How to Develop a Medical App for Doctors: Key Features to Consider
As all the modern spheres of our life technology-driven solutions have revealed multifaceted opportunities for healthcare services and specialists in particular.
What is more, hospitals and medical centers that integrate health applications into their operation can significantly enhance their service and the way they provide treatment to their patients.
No wonder that doctor app development and adoption of advanced technologies are gaining even more popularity in the time of the COVID-19 pandemic. On the one hand, people worldwide are locked in their homes on the other they need prompt distant access to healthcare facilities and reduced waiting periods to get the timely healthcare service.
According to a recent Grand View Research, Inc. report, the size of the mHealth applications market is predicted to reach $ 294 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR exceeding 45%.
What Are the Reasons to Develop a Medical App for Doctors?
It’s no brainer that mobile app development for doctors has tremendously reshaped the healthcare sector. Software solutions make the interaction between medical specialists and patients simple, thus making the overall healthcare processes run smoother. Quick access to medical history and patient’s data helps medical experts collaborate and solve different problems in complex.
However, mobile solutions are not just about convenience, they help people in chronic conditions and simplify the self-management of disease.
Because of the pandemic situation we live in now, doctors increasingly move their outpatient activities to chats, text messages, emails, audio and video calls.
Thus, the key advantages the doctors enjoy with a mobile application are
- delivery of a variety of healthcare practices,
- independence of any geographic restrictions,
- convenient access to e-health records,
- improved collaboration with colleagues all the treatment process through,
- enhanced efficiency while clinical decision-making,
- increased productivity throughout the smooth workflow and efficient schedule setting.
Thus, the implementation of digital products in medical practice not only offers innovation but also becomes a real game-changer for both medics and patients.
The Types of Mobile Apps for Doctors
To develop a medical app for doctors, you need to clearly understand those features and characteristics that make a difference for physicians or other healthcare experts. The more accurately you address the needs of the app users, the quicker it will gain success. That’s why it’s essential to differentiate between various medical apps existing.
Medical reference mobile solutions
This app type helps doctors have prompt access to all the info about medicaments and diseases, as well as to stay up-to-date with all the latest findings and advancements in Medicine. A proper example of such an app is Medscape, it allows healthcare providers and medical students to access medical news, check drugs, diseases, symptoms, and conditions details, comprising over 3000 clinical procedures, more than 150 videos, and above 2500 images.
Epocrates application helps to check drug details as well as their interactions. A user can identify medicines by code or by focusing the camera at the pills and check the recommended dose. What is more, medics can use a drug interaction checker to avoid harmful interactions in complex treatments. Additionally, a doctor can find out the medications covered by insurance (above 6000 US insurance plans are included ), and make the necessary calculations for accurate prescription with medical calculators built-in.
The major features of medical reference solutions:
- Convenient search by various filters and categories,
- Quick access to the medicates and diseases descriptions, medical studies, guidelines, and articles,
- Opportunity to take and store images, to play videos, and share media files.
- Variable medical calculators’ integration,
- Tests integration.
Professional networking solutions
The present-day alternative to conferences and live networking is software solutions that include a network of medical specialists. Doctors can consult colleagues and experts in other spheres and make vital decisions when they need advice or a second opinion on some rare case.
DailyRounds is, for instance, a medical startup coming from India, which is a combination of a social platform and a medical digest. It allows healthcare specialists to check medical tutorials and medicine databases, and view case files as well as to share practical advice.
Key features of networking apps for medics:
- Possibility to edit and share files and images,
- Inbuilt chat,
- Access to medical content and reference materials.
Patient health and condition tracking solutions
A common reason to create hospital apps for doctors is to facilitate patient’s health monitoring from the first visit through the entire treatment process. Software solutions of such kind allow immediate access to health info, even on the go. Thus, a physician is not any more restricted by his working place but can consult, prescribe treatment, and perform associated tasks in any place.
