The Ultimate Business Guide to Healthcare Application Development in 2023

Dileep Gupta July 12, 2024
Healthcare-app-development
Table of Content

The healthcare industry has grown rapidly in recent years, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Statista, revenue in the global healthcare market is estimated to grow to $57.86 billion in 2023, growing at a CAGR of 10.40% from 2023-2027, resulting in a market volume of $85.95 billion by 2027.

Revenue in the Health Care market
This growth is driven by the fact that an increasing number of medical organizations are opting for healthcare mobile app development to improve the overall quality of medical services. The primary reasons for the escalating adoption of healthcare IT consulting services include:

  • Ease of healthcare access
  • Digital transformation in the healthcare industry
  • Higher access to healthcare users
  • Better health tracking and monitoring
  • Easier and faster delivery of medical services
  • Early detection of potential ailments and so on

Owing to the above reasons, mobile healthcare apps, also known as mHealth apps, are an exceptional way to make the lives of patients and doctors easier, thus improving overall patient care.

While mHealth app development is a proven way to improve patient care and satisfaction, 8 out of 10 healthcare apps fail to meet users’ expectations due to reasons such as the lack of strategy, technical guidance, meaningful impact to cover medical challenges, etc.

Well, to help you in your healthcare software application development journey, here is a comprehensive guide that will give you a good insight into medical app development best practices, processes, types, benefits, costs, and so on.

So, without further ado, let’s jump right in and uncover the essential details revolving around mHealth app development. But before we start, here are quick insights into the current healthcare market landscape.

( Also read: How Much Does It Cost To Build a Telehealth App Like Teladoc?)

build the right custom medical app

Healthcare Market – An Overview

In today’s technology-driven world, where smartphones have quickly become an extension of our lives, a notable trend of mHealth apps has gained immense popularity, empowering individuals to take control of their well-being like never before. Hence, it is unsurprising to know that businesses and digital health investors invested more than $21 billion in digital healthcare projects in 2020.

According to Statista, there were approximately 52,565 healthcare apps on the Google Play Store and 51,370 apps on the Apple App Store in the first quarter of 2022. Since the outbreak of the global pandemic COVID-19, the number of healthcare app downloads has increased by 60% worldwide.

Also Read- What Is Fueling Investor Excitement in Healthtech

Now that we know the global market stats of mobile healthcare apps, let’s see what medical and healthcare app development is all about.

What is Healthcare App Development?

Healthcare app development is the process of developing an app for mobile devices to help its users successfully track and follow their health issues in real-time. Furthermore, mobile healthcare apps allow users to access a variety of medical information and health facilities with just a few taps on their mobile devices.

For instance, mobile health application development is a big yes for EHR (Electronic Health Records), medical service experience, hospital services, digitized medical insurance claims etc.

How is Healthcare App Development Different from Medical App Development?

While both healthcare and medical app development serve the purpose of wellbeing, there is a fine line difference between both. They significantly differ in their specific goals, regulatory requirements,  target audiences, and the nature of the data they handle. Therefore, understanding these differences is essential before you embark on your mHealth app development journey.

Healthcare App Development:

Healthcare mobile app development aims to provide health-related solutions for all kinds of smartphones and communication devices. For example, apps for

  • Physical activity tracking
  • Yoga and meditation
  • Nutrition
  • Searching for nearby medical assistance, etc.

Medical App Development

Medical app development involves creating software solutions for mobile devices that doctors can use to regulate their medical operations. For example, apps for:

  • Telemedicine
  • Remote patient monitoring
  • Patient data collection and management
  • Chronic disease management, etc.

