand. There are a variety of pregnancy apps available in the market:

• Headspace App
• Glow Nurture Pregnancy App
• Sprout Pregnancy App
• BabyCenter Pregnancy App
• The Bump Pregnancy App
• Prenatal Workout App
• Full-term Contraction Timer App

9. Women’s Health

Women’s healthcare applications primarily focus on helping women to track their menstrual cycles, evaluate their mood swings, overall body health, predict ovulation, guide them to take birth control pills, and reduce the risk of unwanted pregnancy. Such applications empower women to take control of their different health issues. Robust healthcare mobility solutions provide deep insights into female bodies, understand their hormonal changes, provide timely diagnoses, and provide them guidelines to maintain their health.

10. Telemedicine

Telemedicine mobile app enables remote doctor consultation, enhances medical efficiency, and assesses the critical health condition of patients suffering from chronic illness. With the advent of telemedicine app development, doctors can keep track of their patients, ensure they follow the right prescription, and check their health improvements compared to the last follow-ups.

11. Medical Resource and Education Apps

These applications are equipped with instant and readily available medical guides that contain relevant and useful information. Medical students get tons of things to memorize, and these apps can smoothen the process. Mobile health app development contains a database of formulas, classifications, scores, and scales in different specializations such as cardiovascular, anesthesiology, renal, pediatrics, fluid and electrolytes, pulmonology, and many more.

12. Remote Diagnosis and Monitoring

Doctors can track their patient’s health condition with the complete diagnosis of their body, which includes checking sugar level, blood pressure level, diabetes, celastrol, heart rate, etc. A prominent technology like RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) enables online patient health monitoring, increasing access to healthcare from any location and reducing healthcare service delivery costs.

13. Communication

As per the user’s request, doctors can establish communication with their patients and suggest the required medication and proper guidelines. They can use direct chat, voice calls, or video conferencing for seamless communication.

14. Appointment Management

Doctors can manage appointments and schedule their timings to address every patient’s health issues. Appointment management enables doctors to schedule their work approach and keep things organized to address every patient properly.

15. Clinical Assistance

It provides easy access to patients’ Electronic Medical Records (EMR) and Electronic Health Records (EHR). It allows the secure sharing of electronic information among patients and clinical experts, minimizes medical errors, enables reliable prescribing, and facilitates healthcare convenience.

16. Inventory Management

Based on the requirements and usage, institutions can make an inventory management plan to avoid a shortage of resources and quickly avail of the required products and services.

Also Read – Wellness App Development Guide

List of Best Healthcare Applications With Perfect Medical App Ideas

8fit

8fit is the greatest innovation in the healthcare app development market. It is a popular fitness application, or you can consider it as your personal mobile trainer. This versatile app connects you with fitness experts and nutritionists to give you a healthy and happy life. Millions of users rely on this app to lose weight and get a fit and toned body, underweight people use it to gain weight, look fit and live a sustainable lifestyle.

What’s Up? — Mental Health App

What’s Up is an amazing application that works on two methods – CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy) and ACT (Acceptance Commitment Therapy). It helps users to cope with anger, anxiety, depression, stress, and much more. This app is available for Android and iOS with an aesthetically modern design and easy-to-use features.

Calm

Calm is a leading mobile application for sleeping and meditation. This app is best for those struggling to overcome stress and anxiety. It provides a variety of calming workouts, meditation, and breathing techniques. It prevents users from lack of sleep and lowers their stress levels with great mindfulness activities and exercises. Healthcare businesses can opt for a healthcare app development company to build apps for people dealing with restlessness and a lot of tension. .

Ovia – Fertility, Cycle, Health

This app is specifically designed for pregnant women. It provides maternity services, allows parents to watch their baby’s growth, educates them on how to deal with changes week by week, helps expecting moms to monitor their health proliferate, and provides great support to the families throughout parenthood.

OTCme

This innovative app lets you do your “over-the-counter” medicine searching. Pharmacy app development like OTCme simplifies the medicine searching process by allocating the pharmacies nearby your location. Users can also find medicines vendors who sell medicines at the lowest prices.