Software solutions that can set right all the lab and examination results, therapy history, patient charts, and other details help medics check the necessary details all in one place and make well-weight decisions. What is more, such apps can be integrated with wearable sensors or other health tracking applications to notify doctors about the patient’s condition, as well as treatment process and advancement. A doctor can then adjust further treatment accordingly and give proper orders to the caring nurses.
VitalHub DOCit a solution that provides prompt access to the individual’s health data up-to-the-moment. The app offers diverse layouts for different healthcare specialists to fit their particular workflows.
Core features of a health-tracking app:
- Hassles access to EHRs (Electronic Health Records),
- A simple collection of the clinically vital info,
- The patient’s lists and charts review,
- Viewing images and scans right from the device,
- Possibility to prescribe and place lab orders,
- One-click e-prescribing
- Prescription management,
- Lab results reporting,
- Real-time notifications about critical lab results or health conditions,
- Follow-ups arrangements for the patients in rehabilitation,
- Custom interfaces for different user categories,
- Billing options.
Apps for booking an appointment with a specialist
Clinics and medical centers try nowadays to automate their appointment scheduling as much as it’s possible. So, they try to create a mobile medical app for doctors that allows quick and hassle-free scheduling, appointment booking, and cancellation whenever it’s needed. Such solutions allow the doctors to conveniently manage their schedule and get timely notifications about the changes to fill in the time slots that may appear.
ZocDoc is one of such apps widely used in the United States. Patients use it to look for the specialist they need covered by their insurance and book appointments with various medical experts. The app contains doctors’ profiles, credentials, and reviews. What is more, a user can check the languages spoken by a specialist he needs.
Key features of appointment booking apps:
- Doctors search by location, specialty, insurance network, availability, etc,
- A date picker or calendar integration for visit booking,
- Appointment slots management,
- Booking with a tap option,
- Payment systems integration,
- Booking history revision,
- Appointments view, editing, and management.
Telehealth solutions
The challenge to create a medical app for doctors that will allow online doctor consultations has become especially significant in the times of COVID-19. No wonder the smartphone applications allowing distant consultations rank the highest. It not only relieves the patients of the necessity to sit in the hospital waiting among the other diseased but improves access to remote areas.
Such applications allow the patients text to their physicians, call them, or even get a video consultation.
To make healthcare apps for doctors convenient, the developers should make them intuitive, simple, yet functional. Medics should be able to create their profiles with all the credentials, ratings, feedback, and reviews as well as easily check and manage patients’ data. So the access to the patient’s illness timeline, history, reports, immunization records, lab results, X-rays, CT/MRI scans, and other records needs to be simple and hassle-free, yet secure.
KRY is a Swiss telehealth solution. The doctors consult patients online after they get acquainted with the symptoms, records, and photos the patients have provided through the app. A doctor holds a video consultation then prescribes medicines or gives a referral to the specialist in another sphere. The consultation that costs $25 is paid right in the app.
Must-have features for a telehealth app:
- Personal profile creation option,
- Voice or video calling/conferencing,
- Texting or chatting,
- Files like scans, X-rays, etc. attachment and view,
- Opportunity to make notes and records,
- Possibility to write out a prescription,
- Payment system integrations.
The Process of a Software Solution Development for Doctors
How do we advise to build mobile apps for doctors?
Ivanna
Client Manager
The process of mobile app creation is a time and effort-consuming multistage process that combines analysis, design, and development. Lots of planning is required to make it smooth and ensure superior quality to the users. So, there are certain steps to follow.
Project scope defining
At this stage, we estimate the overall scope of work required for doctor app development based on the data and requirements from our client.
In case the client does not offer a written scope, we offer our project management service and a CTO to define it. Since Stfalcon has already expertise in healthcare app development, our experts can present their vision of the present-day market in target industry sectors aligned with the client’s business goals and the necessary features for MVP.
At this stage, we consider the features of medical apps for doctors that are essential to our product-to-be, decide on the functionality we offer, and often recommend starting from the creation of a Minimum Viable Product. An MVP allows launching a product with minimal features to test the product and the market. Later on, there is always a possibility to improve and optimize the product in its later iterations.