Here is more;

AspectHealthcare App DevelopmentMedical App Development
FocusHealthcare apps focus on improving healthcare systems, services, administrative tasks, and medical information.Medical apps focus on medical diagnosis, treatment, and patient-specific information based on analytical data.
Target AudienceThese apps are for the general public and can be used by anybody, including patients, healthcare providers, administrators, and insurance companies.Medical apps are strictly developed for medical professionals, researchers, and patients.
FeaturesIt includes features such as appointment scheduling, EHR, health tracking, and insurance claim processing.It often includes features like medical reference libraries, drug interaction checkers, disease-specific calculators, and remote monitoring tools.
ComplianceThese apps must adhere to healthcare regulations like HIPAA and the FDA for medical device apps.Medical apps should comply with stringent healthcare regulations, medical device regulations, and clinical standards.
Data SensitivityHandles sensitive patient data but may not require the same level of security and encryption as medical apps.Deals with highly sensitive and confidential medical records, requiring robust security measures and strict data protection.
Development Cost and TimeMobile healthcare application development usually costs less, depending on various factors.The medical mobile app development process can be a costly and time-consuming endeavor.
ExamplesHealth and fitness apps, hospital management systems, and patient engagement platforms.Medical reference apps, telemedicine platforms, diagnostic tools, and medical device companion apps.

Why is Healthcare App Development Essential for Businesses?

Healthcare software development or healthcare app development serves different purposes. It can help streamline hundreds of administrative and healthcare management functions, such as allowing individuals to efficiently track and follow their health issues, easily access healthcare information, maintain health records, and so on.

In simple terms, healthcare mobile app development serves the following purposes:

  • For doctors and medical professionals – It helps in patient monitoring, early disease detection, staff management, appointment scheduling, etc. Furthermore, it helps medical professionals consult patients via video and audio conferencing, make diagnoses, and prescribe medicines.
  • For users – It helps track wellbeing, seek medical recommendations, get at-home delivery of medical services, track their fitness level, measure heart health, and book appointments.

Mobile healthcare apps allow users to access a wide array of medical facilities with a few taps on their smartphones.

You may like to know: How Much Does it Cost to Build an Addiction Recovery App Like I Am Sober?

Benefits of Healthcare App Development for Medical Professionals and Patients

One of the primary reasons why healthcare app development solutions have become so popular for businesses is that they offer countless benefits to general users and medical professionals while facilitating the progress of the healthcare industry. If you create a healthcare app, you will gain limitless benefits that will help automate operational processes and improve the financial performance of medical institutions. Let’s learn how.

(Also read: Exploring the Role of EDI in Modern Healthcare – How It Works And Why It Matters For Businesses

Benefits for Medical Professionals

Developing a healthcare app is often a time-consuming and expensive process, however, it provides its investors and stakeholders with extensive value in:

Benefits of Healthcare App Development for Medical Professionals

Built-in Diagnostic Systems

These systems enable the collection and processing of data from embedded and IoT devices integrated with EHR platforms. The doctors can easily analyze and diagnose the condition of remote patients, track progress, and determine treatment.

Accurate Diagnosis

Medical apps facilitate healthcare professionals with early and accurate diagnosis of diseases. With precise and built-in diagnostic systems come better treatment plans, timely healthcare delivery, and effective outcomes. For instance, VisualDx is among the top diagnostic support systems and healthcare apps for personalized guidance.

(Also read: Everything You Need to Know About mHealth Apps

Electronic Health Record (EHR)

With the integration of EHR solutions, healthcare apps can easily track, store, and collect all information related to a patient on a single platform. This saves time, eliminates errors, and allows the exchange of patient data between different healthcare institutions.

For example, Uber incorporates an EHR System to ease medical transportation. This on-demand ride-sharing firm introduced Uber Health, which allows medical experts to book and track rides on behalf of their patients.

Also Read: How to build an EHR system? Features and cost breakdown

Medical mobile application development

Telehealth and Telemedicine

Telehealth is one of the fastest-growing applications in the healthcare industry, and it is expected to grow at a CAGR of 24.0% from 2023 to 2030, from the estimated market size of $83.5 billion in 2022. Today, the use of telemedicine and telehealth software solutions such as SaMD (Software as a medical device) is in high demand, particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic and social isolation. It empowers medical professionals to deliver remote healthcare services, communicate online, and offer top-notch medical care faster.