One Drop – Better Health Today

People dealing with Diabetes, Prediabetes, High Cholesterol, and fluctuating blood pressure can use this application. This app is primarily focused on diabetic patients. One Drop applications sync with other healthcare app brands and devices, allowing users to see their medical data on a single platform.

Kardia

Kardia is the most powerful application that allows people to track their heart rate at home, allow recording of EKGs, keep track of complete medical records, share heart data with the concerned professional, and offer many more benefits. Kardia is the world’s most clinically validated mobile EKG that provides instant FDA-cleared detection of the most common heart arrhythmias.

HealthTap

This application primarily focuses on providing virtual healthcare services with 24*7 availability and accessibility. Users can connect with healthcare professionals via text or audio/video call anytime, anywhere. Users can also avail of membership monthly and get high-quality digital healthcare services.

Benefits of Healthcare App Development for Patients and Caregivers

Easy Accessibility

First of all, health applications have made the lives of patients and healthcare workers more convenient. Global users acknowledged that mHealth apps provide them with easy and immediate access to the required information.

Cater to Personalized Experience

Every patient’s health journey is different, and that’s why every individual needs specific attention and relevant treatment. With healthcare mobile application development, it becomes easy to manage a horde of patients as practitioners can quickly look after patients’ records, pinpoint solutions to their health issues, and give personal attention to every individual.

Patients Can Monitor Their Health

The healthcare applications have modern features that enable patients to check their health status personally. Users can check vital health initials like blood sugar level, weight, cholesterol level, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. to the on-time medical assistance if there is any fluctuation.

Enhanced Efficiency

Using mobile health applications, patients can access the information about medicines they take, chat with a doctor, look through all prescriptions, etc., without leaving their homes. In turn, medical professionals can improve the efficiency of their workflow, reducing manual/paperwork and switching to a mobile application where integrated machine learning algorithms keep track of the information and do a major portion of the work. It saves much time and helps doctors spend more time on patient care.

Also Read – Fitness App Development Guide

How to Develop a Healthcare App? Step-by-step Process

To create a healthcare app, you must address genuine pain points of the medical industry and patients. Not only because it can boost your healthcare business but to save lives. While developing a healthcare and fitness app, keep the following points in mind:

Decide The Type of Healthcare App You Want to Build

Before developing the mHealth app, you must decide where your idea fits within the e-health space. Just look at the below things you could do with your healthcare app:

• Diagnosis chatbots
• Mobile medication alerts
• Phone-to-text capabilities
• Geolocation or geofencing

Familiarize yourself with the different options in healthcare apps and find where your app ideas will fit into the bigger picture:

• Clinical assistance apps
• Scheduling and reminder apps
• Telehealth and remote monitoring apps
• Medical resource and consultation apps
• Health and lifestyle apps

Which Functions Will Serve Users The Best?

Here are the few functions that you can introduce in your medical mobile application development that users might desire:

• Dashboards

Healthcare app dashboards are useful for both solo practitioners and medical service providers to gather patients’ records on a single platform easily. They improve clinical efficiency and administration.

• Reporting and Charting Functions

Consider developing a medical mobile app that covers analytics information to track patients’ medical progress or monitor their activity conveniently. It decreases reporting mistakes and improves the level of care.

• Payment Portal

Payment portals offer convenience for remote patients to make payments or for lifestyle users to purchase subscription packages or products.

• Doctor Profiles and Geolocation

These are quick ways for prospective patients to find doctors near them, review credentials, and, later, use GPS to get to the clinic or medical facility where their doctor works.

• Patient/User Portal

Close to the dashboard, this is a patient-facing feature that notifies users via messages, alerts, and other reminders from their concerned practitioner or mentors all in one place.

• Real-Time Chat and Video

Real-time chat and video options enable patients to connect with on-site physicians during emergencies, discussing treatment options and diagnosis.