Prioritizing MVP features
To determine the functionality you will offer in your MVP application, you need to understand your target users and the business aims your client pursues. At this stage, the core functionality is defined and the features that will make your app unique are considered. Intensive discovery sessions are a good means to gain the necessary comprehension of the product-to-be.
Make a careful analysis of the features you plan and how they handle target customers’ pain points, then prioritize your MVP features and proceed to design.
Doctor app design
At this stage, you should consider various user categories of your application and possibly offer different interfaces for each of them forecasting certain User Experience. The issues of the app usability, color scheme, intuitive tapping, static and animated presentations should be defined during the design stage.
App development
Having decided on the design and methodology, you can move further on to development, it’s important to settle on reliable security architecture, and divide development into iterations. At this stage, you agree the front- and backend development and all the integrations necessary.
After proper testing and Quality Assurance, the product is launched.
Launching the application
To launch a new product smoothly is a challenge, yet a crucial step to its further success. When you launch the MVP, you should make sure all the spot bugs are fixed and all the vital features embodied. However, while the major bugs, which influence the app’s business operation, are removed, the client should realize that a live interaction of the MVP with real users will reveal slighter bugs to fix. It’s quite a natural process.
What is more, we help our clients submit the developed apps to the Google Play and App Store. There are lots of nuances there, and we already know the specifics. So, we gladly share our experience to speed up the time to the market.
Post-launch support
As a rule, Stfalcon provides post support on the product launched and continues to work on software solution’s improvement and optimization. However, this stage is determined by the customer. Still, taking into consideration what is mentioned above — we always advise our clients to sign post-support as well. The support presupposes not only development and maintenance, but also bugs fixing, stability checking, infrastructure testing, monitoring and updates.
After the MVP has been successfully launched and tested the accurate analysis of its operation, user feedback, and experience is realized and the next version of the product is figured out. Thus, the client can turn to us for the development of the next solution iteration and the process will start all the way around from the discovery stage.
How Much Does Doctor App Development Cost?
A great product development might cost a penny, especially when it’s healthcare-related.
It’s not a surprise, since not only technical details but also legal regulations influence the price tag in this case.
The major aspects, which determine the cost to develop an app for doctors, technically are
- the project scope,
- the platform chosen,
- the features, their amount and complexity,
- the quality of design,
- the needed third-party integrations,
- the expertise of the team involved,
- the technical support or maintenance required.
Based on Stfalcon’s experience, the price to create a medical app for doctors will start from $70000 but the budget should always be discussed and estimated individually.
Our Experience
Stfalcon was once hired to create a new mobile system to help maintain the interaction between all the medical center employees in the groups linked to a particular patient. The developed HospApp makes it possible to communicate, send files, prescribe medications, and carry out tasks referring to a particular patient in the group.
Our team provided the complete process starting from the user interface design, through android development, manual testing, and quality assurance to implementation. However, we worked only with several screens: Messages, Chat room/group, and Tasks.
The major challenge was to clearly indicate the difference between the text messages and tasks, since they are very much alike in their functionality. However, the Tasks have been made to stand out, since they are in priority, they show the tasks in chronological order with the filters according to statuses and received/assigned tasks. Thus we developed an app to provide communication, task creation and fulfillment by the staff where all patient’s details are highly secure.
Conclusion
Though developing healthcare applications for doctors is always a challenge requiring attention to details as well as adherence to regulations, software solutions now become a driving force for better service and enhanced user experience in the medical sphere. Much effort, dedicated work, and proven expertise are required on the part of developers, but they are all well-paid off since the market is quite rewarding nowadays.
COVID-19 pandemic is the right time to enter this ground and improve the existing digital products with innovative approaches and fresh solutions. If you have some idea how to offer a win-win scenario in medical practices for both patients and medics, let’s discuss it, Stfalcon experts will gladly consult you and take up the challenge.