For instance, Doctor-on-demand is one such application that allows healthcare professionals to offer consultations via video or audio calls. It also helps patients to book appointments at their convenience.

Doctor On Demand app

Also Read: How to build a medical startup?

E-Prescribing

E-prescribing apps allow doctors to accurately prescribe medications for patients, adjust dosages to avoid potential side effects, and revoke prescriptions at any time as needed. These platforms play a crucial role in minimizing errors at the pharmacy and optimizing both doctor and patient time. For instance, Medscape is one such app that allows doctors to upload prescriptions in the app itself according to the patient’s requirements.

Improved Communication

Various telehealth applications help doctors connect with patients remotely for significant consultations and discussions.

Less Stress and Burnout

Healthcare mobile app development liberates professionals from repetitive tasks by increasing the reliability of medical systems and processes.

Better Service and Equipment Management

Healthcare software development allows users to monitor medical equipment in real-time and optimize its use accordingly. For instance, a custom healthcare app tracks all active on-premise ventilators.

Also read: How much does it cost to build a healthcare app like myAster?

Benefits for General Users

Healthcare apps have a wide range of use cases that benefit not only medical professionals but also patients. These apps leverage the convenience and accessibility of mobile phones to improve the delivery of medical services and enhance the overall healthcare experience for patients. Here are some remarkable benefits of hospital mobile apps for patients:

Benefits of Healthcare App Development for General Users

High-Quality Patient Care

With advanced healthcare apps for fitness, nutrition, etc., patients can track their disease symptoms, chronic conditions, sleep patterns, heart rate, and overall health using IoT-connected wearable devices or smartphone sensors. The continuous monitoring allows for early detection of health issues and timely intervention, thus improving overall patient care.

Accessible Healthcare Data

A mobile app platform makes healthcare information and medical data easily accessible for better patient monitoring. Now, patients can access healthcare information and news at home or even on the go and share their health data and symptom reports with their healthcare providers. For instance, UpToDate is a mobile healthcare app that tracks workflow, medical news, health kits, and daily achievements of users.

On-Demand Accessible Care

Mobile app development for healthcare makes on-demand medical services easily accessible to every common user. It means medical care, such as drug delivery, sample collection, prescriptions, etc., are delivered faster at patients’ doorstep.

Better Communication

Medical apps enable patients to maintain real-time communication with caregivers. For instance, YouCoMM, a multi-request format platform developed by Appinventiv, allows in-hospital patients to connect with nurses when they need help with basic needs. The app runs on head gestures, voice commands, and many more advanced features that keep medical staff updated on their patient’s situations.

Benefits of Healthcare App Development for General Users

Looking at the above benefits, if you have decided to work on a healthcare application development idea, you should consider different types of healthcare app solutions available in the industry.

Types of Healthcare Mobile App Development

mHealth app development brings along various types of applications, contributing to improved healthcare management and enhanced overall wellbeing. Depending on their purpose of use, healthcare apps can be divided into two categories: apps for medical professionals and apps for general users. Let’s discuss each category and its branches in detail.

Healthcare Apps for Hospitals and Medical Professionals

These healthcare apps are supposed to bring value to medical staff, facilities, doctors and physicians, which is why they are developed in a more complex way with advanced and reliable features. Some common healthcare mobile apps for professionals are:

Types of Healthcare Apps for Hospitals and Medical Professionals

Telehealth Apps

These healthcare applications let doctors schedule appointments and provide medical consultations using in-app messaging and video calls. Telehealth applications are convenient to both doctors and patients since they help avoid physical contact and provide care in the comfort of the home. Some popular examples of telehealth apps are TelaDoc and GoodRx Care.
Also Read: How much telemedicine app development costs

Medical Networking Apps

Although medical professionals are quite busy with hospital management and patient services, it’s crucial for them to communicate with other medical experts and share expertise to improve the overall communication process. This communication is done through medical networking apps. Some popular examples of medical apps for networking are Doximity, Sermo, and WeMedUp.