Privacy and Compliance For Hospital Mobile App Development

Privacy is the biggest concern while developing e-health apps. Unlike many other digital privacy and security concerns, hospital mobile app development is subject to fierce legislation for protecting healthcare workers’ and patients’ data.

Privacy and compliance requirements for healthcare web application development may vary from country to country. You need to follow a robust mobile app development process and general guidelines for specific countries:

• United States:

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) sets the standards for protecting sensitive patient data in the US. You must comply with HIPAA regulations if your app deals with protected health information (PHI).

• European Union:

The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) applies to all EU member states and regulates personal data collection, use, and storage. Hospital mobile apps that operate in the EU must comply with GDPR requirements.

• Canada:

The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) applies to private-sector organizations that collect, use, or disclose personal information during commercial activities. The best pharmacy apps in Canada must comply with PIPEDA.

• Australia:

The Privacy Act 1988 regulates how personal information is handled in Australia. It applies to all Australian government agencies and some private sector organizations. Free medical apps for patients in Australia must comply with the Privacy Act.

• India:

The Personal Data Protection Bill 2019 is currently in the process of becoming law in India. The bill aims to regulate the country’s collection, use, and storage of personal data. The best medicine apps in India must comply with the requirements outlined in the bill once it becomes law.

Researching and understanding the specific privacy and compliance requirements for the country where you are developing the hospital mobile app is essential. Consult with the mhealth app development company to ensure your app meets all requirements.

Here are certain steps you may take to protect your patient further:

• Analyze the security pros and cons between iOS and Android
• Create an informative and adaptable privacy policy
• Maintain updates to avoid network interruption that compromise protected health information (PHI)
• Add user passwords or other forms of user authentication
• Install and implement encryption on mobile devices

Choose Development Platform

Online health services must be supported on the right platforms and operating systems. Decide whether you want to develop an app for Android, iOS, or Web.

Design For Users

The target audience of medical and fitness applications is extensive. If your goal is to get maximum reach, keep your app design simple and user-friendly. To nail it, you can follow app design standards:

• Optimize the client’s journey inside your application
• Reduce the number of actions users should take to reach the destination or to complete the goal
• Show chief pieces of information at the beginning of the user’s journey
• Consistency is the key when mapping out your patient’s pathway
• Address the patient’s pain points to provide a glitch-free experience
• Maintain uncomplicated, clean, and clear graphic design

Every healthcare application should offer features and functionalities that meet the customer’s expectations. Since they store a huge amount of client data, they must be integrated with standard security features. But, out of these critical features, what other modern features add more value to a versatile application? Let’s have a look.

What are Key Features to Include in Healthcare App Development?

1. Tracking

This feature in any healthcare app enables monitoring of a patient’s blood pressure, heart rate, blood sugar level, pulse, calorie intake, etc.

2. Scheduling & Reminders

This feature offers glitch-free appointment scheduling. It can also set reminders for water intake, daily calorie consumption, medicine intake, sleep, etc.

3. Social Login

Social media login features allow quick login to the patients. Many patients avoid sharing confidential information with social media platforms, so you will have to clarify in your app privacy policy the level of access to personal profiles by social media. This feature offers hassle-free doctor appointments.

4. Practitioner Information

Through this feature, patients can look up doctors by specialty, availability, location, and other parameters. They can also research a doctor’s profile in detail before booking an appointment.

5. Patient Information Database

This feature enables the software to store prescriptions, medical history, reports, and other sensitive data that patients and physicians can access anytime.

6. Real-time Chats

Through this feature, patients can engage with their physicians in real-time and get the timely assistance. This feature can facilitate easy access to healthcare and establish trust between doctors and patients.

7. Geolocation

Imagine a patient is away from his usual healthcare clinic and needs immediate assistance. This feature with integrated map services (Google Maps or any other 3rd party map service) can inform patients about nearby medical institutions, clinics, and hospitals.

8. Forums

The online portals or forums encourage users to have a discussion. They improve collaboration and better engagement between patients and doctors. Forums are linked to the well-being of associated stigmatized group members. It allows app users to participate in online discussions and find better answers to their questions.

