Medical Mobile Apps Development Targeting Care Providers

As an industry that deals with complex and sensitive data, healthcare providers have been traditionally slower to adopt IT solutions as strict regulations and secure privacy policies often have to be applied for both medical app development and usage. Patients have also been hesitant to consistently use apps due to privacy concerns, lack of interest, and the cost of some of the apps on the market. However, as regulatory governmental bodies like the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA) have begun establishing and enforcing these regulations, it’s no wonder that the development of mobile apps for the healthcare industry is rapidly increasing.

The healthcare sector is an area in which constant supervision, thorough explanation, and careful monitoring of a patient’s condition are critical to providing effective care. These tasks are also some of the most time-consuming parts of communication between doctors and patients. It’s expected that hospitals are going to be very different in the 2020s. Mainly because the IT industry is going to get deeper into the healthcare sphere. Doctors and nurses will be incorporating mobile technologies into patient health care. Moreover, patients alone will be using various mobile applications to track their health (physical and mental), count calories, lose weight, shift to healthy foods or drink enough water.

 

But even now you don’t need to go far: healthcare mobile apps have already rooted in our daily life:

·       They help users monitor sleep, calories, diet, well being;

·       They connect patients with trainers, doctors, dietitians, or therapists via online chats saving time spent  going  to the hospital; 

·       They remind when it’s time to take medications;

·       They share informative healthcare articles;

·       They allow users to place an order and then have the needed medication delivered.

Is it a temporary phenomenon? Or medical or healthcare apps do have a future? The increased potential of this market is evident in the various lists and rankings available that compare medical mobile apps. The intersection of medicine and telemedicine technology is inevitable and both patients and care providers will see a significant change with the adoption of mobile tech in the future constantly working toward improving the ecosystem digital solutions offer.

Healthcare mobile applications can help automate some of the more time-consuming tasks of a practice by optimizing how doctors store, share, and interpret data related to a patient’s care. Using healthcare app development specifically designed for the medical and healthcare industry, care providers can reduce the time they spend on monitoring patients and communicating with them. This results in a decrease of their administrative workload, giving them more time to focus on developing an effective treatment plan based on the latest, most accurate data. Medical mobile apps provide an easy way for physicians and other care providers to access resources and work with databases that store vast amounts of relevant medical information. They also provide an innovative solution to facilitate remote monitoring of a patient’s condition, streamline communication between the provider(s) and patient, and increase accessibility to effective care in rural areas. Some of the apps currently available through the iOS or Android platforms require constant internet access to function properly, while others do not. Some apps are free to use, while others have costs that range from an annual subscription (anywhere from $150 - $500 per year) to paying for access premium content (through a one-time charge or subscription-based model).

Those considering the development of healthcare apps for doctors will appreciate this classification of mobile healthcare apps for doctors:

Medical reference applications: This type of medical apps offers features like pill identification, medicine information, in-depth illness information, medicine interaction, etc.

Professional networking applications: These are networks of colleagues that offer connections and educational opportunities. Being powerful communities, they offer users support at any time.

Doctor appointment booking apps: Making doctor appointments online is easier than using an old-fashioned offline booking system. Moreover, an automated booking system is beneficial both for doctors and patients. It allows doctors to forget about whether they have time and resources to see patients. And patients, for their part, can easily book themselves in choosing the best time-slot.

Developing a medical mobile app for doctors requires an understanding of the challenges faced by dealing with sensitive patient information. Successful mHealth apps help care providers optimize their workflow, access different resources to assist in diagnosis and treatment, and/or facilitate patient monitoring and communication between patients and associated care providers.

Behavioural Health Apps:

There are many barriers to mental health treatment. However, affordability, time constraints, and availability are emphasized as the major players affecting non-treatment-seeking behavior.

Those who cannot afford therapy, yet still want to handle their mental illnesses, download one of the specifically designed medical mobile applications. The major part of mental health apps are free or reasonably priced and offer different resources making therapeutic techniques cost-effective and portable.

Health mobile applications are tailored to treat different mental illnesses. These apps can be categorized as:

· Mental disorder apps for managing depression and schizophrenia;

· Self-improvement apps for people recovering from addictions or struggling with stress;

·  Apps that combine features and tools from the two previous categories.

Regardless of the category, all healthcare mobile applications should have a certain feature stack. Among them are tools for self-monitoring and sharing, matching with licensed therapists via video or chats, and receiving notifications or reminders.For years, physicians have struggled to ensure that their patients followed recommended medical guidance and booked follow-up appointments, according to Webber. “However, with some optimism, our survey results found 46% of patients indicating they are more likely to schedule follow-up visits if that mobile apps have the ability to help improve patient follow-up rates, with healthcare providers to integrate mobile technology to create a more responsive they had access to a physician mobile app. There is tremendous incentive for and personalized healthcare experience, with the potential for healthier patients who respond better to treatment plans due to earlier detection of disease.”

The survey also found:

·     Patients still value facetime with their doctors, as 67% of survey respondents prefer having in-office visits over utilizing telehealth development platform services. “While we don’t predict mobile apps replacing the physician/patient relationship, we believe mobile technology will help augment this experience and make it better, for physicians and patients alike,” Webber says. “Patients care about their health and integrating mobile technology such as the ability to easily schedule follow-up appointments with their doctor via an app, could mean earlier diagnoses of disease and lead the way to a more efficient and integrated healthcare system.”

·     The top three functions patients use physician mobile apps for are: scheduling appointments (70%), viewing lab results (52%), and requesting prescriptions (40%). 

SISGAIN Healthcare Mobile Application & medical software development company which enables more seamless communication, information sharing and streamlining of administrative tasks to benefit healthcare staff and patients alike. “If they haven’t done so already, changing consumer expectations, digitize paper processes and enhance the physicians must integrate mobile technology into their practice to align with overall healthcare experience.”

It is also important for healthcare organizations to ensure proper data security protocols are in place and compliant with healthcare regulations. A consumer survey found that saying they are very concerned about the potential for data breaches. Eighty healthcare security is of utmost importance to patients, with 40% of patients

protect their confidential healthcare information, placing the onus squarely on percent of patients believe that it should be the physician’s responsibility to healthcare providers for ensuring patient data privacy.