Medical Prescription Apps

Prescription healthcare apps help professionals pick the right drug for their patients, pack it in a list, and manage usage and time. Some of the medical apps even allow printing prescriptions for patients to show in the nearby pharmacy.

Medical Record Apps

Medical record health applications help simplify collecting and updating patients’ medical data. The data records consist of blood pressure, body temperature, medical examinations and diagnosis, prescriptions, appointments, and various criteria to track medical health. Health-e People, developed by Appinventiv and Meditab are two of the most popular medical record apps among physicians.

Healthcare Apps for Patients and General Users

The healthcare software and applications for patients are designed to assist general users in making their lives easier. With basic medical assistance, these healthcare apps are simple yet valuable in a wide range of wellness aspects. Different types of mobile healthcare application development for patients are:

Types of Healthcare Apps for Hospitals and Medical Professionals

Mental Health Apps

Mentals health apps target making therapy more accessible, flexible, and efficient for general users. These apps usually assist in fighting anxiety, depression, and insomnia with the help of various pre-recorded sessions, gaming elements, breathing exercises, etc. Some popular mental health app examples are MoodKit, Headspace, and Mindshift.

Health Monitoring Apps

Health monitoring apps help track and manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, blood pressure, and so on. Few well-known health monitoring apps are WebMD, Ada, and The Diary. Soniphi, the first resonant frequency-based personal wellness healthcare app developed by Appinventiv, is another considerable example of a health monitoring app. This wellness system accesses vocal information to create a detailed wellbeing analysis report.

Soniphi vitality health apps

Medical Education Apps

The primary objective of medical education apps is to maintain a reliable database with up-to-date medical information for doctors, students, and medical users. Clinical Sense, MedScape, Prognosis, and Epocrates are good examples of medical education apps.

Health Lifestyle Apps

This mobile healthcare web application development category for patients brings together different applications such as fitness and nutrition apps, self-improvement apps, weight loss apps, mind training apps, pregnancy tracking apps, and many others that help achieve a healthy lifestyle. Some popular health lifestyle apps are HealthPal, MyFitnessPal, Remente, and MoodPath.

The above healthcare software application development types are the primary categories of the vast healthcare digital space. If you want to learn more about different types of medical software, check out the blog 15 Types of Healthcare Software to take your medical business to the next level.

How to Develop a Healthcare App? A Step-By-Step Process

The healthcare mobile app development process involves several steps, best practices, and a definite plan to ensure a successful and user-friendly application that can drive the right result for both patients and healthcare providers. Therefore, before you embark on your app development journey, you must have a clear understanding of what is your app’s goal, what kind of app you want, what features it will have, who will be your target audience, what purposes it will target, and how.

Evaluating these vital considerations, here, we will discover each step of the healthcare mobile app development process.

Healthcare App Development Process

Define Your App’s Idea and Goal

An important part of the medical or healthcare application development process is to understand your end-users’ needs. Evaluate the problems they are facing and how your application can solve it. At this stage, you should also ponder over the app type. For example, your application can be around diabetes or an anxiety-tracking one.

Conduct Market and Regulatory Research

After understanding your target audience’s needs and pain points; you need to conduct market research to analyze your competitors and identify gaps in the market that your app can fill. It will help you define your app’s features and functionalities, which will further aid you in meeting your end goal.

While conducting market research, you must understand the regulatory compliances applicable in the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry deals with a vast volume of protected health information (PHI), making it essential for you to comply with HIPAA regulations (more details later).

Hire a Healthcare App Development Company

Hiring a reliable mobile healthcare app development company ensures that your app is developed using all the essential technologies and trending features required to make your app successful in the healthcare market. A reputed healthcare app development company has a skilled team of UI/UX designers, developers, testers, project managers, and market specialists who work relentlessly to bring your app idea to life.

