Types and Features of Online Healthcare Mobile Apps

Technology advances have given the healthcare industry a rapid transformation, as have most other industries. Worldwide, people increasingly rely on smartphone medical applications to do everything from diagnosing and treating health problems to keeping themselves well. The global market for medical apps is expected to generate USD 111.1 billion in revenue by 2025 and will experience tremendous growth within the next few years. Now is the time to invest your resources into developing a mobile healthcare application or upgrading an existing application.

You must understand certain aspects of medical app development before creating a health application. You can build an innovative and productive digital healthcare solution by following this simple guide to healthcare application development.

The following list discusses some of the critical features that you should include in your healthcare app.

In a world where everything is available online, why not schedule an appointment with a medical professional? A doctor’s appointment can be scheduled online not only to save time by eliminating queue waiting but also to make it more convenient for both patients and doctors.

It is a reliable and integrated feature of the healthcare app that enables doctors to provide timely consultation worldwide by connecting with patients. The process is as follows:

There are plenty of APIs and webhooks available within the app, that you can use to integrate appointment booking. Calendly is one example of a product that allows customization through its integration.

There are many benefits of telemedicine over the standard 10-minute one-on-one conversation as it allows doctors to monitor and treat chronic illnesses. Apps for healthcare are currently drastically changing how doctors and patients interact with each other, no matter where they live.

Over the past year, adoption has risen by 59%. Telemedicine uses text or video chat for in-app communication. The process is as follows:

It is necessary to examine patients in person for treatments that rely on physical cues. A photo-based consultation may be used instead. For instance, it can be used for treating skin problems, bruises, or infections in the eyes. Photo-based consultations permit patients to take photos that are saved on a separate server and are accessible from only the doctor’s app.

In addition, doctors can diagnose patients and send them details regarding their diagnosis. Using the app, the doctor can schedule a video call and also order lab tests if more information is needed.

Over 80% of medical school HCPs and students surveyed indicated they communicated about patient care via electronic means such as email, text, and multimedia messages using mobile devices. The fact that doctors and patients alike value this feature indicates its importance of it.

Using WebRTC and cloud infrastructure, you can put text, audio, and video together in real-time. Alternatively, Twilio SDK can also be used to communicate in real-time. Dr-on-Demand facilitates remote diagnosis using Twilio APIs.

A doctor can create and send prescriptions accurately using the e-Prescription feature. As a result, the doctor’s communication with the patient is enhanced. Doctors can also access prescription formulary information through this platform. The platform also contains all the information relating to pharmacies with electronic connections.

These are the features this feature offers and why they are valuable:

Twilio APIs can be used for e-prescriptions. Custom products can be integrated with these APIs. The e-Prescription can be sent as an SMS, email, or WhatsApp message.

Patients and doctors can both benefit from electronic healthcare records. With this, they will have access to all of their health records in one central location. Information collected and retrieved through this feature is usually as follows:

Remote viewing of medical imaging scans can also be added to the feature’s usability. Images are shared through a HIPAA-compliant server that allows them to be uploaded. Medical devices can be used to remotely evaluate scan images just as effectively as standard workstations in some cases.

When it comes to chronic disease treatment, patient loyalty to medication and drugs is critical. A considerable number of people use pharmacological interventions. A patient’s health outcome and healthcare costs could be negatively affected if he/she does not take their medicine regularly and adhere to their treatment plan.

Reminders are the core purpose of this feature. Based on e-prescriptions, it sends out push notifications. The schedule can also be customized.

Firebase and Twilio are two popular push notification providers. The dashboard shows the patient’s progress by collecting all the data about how he or she is interacting with the push notifications. You can discuss your health with your doctor.

A feature such as this is essential if an emergency occurs unpredictably. The ability to call an ambulance with one click can be invaluable in this case. Emergency assistance can then be requested by yourself, your family, or your friends.

Contacts are notified as well as the hospital, in addition to the precise location of the patient. In addition, you can also find nearby diagnostic laboratories and pharmacies if you need urgent help.

