One would hardly deny a huge impact mobile technologies make on different spheres of our lives. And medical industry is hardly an exception. Moreover, healthcare organizations were among the first enterprises to adopt IoT and mobile solutions. In spite of numerous different hospital apps for patients and organizations, the healthcare industry is still a good field for developers who are seeking for a chance to make the world better.
Hospital mobile app development is a good chance to bring innovative and advanced solutions to both healthcare providers and people who require that care at a high level. You can hardly think of a better encouragement for startups and companies eager to create a hospital mobile app worth paying attention. It is not only about altruistic issues. It can let businesses generate some revenues, as the industry’s income has reached $23 billion in 2017.
Both mobile devices and applications come with a high level of acceptance when it comes to clinicians and patients. The latest researches reveal about 62% of clinicians who are using different mobile devices at work. They mostly include tablets, while smartphones are used by almost 71% of nurses directly at their professional point of care as well as different operations purposes.
Such numbers result from the following:
- more than a half of physicians use mobile applications to set right diagnosis;
- almost half of them claims that mobile technologies improve the process of delivering care making it less time-consuming;
- 36% of physicians are sure that mobile solutions will improve the level of collaboration inside team.
While many industries have already received their ultimate mobile solutions, development teams still need to create a hospital mobile app that will be close to perfection. Currently available products are far from being flawless. This fact makes some room for startups and companies, which are ready to try and build a hospital app for doctors.
What Are the Benefits of Developing a Mobile App for Hospital?
Let’s review the advantages of a good medical application in terms of both patients and organizations. We should think of something more than just an easy access to patient’s data in spite of the location. The main idea is to make patents a part of a huge healthcare system providing the necessary tools that will put an ease on health monitoring. As a result, the application can do the following:
- The app lends patients a hand when it comes to engaging with their own health. It appears that sometimes physicians fail to interact with a self-reported information delivered by a particular patient. They fail for various reasons. A medical app will let patients save time and engage with their self-recorded information to an appointment. In other words, the initial idea of building a hospital app is that it may change the way people manage their health as well as reshape the way physicians deliver their recommendations.
- A medical app improves the data accessibility. Once you decide to develop a mobile app for hospital, you may implement a feature that would let patients and care providers track health conditions including weight, medication course, blood pressure, temperature and other. A good idea is to create personalized databases for every separate patient featuring push notifications in case of any crucial changes. Electronic health records have already proved to be an effective tool and can boost the quality of care. However, organizations need a standardized form in order to avoid mistakes and possible misunderstandings.
- A medical app boost convenience. Some products already come with a built-in navigation system to track the location of particular patients. They may require emergency assistance. At the same time, mobile technologies put an ease on care access. They can claim for it remotely anywhere and anytime. Imagine a person who stuck in a traffic jam. He or she feels sick and urgently calls for medical assistance. Having a mobile application can be helpful for some of the patients. Another side of the “convenience” benefit is the ability to keep all necessary data in one place. For physicians, it means a fast and easy access. Some development teams opt for cloud-based storage solutions for maximum convenience. This is a good idea whenever you want to decline the need to waste time and stand in the informational line waiting for data delivery from other departments or hospitals.
- A good mobile solution can help companies and organizations to stand out. For example, you represent a hospital mobile app development company. Your product has successfully passed all development stages and was finally released. It proved to be efficient for patients and providers. The organization that uses your app will have more success with patients looking for a higher level of customer care. In other words, we can observe a beneficiary collaboration of startups and medical enterprises.
- The app may change the way medical care is delivered. The healthcare industry keeps evolving all the time. About a decade ago, we could witness the rise of hospital websites. Today we are witnessing a global industry’s mobilization. For this reason, the need in medical applications will grow higher. Organizations start with websites creating adaptive versions. However, it seems to be not enough for more demanding patients who call for native applications. This is where startups and development teams can come in handy.
All those benefits will be possible only when implementing specific features during the development process. The list of functions beneficiary for both patients and organizations will define the overall success of the project. So, what are the basic features a hospital app should have?