Fast paced healthcare system

Choose the Right Platform

After defining your app’s goal, it is time to choose the platforms your application will be deployed on – Android, iOS, or the web. You can also think of adding a home assistant device integration to ensure that your application is only a voice command away. A key thing to note here is that elderly patients generally tend to prefer visiting a website, while their young counterparts are more likely to use apps and voice devices.

Decide the Location for the App Launch

The most common approach that entrepreneurs, business heads, and tech heads follow when launching a new app is building it for their nationals. In case you or your board members wish to take an alternate route and launch your application internationally, consider the nation-specific guidelines and user personas, highlighting the creation and deployment of medical apps.

Select a Monetization Strategy

The basic intent behind all types of mobile app development across domains is to earn money. When we talk about how to earn money from an app, the healthcare domain works around two types – a subscription-based model and a freemium model with paid access to premium services. Furthermore, healthcare providers can also opt for in-app advertisements, third-party partnerships, and other monetization models to earn through the medical apps.

Pay Attention to UI/UX Design

UI/UX design plays a crucial role in healthcare mobile application development, determining the success of your medical apps. Generally, older people like simple navigation and bigger fonts, while a younger audience prefers a colorful UI with better functionalities. The design will also depend on whether your audience is healthcare professionals or the general public. In addition to the visual component, it’s important to take care of how the app will look on different-sized screens. So, invest time, money, and resources accordingly to get it right.

Also Read: 7 UX Design Mistakes That Can Deter Your App Success

Develop an MVP

A key element of success can be creating an MVP instead of a full-fledged application. MVP development is the best approach to ensure that the solution is well-tested and validated before it enters the market. If you present your MVP to investors with your future plan, they can see the demand for your app in the market and get interested in it.

Test Your App

Testing is one of the most integral steps when creating healthcare solutions. Test and iterate everything from user experience and user interface to content. Proper testing will help shorten app development for healthcare costs and time, identify bugs, and greatly improve your reputation as a service provider. While doing in-depth testing of your healthcare app, pay attention to –

  • Security for PHI, PII, and several other regulations.
  • Functional working of your app, specifically healthcare workflows.
  • If your app requires geolocation to function properly, check that the Application Program Interface (API) you are using to enable it is safe.
  • If the app interprets the data from multiple inputs, information from different networks, devices, and locations.
  • Test in poor connectivity condition.
  • Do an in-depth usability testing of your app and so on.

Know The Mobile App Testing Strategies that Appinventiv Follows.

Launch and Update

After the final testing and iteration, it is time to launch your app for the end users and track its performance over time. Remember, app development for healthcare is a one-time process, but upgrades and maintenance are an ongoing journey. Therefore, to keep your app competitive in the healthcare industry, keep tracking its performance to ensure timely updates. Remember, constant app maintenance also contributes to healthcare mobile app development costs.

[Also Read: How to Build Software for Medical Devices? Process, Costs, Types, and More]

Healthcare App Development Best Practices

Healthcare software development is a challenging and complex process that involves hundreds of sub-processes. You don’t want to begin and hang up in between, which is just going to take more time and expense. To ensure a smooth healthcare app development process, here are a few factors to keep in mind before starting with the development.

Hospital App Development Best Practices

Following all the Compliance Rules

The healthcare industry is very strict when it comes to compliance with security and legal protocols. There are a number of legal compliances that you have to adhere to when developing an mHealth application. Some of the most common compliances are – HIPAA, HIMSS, FDC, etc. Before developing your healthcare app, make sure it complies with:

  • HIPAA – To ensure the security and privacy of protected health information (PHI), all US healthcare entities must comply with HIPAA guidelines.
  • CCPA – This is the law for the foundation of confidentiality in the US, which involves informing the client about what data is being collected and managing the client data report.
  • GDPR – It is a personal data protection rule introduced in Europe in 2018. All healthcare apps that collect and store personal data in the European Union must comply with GDPR strictly.
  • NIST – This is another collection of standard protocols, tools, and technologies created to protect user data from medical applications in the US.
  • HiTech – These protocols focus more on EHR systems data security, quite valid for healthcare and medical apps.
  • PIPEDA – If your mHealth app is developed for the Canadian market, it must comply with PIPEDA.