9. Reviews & Ratings

Through this feature, patients can provide valuable feedback and share their treatment experiences with other patients. This will help patients get the right medical help and build credibility and loyalty to the healthcare service.

10. Payment Gateway

Mobile payment integration with the latest digital payment features (wallets, credit/debit cards, net banking, etc.) enables patients to initiate fast and secure payment transactions. Patients can also receive a copy of bills for further documentation.

11. Privacy and Security Standards

There is a huge amount of data stored and processed in the Android healthcare application development, e.g., patients’ medical history, contact details, payment transactions, addresses, etc. A supreme app complies with strict security measures and legal regulations.

Depending on requirements, you can also add features like:

• Photo Gallery
• Analytics
• Prescriptions
• File sharing capabilities
• Voice & video calls
• Access to information (medicines, patient history, diseases)
• Access to EHRs/EMRs
• Appointment Booking
• Push Notifications
• Wearable Integration
• One-Click Emergency Service
• Report Management

Tech Stack For Healthcare App Development

The choice of the technology stack for healthcare software development depends on various factors, including the type of application, its functionality, scalability, security, and interoperability requirements. However, here are some of the commonly used technologies and frameworks for healthcare mobile app development:

Front-end technologies	HTML, CSS, JavaScript, Angular, React, and Vue.js
Back-end technologies	Java, Python, Ruby, and Node.js
Frameworks	Spring, Django, Flask, and Ruby on Rails
Operating System	iOS, Android, Cross-platform
Database	MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, Memcached, NoSQL
Web Frameworks	DevOps, GitHub, Jenkins, Selenium, Rollbar, Bitbucket
Business tools	G Suite, Desk.com
Utilities	Google Analytics, Stripe, Elasticsearch
Big Data Tools	Apache Spark
Cloud Storage and Hosting Providers	Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP), DigitalOcean
Back-end Servers	Apache, NGINX
iOS	Swift
Android	Java
Interoperability standards	FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources)
Trending Technologies	Cloud computing, 5G, AI, NLP, IoMT (Internet of Medical Things), AR/VR
Security	OWASP (Open Web Application Security Project), HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act), and HITRUST (Health Information Trust Alliance)

Which Factors Determine Healthcare App Development Cost?

When budgeting for healthcare app development, you need to consider factors like:

1. App Features

The cost of an advanced healthcare application with complex features and functionalities will always be higher than a basic application with limited features. It’s vital to know the market demands, what your target audience is looking for, and their area of interest. You must gauge whether your audience will like the features and functionalities before adding them to your app.

2. Development Platform

There are a variety of platforms available for health application development out of which iPhone App Development and Android app development is mainly adopted by app developers. If you want to develop a single app with the potential to perform on multiple platforms, then you can go with hybrid app development. Every platform supports different development approaches, tools, and technologies. Hence, the cost varies.

3. Regulations & Compliance

Healthcare and medical apps must be HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliant. Avoiding this step may harm your work and lead to legal action. Fines can be charged depending on the frequency and severity of the lapse. Companies need to get fully compliant and pay a certain amount for it.

4. Time To Market

Time to market is strongly tied to cost; after all, time is money! What is the estimated time to develop your app? Ensure your app development follows the rapid development process without unexpected delays. Project delays and extended deadlines impact the overall cost.

5. In-House vs Outsourced

This is one of the most crucial factors influencing the healthcare app development cost. Many reasons favor the in-house development team, but it all boils down to team size, knowledge, and expertise. The smaller team has to deal with a lot and in most cases, lacks the budget, time, and focus required to deliver an app that includes zero bugs. Whereas large teams can arrange and afford the required resources.

Why Investing in Healthcare Apps is The Smart Decision For The Global Healthcare Industry?

Increase Operational Efficiency

Caregiving is about talking to patients and understanding their pain points. With proficient pharmacy app development, companies can enhance their operational efficiency, from managing inventory like an uninterrupted supply of medicine and injection to proper coordination with administration; medical app development is the best option.