The List of Features for a Medical Application
A selection of features can be as wide as you want. However, it will affect the final hospital mobile app development cost. If you have a limited budget, you should concentrate on some fundamental functions. Without them, your app will be of no use not speaking of patients and physicians engagement.
Automated Schedule
Have you ever been to a clinic? Then you are aware of hospitals having different wait time. The periods may range from a couple of minutes to hours. A few people can afford to wait in line for so long. Creating an automated timetable will be a good solution, while the benefits may include:
- less time for patients to wait;
- the opportunity to plan a visit in advance;
- the ability to make appointments.
Informed Decisions
Making informed decisions is crucial for healthcare providers. It does not matter how effective your app is in generating necessary data because physicians are still the ones to make a diagnosis and take decisions. On the other hand, some features can help executives act in a proper way, for example:
- set accurate targets;
- create clear business goals;
- monitor data and funds flow;
- track the number of rooms available;
- automate the process of dealing with insurance companies.
Directory Services for Patients
Another vital feature for a medical app is to let patients easily find doctors. They call for treatment anytime and anywhere. Creating a mobile directory can be a good solution for people who face difficulties when:
- looking for a doctor in their borough or city;
- keeping up with appointments;
- coordinating their visit;
- finding the exact location of the medical facility;
- generating valuable information about a hospital.
Implementing such functions can be a tough challenge for a development company. Now, let’s have a closer look at the development process and its stages.
Steps to Develop a Medical App
A brilliant application for hospitals can improve the entire healthcare industry. If you manage to deliver a well-rounded product, you can change the entire ecosystem. The challenge is certainly worth taking.
Always keep in mind that building a native app is the one and only way to gain success in this particular field. In other words, you need to build a separate custom solution for iOS, Android or any other platform that you target. The stages of the development process will include:
- Define your users – you need to have a clear understanding of your target audience. Decide whether you are building an app for hospitals or patients. The list of features will depend on your choice.
- Building an interface – every second can be crucial when it comes to people’s lives. You should think of an easy-to-use interface that will easily let patients handle the emergency call. With regard to a hospital, it should let physicians simply deal with necessary records, corrections, and updates.
- Platform agnostic – flawless running is crucial for such type of app. You need to ensure its smooth operation on different types of devices in spite of their size and OS. Keep in mind that clinicians may use both tablets and smartphones.
- Privacy and data security – this is one of the major concerns when it comes to the healthcare industry. Your app will store and deliver private data, which calls for privacy and security. On the other hand, physicians should never have any difficulties when accessing that data. You can find some issues on this topic in a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act.
How Much Does It Cost to Build an App for Hospitals?
Developing a medical app is a more complicated process than one can imagine. Though it features some basic steps like defining the key features and making the scope of the future project, the main task is to create a good MVP (Minimum Viable Product) of your future application.
On the one hand, the MVP is actually the version of your app with a basic set of functions. All you need is to keep on updating it in order to release the final version of the product. It is a good way to optimize costs necessary to complete the development process. In spite of available software delivered by Android and iOS including SDKs, the first thing developers will need to do is to build an efficient data sharing code. Here is the data your app is supposed to collect:
- vital parameters (temperature, blood pressure, pulse, etc.);
- health information and sleep time;
- nutrition data (calories, foods, etc.);
- lab results;
- diagnosis and stats;
- medications and treatment courses.
All these aspects influence the price of the application. On the other hand, the latest survey has revealed the willingness of healthcare organizations to pay for a good mobile solution. The stats are as follows:
- almost 20% of clinics and organizations spend from $500,000 to $1 million on app development;
- in 50% of cases, it usually takes 7 months to complete the project.
$500,000 seems to be an affordable price considering average hourly rates that start from $150 in big name companies. Of course, the cost will be lower if you opt for outsourcing development teams or freelancers. However, they can hardly guarantee great quality and trouble-free running.
As for our company, we handle the development of different types of applications. We pay attention to every aspect of the development process:
- UX design that is easy to use and navigate;
- Nice and intuitive interface;
- Proper running;
- Easy engagement and installation;
- Native apps featuring sync data across various devices;
- Data security.
Contact us if you need to get more information regarding this topic or want to develop your custom mobile application for the hospital.