Single-Focused Purpose

Even if there are a number of healthcare app categories, such as fitness tracking, postoperative care apps, appointment booking apps, etc., operating in the industry, businesses should focus on single-handedly one app category. When companies focus on a single expertise area and do not run behind by giving multiple offerings within one application, they can offer in-depth value to the stakeholders and address their exact pain points in utmost detail.

Interoperability

Passing information from one device to another is the essence of healthcare mobile apps. Therefore, developing a clear line of interoperability that is real-time and 100% secure is one of the most integral hospital app development best practices.

Selection of Feature Set

The success of a health solution rides heavily on the healthcare mobile app features. While the selection of features varies significantly depending on app’s type, some elements are commonly present in nearly all types of applications. These elements include but are not limited to:

  • Monitoring health
  • Scheduling appointments
  • In-app payments
  • Integration with wearables
  • Reporting functionality
  • Social integration (if a fitness app)

Hack-Proof Cybersecurity

Health applications have to be absolutely hack-proof, which means they should strictly follow all the measures of cybersecurity to prevent incidents of data breaches and cyber theft. When you create a healthcare app by following legal compliances like HIPAA or HIMSS, you already adhere to the security level, and your app is 100% safe from the malicious attempts of cybercriminals. Furthermore, you can also add a biometric screen lock to enhance your app’s security and prevent data breaches.

Hardware Choice

The app that you are planning to launch does not necessarily have to function on a smartphone. It can be a wearable app or a desktop version. Either way, it is important to know that there can be multiple hardware choices where you can push your application. Likewise, there can be instances where it would be needed to make two or multiple devices interact with each other. In such a situation, you should choose hardware devices that can co-work.

Choice of APIs and Integrations

With so many APIs functioning in the market, it can be difficult to shortlist and go with the one that would make your processes real-time and hack-proof. But once you make the right API and integration choice, your healthcare app can offer the intended service to its complete perfection.

Presence of Medical Practitioners in the Core Team

One of the most intricate issues that can cause your mHealth to fail is mistrust, which originates from incomplete or wrong information in the healthcare app. This single problem can easily become a deal-breaker for your mobile app in terms of its legality and success in the market. You can easily resolve this issue by having a medical practitioner in the team who ensures the accuracy and relevancy of the health content.

These are the eight best practices for healthcare mobile app development that would ensure the growth and success of your application.

Healthcare App Development Features

While there are countless features you can add to your hospital or medical app, adding unnecessary features not only adds to the app development duration and cost but also makes it more intricate for common users. The successful healthcare apps have some essential features in common, which enhance customer experience and redefine the healthcare sector. Let’s shed light on some must-have hospital app features.

Healthcare App Development Features

Telemedicine or Telehealth

According to healthcare experts, 75% of hospital visits are very basic and can be easily managed via a phone call or video conference. This is where Telemedicine comes in. This must-have feature allows patients to connect with their respective doctors in the comfort of their home.

Telehealth trends have already reshaped the healthcare industry to a huge extent by covering the gap between patients and their doctors/caregivers, and its adoption seems to reach greater heights in coming years, making it a crucial technology impacting home healthcare.

Quote

EHR

Modern healthcare applications must have an electronic health record (EHR) feature, helping doctors update the patient’s record in the hospital’s internal system.

Also Read: How to build an EHR system? Features and cost breakdown

Notifications

Notifications are an essential hospital app feature, which works as a reminder for doctor’s visits, measuring heart rate, going to sleep, taking medicines, drinking water, etc.

User Dashboard

Having a visually appealing and easy-to-use dashboard provides a great user experience. Therefore, make sure to build your hospital app with an intriguing dashboard that streamlines the essential information that patients and doctors can get at a glance.