Immediate Access To Healthcare Services

With the best healthcare mobile app, medical institutions and healthcare centers are easily accessible. In any emergency, the feature-rich app is a go-to place to get an immediate prescription, medication, appointment scheduling, and other assistance required.

Prevents Errors In Diagnosis

There are maximum chances of errors in manual diagnosis. One wrong diagnosis can lead to a wrong treatment. The wrong diagnosis can cause severe damage by giving the wrong medication to the patient. The medical application development can reduce errors, accurately decipher test reports, and help practitioners to prescribe medications accordingly.

Easy Transaction

The mobile app provides the most convenient payment option. Today, people are going cashless and looking for digital payment options. Healthcare apps with secure payment gateways and mobile payments have overtaken the medical industry. It allows patients to choose their preferred mode of payment to pay their medical bills.

Healthcare Apps Are Blessing In Remote Areas

Today, every service reaches home to home. Rural and far-flung areas also benefit from the power of healthcare applications. Developing a healthcare application can help medical service providers to connect with people living in remote locations and provide them with medical care and assistance.

Also Read: Mobile App Development Cost

Wrap-up

App development for healthcare is vital for both medical business owners and patients. It gives everything vital like time-saving, quick medical assistance, accurate diagnosis, secure payment transaction, and much more.

Today, a single medical app fits performing different roles and responsibilities. Due to this, we can witness the remarkable growth of healthcare mobile app development. A robust healthcare app can monitor a patient’s health, suggest proper nutrition, and establish seamless communication between healthcare service providers and patients.

Experienced Technology Partner For Modern Healthcare App Development!

Creating viable healthcare solutions is teamwork. Also, the fitness and healthcare industry is adopting modern tools and technologies more efficiently. Developing a healthcare app that matches higher clients’ expectations is necessary. If you want to create an app that simplifies healthcare, fitness, and medical operation, choose a certified and experienced app development agency that can cover all the vital aspects to create a successful application.

SparxIT has built a comprehensive wellness platform MyLifeWell that offers a 360-degree approach to health and wellness. The mobile app is designed to help individuals achieve optimal health and wellness by providing personalized and data-driven recommendations. It provides various services, including mental health counseling, nutrition advice, fitness tracking, and stress management.

Do you have a healthcare app idea? Have you considered launching a healthcare and fitness solution for a long time? Any questions that are not covered in this article? Contact us, we are the best healthcare app development company delivering innovative apps.

We believe every individual’s life is precious, and everyone deserves the right treatment at the right time. You can hire mobile app developers to meet your expectations and make digital healthcare app development services more advanced and fruitful.

Frequently Asked Questions

• Which technology is best for healthcare app development?

The topmost mobile app technologies for creating healthcare apps are Python, JAVA, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin, Programming, etc. Hiring medicine app developers to determine the best technology for your healthcare app is essential. It also depends on the specific needs and requirements of the app.

• How can I protect patient data in my healthcare app?

To protect patient data in your healthcare app, you can implement security measures such as encryption, access controls, and data backup. Regular security audits and risk assessments can help identify and address potential vulnerabilities. Additionally, you should comply with data privacy regulations such as HIPAA, GDPR, or other relevant laws in your country.

• How much does it cost to develop a healthcare mobile app?

It isn’t easy to give an approximate cost without knowing the specific details of the healthcare app you want to develop. However, based on industry averages, the cost of developing a basic healthcare app can range from $50,000 to $100,000, while more complex apps can cost upwards of $250,000 or more. It’s vital to consult with an experienced Android app development company to get a more accurate estimate based on your specific needs and requirements.

• How can I ensure my healthcare app is user-friendly and accessible to all patients?

To make your healthcare app user-friendly and accessible to all patients, consider conducting user research and testing to gather feedback and identify usability issues. Incorporate accessibility features such as font size options, color contrast, and screen reader compatibility. Conducting regular user testing and incorporating feedback can help improve usability and accessibility.