A common problem for senior citizens is getting lost in the hospital. It is understandable to lose out on direction when you have a multi-specialty infrastructure. Visitors can easily locate everything from their physician to their parking spot using this feature.

Visitors are more likely to feel calmer if they can find their way around the hospital using maps and images.

This application is described below as a wayfinding map with these sub-features:

Finding an appropriate physician is a crucial aspect of the patient’s journey. Choosing any item from the list isn’t a great idea. A doctor’s profile saves both patients and doctors’time. This also increases the precision of the match-making process between health practitioners and patients.

Here are some considerations to keep in mind while you create this feature:

This tool allows doctors and patients to make appointments in an efficient and trustworthy manner. This feature is only available in the app for specialized doctors. Let’s talk about the doctor’s side of appointment scheduling now that we’ve covered the patient side:

An overview of the patient’s clinical and personal data is available on the dashboard. As a way of delivering quick and efficient treatment plans, this page displays critical patient information in a customizable format.

In addition to patient diagnosis history, lab results, nutritional values, vital signs, treatments, prescriptions, and radiology documents, the dashboard may provide information about nutrition, drug interactions, and more. You may also develop additional dashboards for graphical representation of the trends in medical diagnosis or department-specific view of patient clinical data.

Here are some of the specifications:

It allows doctors to write and send prescriptions to their patients as well as pharmacies if you are not already familiar with it. Approximately 44% of all prescriptions were written electronically in the past year, according to a Surescripts report.

Providers who utilize ePrescriptions have immediate access to their patients’ medication histories as well as information about their prescription insurance coverage so that they can make better-informed decisions.

The concept of e-Prescriptions is based on a digital reference manual. More advanced versions are capable of managing medications, facilitating prescription creation and refilling, integrating with a pharmacy or electronic medical records system, viewing patient history, and syncing with a pharmacy.

Since this feature reduces prescription errors due to illegible faxes and bad handwriting, it is one of the most requested features.

A repeatable process of taking high-quality and consistent patient photos is possible with this feature. As a result, they can convert consultations into procedures with the help of before and after photos and cross-sell aesthetic products.

Through multiple levels of security protocols, Clinical Photo Capture can keep the images they capture secure and track who is accessing the system and what is being done with them at any given time. We have developed a HIPAA-compliant service that simplifies the time-consuming task of managing photographs.

Clinical decision-making at the point of care is facilitated by mobile apps which have proven to be extremely helpful. It is not always the case that doctors have answers to all clinical questions following a clinical encounter. Clinical decision-making systems, especially in evidence-based treatments, clinical decision-making systems are essential.

Hospital Information Systems have as their main function the development and maintenance of daily records of admissions and discharges of patients, the creation and maintenance of doctors’ lists, and inventory management. Let’s examine each one in more detail.

Combining medical data and statistics with administrative tools will increase a hospital or clinic’s efficiency. A patient management and health care system integrated with hospital management can improve patient care and efficiency. Since it stresses the relationship between patient and physician rather than just illness, this improves the patient experience.

EMR & EHR are not the only features of this system. A variety of features are provided, such as appointment management, patient information, room assignment, diagnosis, e-Prescriptions, and billing records.

The system allows the hospital staff to register the doctors working there. Doctors and nurses can then be allocated and managed properly. Patient health records can be combined with appointment details.

Hospital staff manages inventories in a manual and time-consuming manner in a typical hospital environment. Human error is common in such practices. Supply and medication distribution are greatly simplified by inventory management systems.

Technology is used to track and trace the inventory and devices used every day in healthcare facilities through automated inventory management systems. Incorporate barcodes and RFID tags for each item along with unique tracking numbers to accomplish this.

The blood bank can also be managed along with information about donors through the addition of functionality. Medicines can also be managed through a separate inventory.

A medical assistance environment is now available everywhere thanks to modern healthcare applications. A powerful system that integrates EHR, EMR, and even telehealth enhances the delivery of healthcare services. Apps for healthcare, for instance, can provide doctors with real-time insights into patients’ vitals, symptoms, records, and illnesses. It will, however, depend on the specific requirements of your organization which features should be included and the type of app needed.