User Dashboard

Payment Integration

It is one of the most important hospital app features, providing users with an easy and safe way to pay for their medical services. Integrate various payment modes like debit or credit cards, Paypal,  UPI, etc., to make payment collection easy for healthcare professionals. To ensure the top-notch safety of financial data, you can also consider building a payment gateway from scratch.

Search Bar

No hospital app development can be successful without adding a search feature. A search bar enables users to navigate the app easily and quickly to get the information they need.

Wearable Devices Connection

With remarkable technological development, IoMT (Internet of Medical Things), a concept of connecting medical devices, applications, and wearables with the Internet, is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives. From sport-specific FitBits to smartwatches, wearable devices have risen in popularity over the past few years. This growing popularity of wearable devices opens up an array of opportunities for medical professionals to develop a healthcare app with integrations from other devices.

Wearables being helpful

Emerging Technologies Used for Healthcare Application Development

App developers increasingly leverage emerging technologies for healthcare application development. The integration of these technologies helps enhance processes, improve patient care, automate administrative tasks, and drive efficiency. Here is a list of some essential technologies that enhance overall healthcare experiences.

Technologies Used for Healthcare Application Development

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence in healthcare tops the list with its remarkable use cases and capabilities to analyze patient data and automate rule-based processes. Also, it helps discover drugs, diagnose diseases, design personalized treatment plans, and predict health outcomes. By integrating AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants in app development for healthcare, medical professionals can immediately respond to patient queries, schedule appointments, and do a variety of other tasks.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing in healthcare apps brings along certain benefits, such as health data analytics, data security, etc., while allowing users to access information anywhere, anytime. Cloud computing features in healthcare apps make record-sharing easier, streamlining the backend operations and decreasing expenses.

AR and VR

The impact of AR/VR in the healthcare industry is already widespread in multiple areas, and its market is poised to reach $4.64 Billion by 2025. An example of AR and VR in healthcare can be the FitXR BoxVR sports application.

Also Read: How AR/VR Apps are Gamifying Exercise and Workout?

Blockchain

Blockchain in healthcare is a significant mobile app development trend, helpful in managing EMR and EHR data, conducting research, and improving the insurance and hospital billing process. It is why a growing number of hospitals build apps with Blockchain technology to manage patient’s records and perform secure transactions.

These are some of the most essential features that will enhance your healthcare app’s functionality and bring maximum engagement.

Custom Healthcare App Development Cost and Time

Healthcare application development duration and cost vary depending on various factors such as healthcare mobile app features and functionalities, UI/UX design, app security level, app’s platform, location of the app development company, and so on. These are a few of the considerable factors you must evaluate before setting a budget for hospital mobile app development.

On average, the total cost and time to build a healthcare app can range between $50,000-$300,000 and 3-18 months, respectively, depending on the app’s functionalities and other vital factors listed above.

Also Read: How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Doctor Appointment App Like ZocDoc?

CTA

While various factors contribute to custom healthcare app development costs and duration, features, and functionalities are the most significant elements contributing to overall development costs. Therefore, to help you make an informed decision, here is a time and cost breakdown based on essential features.

App featuresApp development time

(in hours)

App development cost

(in USD)

Registration, login70-762,000- 2,600
Search, filter options100-1202,000-2,800
Profile screen (Doctor+Patient)80-852,000-2,800
Voice and video calls100-1404,000-5,000
Appointment scheduling180-1905,000-6,500
Online chat110-1204,000-5,000
Payment options30-401,000-1,500
Backend framework1,000-1,20035,000-40,000
Admin Panel250-2809,000-10,000
Code documentation10-20500-800
Total2,000-3,00075,000-90,000

Challenges in Medical App Development

Despite the growing market size of healthcare applications, many medical professionals still think multiple times before starting their healthcare application development journey. Why? There are many challenges causing mobile healthcare solutions to fail. Understanding these challenges will help you give a clear insight into why healthcare businesses fail and develop a cutting-edge solution that would be a huge hit in the market.

