Key Considerations a Healthcare Mobile App Developer Must Keep in Mind
In recent days, the demand and usage of healthcare mobile apps have been increasing along with the growing trend. The latest research by GMC states that in previous days only 30% of doctors were using mobile apps, but now more than 80% of doctors have been using mobile apps as a habitat. The trend has always been growing because the health- care app development streamlines the regular process that happens between a doctor and a patient in terms of managing appointments, creating online medical history, references, digital medication if either or both patients or doctors are unavailable.
If your doctors are busy with other schedules for the day, you get suggestions from him to consult another doctor of the same specialization for temporary treatment if the problem is not that serious. This ensures that you do not miss the rapport between you and your doctor, and at the same time, you get your health problem sorted out. So, there are multiple benefits of having a healthcare mobile app.
But there are certain factors you need to consider before developing a mobile app. Patients do not wish to see glitches in your mobile app; hence you need to do certain analysis before you intend to develop a health care app independently. There are many ways to choose a healthcare app development. You can hire a mobile app developer or outsource it to a healthcare mobile app development company. In the following section, we will see how to develop a healthcare app and factors that you should consider.
Key factors to keep in mind for a healthcare mobile app development
#1: Hardware
Hardware as in devices compatibility is the most essential factor that as a developer you should keep in mind because healthcare mobile apps are mostly used by people who use tablets, smartphones or desktops.
But the major focus goes on tablets according to the statistical data. So you must design and develop your healthcare app compatible with smartphones, which likely to function well on tablets too. You should create features that accommodate a tablet but should be good to go with your smartphones as well. Similarly, apps designed for iPhones work fine on iPads if they are not any control-based apps.
#2: Interoperability
Interoperability plays an important role in healthcare app development because the app you develop should satisfy all the features or activities that the hospital is currently taking care of. Most hospitals prefer standalone software and transforming that into a mobile app because they consider that their everyday activities should resemble the app and the patients who use their app should not find it indifferent.
Hence hospitals do not opt for cloud hosting and hang on to traditional hosting that helps them save huge money spent on cloud and also maintain their everyday process. So make sure that your app should be able to overwrite this interoperability and provide hospitals the best product.
#3: UI/UX demands
The user experience design and the user interface design play a crucial role in deciding the success of your healthcare mobile app. This highly influences both doctors and patients with respect to app design and navigation interface. Make sure that the app you develop is user-friendly and has options that make patients fill in the required details hassle-free and for doctors to go through their patient’s records on/off the appointments.
Many times, you may overlook the patient’s aspect of looking at the mobile app. They use healthcare mobile app in vulnerable situations; so you should be more careful with the font style and size, text pattern, colors, negative picture posting, etc. which could worry them from using the app. Be it the doctor or the patient, if they get into your app, they should read through and enjoy multiple options you have come up with and explore the app.
#4: Application programming interface components
An application programming interface (API) is a tool that acts as a medium to execute a specific task with the software or in other terms, carries out interaction with the software module you have designed for your dedicated healthcare mobile app. If you have noticed in any social networking apps or advertisements, when you log in for the first time, it asks for your authentication to access some files from your device. The same module is required for a healthcare mobile app as well to connect your device to a remote server that accesses the central patient’s repository, particularly for patients engaging solutions.
Also, APIs are required to allow vendors and suppliers to get in touch with you for business expansion. So you may require more APIs depending on the complexity of your mobile app design. However, not all APIs have the same functionality and you need not allow all of them.
Do you want to develop a healthcare mobile app? Contact us now for mobile app development.
#5: Repeated process development
Your app development should have the quality of carrying out iterations in processes, which is expected by many users because most popular applications and software have been developed using iterations. It is recommended that you follow an agile program to deliver software codes in an iterative manner. Usually, a healthcare app development company for its users performs this process.
#6: Information security
Many app developers do not follow the habit of storing their app data in the device for some security reasons. It should be stored on the app server, which is generally managed by the hospital system administrator. As they do not allow more APIs into their application, it becomes easy for hackers or other third-party or even developers to access their data. Hence while you code, ensure the entire data is encrypted so that you need not experience a security or data breach.
#7: Minimum viable product
It is the most basic factor that relates to work in a production setting. Your customers are more concerned about the cost they invest in developing a healthcare mobile app. When investing all your capital in the MVP, you should be more aware of the additions and outcomes of the app you develop. Your customers may send you frequent feedback which you should consider as priority and important as well and work on those things to deliver an exceptional product. At any stage, you should not get stuck anywhere when the app is in the development stage.
#8: Platform Security
Android developers demonstrate that though Android is a good platform to work on when it comes to security, it is quite vulnerable. When compared to iOS, Android does not provide the required security to the data of users. Not many lawyers are favored towards developers launching an application for Android users. But you cannot help with it because more than iOS phones, we have more Android smartphones in usage, and Android smartphone manufacturers are also trying to fill the hole and make it safe. So try to code it in a manner that at least sensitive information of patients does not go out.
#9: App testing
You should develop a framework that can be tested again and again before you give your customers a finished product. Several technologies have come into existence that allows you to change the required coding part alone without revamping the entire app design and development. So you can opt for such applications or software and perform multiple app testing to find bugs and errors at the beginning itself.
Conclusion:
The need for developing a healthcare mobile app is growing. As a developer, I hope this blog has offered you sufficient information on how to proceed with mobile app development. You shall write to us or reach us for any queries on app development if required.
Frequently asked questions
1. Which platforms can I develop a healthcare mobile app?
There are two to three platforms that you can rely upon. As most of the smartphone users have Android followed by iOS and then a very few Windows, you can develop a great healthcare mobile app for Android, iOS and Windows smartphone users.
2. What would be the average duration to develop a healthcare mobile app?
The average time it may take to create an enterprise-level app would be at least 2 to 3 weeks, but the actual time to develop a healthcare app depends on the complexity of features and user design experience.
3. How many stages does a healthcare mobile app development include?
Mobile app development consists of three stages. The first stage would be planning that involves understanding your business and your motive behind developing a mobile app and developing a wireframe solution. In the second stage, the design and development cycle of the app will be carried out wherein you bring in images, sound effects, videos, etc. In the same stage, you carry out testing of the app before the launch. The final stage of the app has its launching followed by its marketing and promotion.
4. How much will it cost for developing a Healthcare mobile app?
As mentioned previously, the cost of an app depends on the app preferences, choosing the backend and front end application and software usage, manpower and complexity of features you would like to bring in.
Tags: