Telemedicine Application Development: Features & Challenges

The telemedicine application development market is said to increase to about 40 billion dollars by 2021. Telemedicine application development solutions are gaining a lot of popularity among software developing companies and health care organizations. This is the right time for you to start planning to own a telemedicine application for your organization. Telemedicine applications will help you stand out from the rest of your competitors and they are also cost-friendly and time friendly. You can get your application built from any telemedicine app development company. But because there are so many in the game right now, it can be a little difficult to choose one. We have stated the most important features, technologies and challenges of a telemedicine application. All of these points will help you to understand the best thing for you to do for your health care organization.

Features of Telemedicine Applications

1. Telemedicine application development services help you schedule appointments online. These applications make it easier for medical care providers to attend to a lot of patients in one day and it also helps in providing better and faster treatment plans. Patients are also able to book online appointments with their doctors. Telemedicine applications help you find a specialist to solve all their problems. Telemedicine applications also allow you to find specific specialists to treat your condition from different fields.

2. Telemedicine applications help in saving patient’s medical data. These applications help save all the patient data from the first appointment to the last. Telemedicine also saves a patient’s time and travelling expenses. It does so by completely operating online. Cutting down on the extra expenses a patient spends to get to a hospital. 

3. Telemedicine applications help in receiving all patient payments online. The telemedicine application has made it easier for health care organizations to receive medical bills online and it also helps in keeping track of the old payments from a patient.  Patients also do not have to go to the hospital, they can easily send their hospital bills from a telemedicine application.

5. Telemedicine app development solutions help hospitals cut down the extra expenses for patient care, resulting in increased hospital revenue numbers. These extra expenses can be the patient beds, extra nurses, waiting areas, extra.

6. Telemedicine applications are secure to exchange data on. These apps are HIPAA bound, hence all the medical and personal data shared on them will be safe.

7. Telemedicine applications also reduce the number of infections in patients. This is because telemedicine applications work online. This way two patients do not have to sit next to each other. This helps prevent healthy patients from catching infections from other more ill patients.

Challenges Of using Telemedicine Applications

1.  Network connectivity issues can cause problems when communicating with a patient online. There are a lot of places where network and internet connectivity is very low. This can make the online appointments between patients and doctors bad. A bad network connection can also cause patient medical files and treatments information to deliver late.

2. Telemedicine has proven to be a smart and easier option for the new generation but for the old generation, it can be very difficult to understand. Handling an entirely online system can confuse them, rather than helping. Many times old patients need to keep a medical worker with them at all times.

3. With the growing use of applications in different industries, the chances of any mishappening has increased. While building a telemedicine software development application, a lot of things should be kept in mind. The software developers should never forget that the application should be HIPAA bound. This ensures that the patient data will be safe from third parties and it will not be shared with anyone but their medical care provider. The application connects a medical care provider and patients, hence it should keep in mind the security concerns of both.

Technologies and software systems mostly used in developing a telemedicine application -

EMR systems

EMR systems help in keeping track of a patient's entire medical history. These systems are the new digital charts that hospitals use for easy patient care. The EMR systems help with not only data-keeping but also helps with tracking the treatment process of a patient. These EMR systems are inbuilt in a telehealth application software of a hospital to track a patient’s lab results, medical test results, radiology results, etc.

RPM (Remote patient monitoring) 

With the use of remote patient monitoring software systems, medical care providers can easily treat patients from anywhere, anytime. These software systems are specifically built to give error-free patients care. With the use of a remote patient monitoring system, medical care providers are able to monitor their patients 24/7. 

Medical database

These systems help healthcare workers in making better treatment plans and faster. These systems also help in educating doctors about the variations in two patient’s conditions but who have the same disease. These are just like EMR systems, Medical database systems store a patient's medical history and treatment plans. In a medical database system, medical history is saved down on the basis of the diseases, and not according to patients files. 

Pharmacy systems

Telehealth software applications can also include software systems like pharmacy systems. These systems are designed for storing medical data and to keep the medicinal process organized. Pharmacies also need these systems because many times medicine can go missing from their places. These systems help in times like these. These help in increasing the speed of medicine distribution.

Interoperability systems

Interoperability systems help in the exchange of health-related information. These software systems help in delivering information with the use of advanced and effective medical services.

Assistive technology systems

Assistive technology is used when an old patient or someone with a disability needs medical treatment. These patients can connect their monitoring devices to telehealth software applications and receive medical treatments. Telehealth applications can easily be understood by people of all ages, making sure no one is left from receiving the best care options.

E-prescribing systems

E-prescribing systems are used to send digital prescriptions to patients. This mode is faster than other modes of sending prescriptions because it takes only some seconds. These systems are completely safe to use. 

 

Practice management  

Practice management software systems help healthcare organizations in running their daily activities error-free. The practice management system handles online appointment bookings, online payments, patient notes, integration processes, video conferencing, etc. These activities need error-free handling and the telehealth software provides that.

Veterinary exchange  

These systems are specifically designed for domestic animals and wild animals. These mainly help vets stop any transfer of infections between animals of any kind. 

Health information 

Health information systems help in sharing medical data easily, efficiently and effortlessly. Knowing about a patient’s health is always important because it helps in forming a better treatment plan. Telehealth software development helps this technology give better detailed information to healthcare providers.

Medical research

The purpose of a medical research system is to provide informational medical data to different institutions. Medical software systems provide educational data. These software systems are mostly used to train new medical personnel.