Let us discover the reasons why healthcare applications fail to make a lasting impact in the lives of doctors and patients.

Lack of Detailed Focus in One Domain

When a doctor or patient installs a health app, they often look for the redressal of one issue, not multiple. So, instead of having an application that solves numerous problems on the surface level, a healthcare app that addresses one point in its utmost depth has a higher success rate.

Non-Compliance with the Law

There are multiple compliance bodies responsible for taking care of how the mobile health domain behaves. While being compliant with the industry specific regulations is intimidating, the absence of it can be one of the biggest reasons why healthcare stakeholders don’t believe in the application. The lack of approval by the FDA or a HIPAA-compliant badge in the application’s home screen or the screenshots used in the App Store and Play Store keeps the stakeholders at bay.

Lack of Security

Although security is one of the first things that every healthcare organization should consider, there are only a few apps that take the task seriously. There are millions of stories about patients’ data getting hacked or misplaced because of insecure storage infrastructure. The compliance mentioned above solves the issue to some extent, but a mobile app development company should implement all the security measures while developing an application.

Presence of Multiple Channels and Devices

With a number of devices entering the market – smartphones, personal assistants, smart TVs, wearables, etc., interoperability has become a key challenge for healthcare application development. It makes it intimidating to ensure that the private medical data flowing in the cloud is not accessible to be hacked.

To overcome these challenges, businesses should partner with an experienced and reliable hospital mobile app development company.

How Can Appinventiv Help You with Healthcare App Development?

In the dynamic landscape of healthcare, we can’t evade the importance of healthcare app development. It has become a revolutionary way to streamline operations, manage data, enhance patient care, gain competitive advantages, and redefine the healthcare industry. And when it comes to healthcare mobile app development, partnering with Appinventiv can be a strategic choice.

We are a leading healthcare application development company, specializing in building custom medical software and applications. From clinical management to efficient patient treatment and diagnosis, we provide best-in-class healthcare app solutions to boost healthcare industry elements.

Our suite of services includes

  • Telehealth app development
  • EHRs
  • mPrescription
  • Medical insurance apps
  • Laboratory management
  • Process management
  • Lifestyle tracking
  • Software integration, and much more

To get an insight into our expertise in developing cutting-edge mobile apps for various domains, including healthcare mobile app development, dig deep into our portfolio and make a confident decision.

Talk to us to digitize your healthcare business now.

FAQs

Q. How much does it cost to develop a healthcare app?

A. The cost to build a healthcare app would range somewhere between $50,000 to $300,000 or more. The medical app development cost can vary depending on the platforms, technology stack, number of features to be integrated into your app, and other considerable factors.

Q. How long does it take to develop a healthcare app?

A. The average time it takes to create a healthcare app can range anywhere from 3-18 months. However, there are various factors that significantly increase or decrease the hospital app development duration.

Q. Which technology is best for healthcare mobile app development?

A. The most common technologies for developing healthcare applications are Python, JAVA, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin, R Programming, etc. However, it’s recommended to seek your development team’s advice while choosing a technology stack. Your healthcare app developers will choose technology based on your app and budget requirements.

Q. Why do healthcare apps fail?

A. Most healthcare apps fail due to misleading information on health diagnosis, lack of techniques in clinical settings, inability to adapt to user behavior, inefficient app security, etc. However, you can overcome such challenges in the initial stages with the help of your development team.

Q. What makes a healthcare app successful?

A. According to healthcare experts, detailed and actionable information on the healthcare app can make it successful. Typically, patients download healthcare apps to track and monitor their wellbeing. Therefore, providing the right information and solutions to the users can make your app a big hit in the market.

Q. Why do healthcare apps need to be HIPAA compliant?

A. If your healthcare app collects, manages, and transfers any protected healthcare information, it is advisable to develop it with HIPAA compliance. This ensures that the medical information is encrypted and will only be accessed for the patient’s diagnosis and research.

Dileep Gupta
THE AUTHOR
Dileep Gupta
DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER
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