Factors affecting the cost of a digital healthcare app

Digital healthcare apps help a significant number of patients globally who want to connect digitally with their concerned physicians or medical specialists. With the help of such apps, patients or users can easily track their health conditions and medications on time. The app helps users keep track of their daily health-related activities, and such apps are incredibly effortless to use. The tracking chart will keep the patients updated about their current health status and schedule of their medications. It also provides a medication reminder.

Hence, with digital healthcare apps, patients can never miss appointments to follow up with their doctor. The mobile app development companies and the app developers are bringing out the best ways to create digital healthcare apps. There are several factors that an app developer should keep in mind while developing a digital healthcare app for any business. In this guide, we have highlighted some of the robust factors responsible for healthcare app development. A mobile app development company should also understand the cost of developing a healthcare app.

Benefits of healthcare app

The healthcare apps help the physicians access image scans and share them with specialists in the field, partner institutions, and patients. The apps also help in turning a Smartphone into an electrocardiogram, in iPhones, and the patient can take cardiac measurements by pressing the device against the chest near the heart. Then some apps exchange blood-glucose information and transmit it to the doctor who offers real-time treatment and guidance.

Then there is an ophthalmoscope device that plugs into most smartphones to exchange images and data on glaucoma or other eye-related ailments.

Then some apps collect the medical record of patients in smartphones and iPhones to be used in times of treatment and emergencies.

Typical and expected features of Healthcare app

• Dashboards
• Analytical functions
• Payment accepting gateways
• Doctor profiles and Geolocation
• Patient/user portal
• Real-time online chat and video

Factors affecting the cost of healthcare app

The following are the various factors that affect the cost of development and the launch of a healthcare app. The cost of developing a healthcare app will depend on the following factors.

General Expenses of App Development

As a thumb rule, the cost of developing a healthcare application depends on the complexity of integration, the app’s fundamental objective, and the platforms the app is released. The principle aim needs to be clear and well-defined.

The three factors affecting healthcare apps are the level of stability, security, and user experience. The rough estimation of workforce requirements can be summed up as follows:

• Two app developers for Android and iOS
• Two part-time app developers for code reviews
• One Project Manager
• One QA engineer for testing
• One part-time engineer on cybersecurity
• One backend developer
• One part-time backend developer for code review

App Types

The cost of developing a healthcare application depends on type, features, complexities involved, and the platforms used. A few of the popular healthcare apps are cited herein below for reference:

EHR

Though the Electronic Health Records feature is a susceptible area of a healthcare app, but still is widely used for its effectiveness. These are marred by accuracy and security issues. It allows users to access and manage their medical records, but only a few hospital apps offer EHR access for security purposes.

Management of Medication

Many healthcare apps handle the routine intake of medicines by patients. For this, it is essential to implement a calendar, reminders, and exchange of information between doctor and patient. The doctor and patient are inter-connected for advice and management of medicine intake.

Scheduling

The foremost step in a healthcare app is fixing an appointment between a doctor and a patient. The appointment booking app, equipped with updations to the service providers, can be chosen for a particular hospital or an entire city. For this, an extensive database needs to be prepared and integrated with payment systems.

Telehealth

The telehealth services include communication between doctors and patients over a telephone for fixing appointments in a healthcare app. It saves travel costs, accesses by the urban and rural populations in need of medical care due to the lack of time, and the inaccessibility of medical facilities.

Remote Monitoring

The concept of remote monitoring is patient-generated data connected to medical institutes for better response in emergency and routine situations. The costs of these apps depend upon the types of devices and data collection made. The app can be developed either based on specific illness or monitoring tool routine situations.

Checker

This healthcare app enables online checking of symptoms in a patient, and for this healthcare, professions need to be engaged. The features need to include a step-by-step guide to self-assessment by the patient. Additionally, navigational functionality also can be incorporated for approaching the nearest hospitals or labs after diagnosis.

Functionality Essentials

The functionality required for the development of a particular healthcare app is equally essential across mobile health apps. A few of the features are:

Health Tracker

The primary purpose of a healthcare app is tracking functionality, i.e., glucose meter integration or prescription scheduling, which helps patients manage their medical condition. The more the features, the more workforce and time would be required, such as collecting data, processing, storage, and data visualization.

Record Management

A hospital app development can integrate the medical records for better document management with an institution. In case a combination of medical records amongst different service providers, it needs to be standardized and made available to those service providers. This standardization would depend upon the ability of Electronic Health Record (EHR) to use its format as EHR integration shall involve cost.

Data Management

While deciding upon the type of app to be used, all information must be defined about privacy and security regulations about patient data. The healthcare apps enable the more effortless transfer of patient data swiftly and, thus, improve treatment. These apps have made the patients more aware, allowing them to export and share data with doctors to better treatment, especially in emergencies.

Communication

The majority of the healthcare apps provide doctor-patient communication for effective treatment, such as Doctor-on-Demand apps, live chat, and appointment schedules, all means of flexible communication facilities.

The various communication features such as text messages, audio/ video chat, and additional requirements such as public profiles, scheduling, search, etc. add to the costs.

Medical APIs

In healthcare apps development, tools such as medial Application Programming Interface (API) and third-party libraries are used. The costs of APIs are purpose-specific and vary depending upon the volume of data.

Additional Cost Features

Once the mentioned factors for costing in developing a health care app are taken care of, such as data tracking, storage, type of interaction it shall provide, additional features that need to be implemented, depending upon value addition are as follows:

Geolocation

The Geolocation can be both outdoors and indoors, i.e., the routes to the medical facility and the navigation system to be followed by the patients for visiting a particular department within an institution. Location-based notifications or one-click ambulance feature that notifies the patient’s contacts about the facilities are value additions. These are all cost additions as well.

Payment

The essentials of any healthcare app are doctor appointments, healthcare products for which its payment gateways play an important role. For this, the fee charged by each service provider needs to be taken into account.

Reviews

The reviews of an app are an integral part of the development. The views and ratings collected about different institutions and service providers are essential for its usage by the patients.

How much will it take to develop a digital healthcare app?

The cost of developing an effortless but practical mobile application usually stands between $50,000 and $80,000. However, it depends on various factors and requirements to decide the cost to develop a digital healthcare app for your business.

Conclusion

Before you decide to create a digital healthcare app, consider all the factors that lead to its cost. Any mobile e-health application must support all the appropriate platforms and operating systems. Mobile devices like smartphones, tablets, and smartwatches will offer users quick and instant accessibility to your mobile app.