How to Build a Telemedicine App?
Given recent events, the healthcare sector has been in the spotlight. As patients, we expect quality medical care services that meet new realities, and as healthcare providers want to use an efficient business model to help us achieve our business goals. And telemedicine has become the answer to both requests. This article covers the benefits of telemedicine solutions for doctors and patients, as well as the telemedicine app development process. Get ready, we’re diving into this exciting topic right now!
Types of telemedicine apps
According to statistics from McKinsey&Company, the growth of users of telemedicine applications has increased from 50 to 175 times compared to the period before COVID-19. In response to demand, more and more telemedicine platforms and apps are emerging every day. Therefore, before moving on to the process of telemedicine app development, we should consider their types and functions.
So, you can build one of the following telemedicine applications:
- Live video conferencing apps. These are applications allowing real-time interaction between doctor and patient. In many ways, this is similar to regular live doctor consultation. Live video conferencing apps allow patients to quickly get medical advice wherever they are. The use of this technology helps to save time and costs of treatment. This is the most popular type of telemedicine application.
- Asynchronous video (Store-and-Forward) apps. Unlike live video conferencing apps, these types of telemedicine apps do not provide real-time interaction. Asynchronous video apps are used to transmit a recorded medical history via an electronic communication system to a practitioner who uses it to evaluate a case or provide a service out of real-time. In this way, a healthcare provider can simplify its workflow and provide a patient with more timely and better treatment without referring the patient to another specialist.
- For example, in ophthalmology, eye screening for diabetic retinopathy can be digitally recorded using retinal cameras and then sent to a specialist for review.
- Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM). Some chronic diseases like heart disease, stroke, epilepsy require constant monitoring. RPM solutions help to securely store all patient data in a single place and quickly transfer it to a healthcare provider for evaluation. Thus, a medical specialist will be able to quickly determine changes in the patient’s health and provide the necessary treatment. Experts argue that the use of such applications helps to reduce the number of emergency department visits, hospital admissions, and readmission rates.
- Mobile Health (mHealth). These apps allow you to monitor your health using mobile technology. For example, health tracking apps like fitness trackers, etc. mHealth is also used to screen patients, help with treatment, track outbreaks and manage chronic diseases. The use of mHealth is helping to make medicine more accessible, as well as improve the quality of healthcare services.
Each of these types of apps has its own list of features. We’ll take a look at the most popular telemedicine app features that you are likely to want to include in your product. It is worth noting that a telemedicine application usually consists of two sides — functionality for a patient and functionality for a doctor.
Features for patients
So any creator of a telemedicine product wonders what are the essential features to develop a telemedicine app. Don’t forget that a healthcare app should be convenient and useful for both patients and physicians. Therefore, before you start telemedicine app development, you should carefully study the needs of both parties, as well as carry out competitor analysis. This will help you create a functional application that meets the needs of your target audience.
Let’s start with the patient features. As patients, users of your app should be able to select a medical provider and make an appointment. Therefore, you need to take care of the following functionality of the telemedicine application.
Sign up
Sign up feature for a telemedicine app is not as easy as it seems. Since the app will contain a lot of sensitive data, you must ensure that this information is stored and transmitted completely securely, and no third parties will be able to access other people’s accounts. Usually, a user is presented with several registration options, using email or third-party tools like Facebook Login or Google Sign In. Also, don’t forget about two-factor authentication as a basic security feature for a mobile application.
Personal profile
It is much more convenient for patients to store all information about treatment and consultations with doctors in their personal accounts. In addition, a personal profile makes it possible to store and open access to electronic health records (EHR) for medical professionals. So a doctor will be able to monitor the current condition of patients and look through their previous treatment history in order to prescribe the most effective treatment. However, you should keep in mind that if you plan to use such electronic medical records, you must fully comply with the regulations of the region you intend to work with. For example, in the USA you need to comply with HIPAA.
