It's challenging to keep track of all appointments with doctors, regular observations, and analyses to stay healthy and not take much time for medical care. Fortunately, we live in an age when all you have to do is download a specific medical app, open it on your smartphone and load your data there.
Personal medical applications came to the rescue. You may keep track of every analysis and result, every appointment with a doctor and prescribed receipt, put them into your calendar and notes, and take personal medical care management to a whole new level. Let's look at the individual medical applications available and what it takes to develop one.
What is a medical app?
The term "health app" or "medical app" refers to smartphone and tablet PC applications that provide health-related services. Because they are available to patients at home and on the move, medical apps are a component of mobile health (mHealth) in healthcare. Several distinct types of medical apps are available for download from app stores.
Many of these apps aim to assist consumers in making better lifestyle choices by providing information on health and nutrition. Other technologies assist doctors and patients in communicating from afar, such as apps for people with diabetes that instantly transmit glucose readings to their primary care physicians. Several medical applications are intended for doctors — many apps integrate mHealth with electronic medical records (EMR), allowing physicians to keep track of their patients more efficiently.
There can be prioritized types of medical apps:
- Patient health tracking apps;
- Doctor appointments & clinical assistance apps;
- Medical reference & database apps;
- Professional networking apps;
- Doctor-on-demand apps.
For example, one of the most popular medical apps for doctors is Medscape. It's a terrific source of up-to-date medical information, not just because it's a helpful drug reference. It's also a valuable tool for keeping up with current news and developments in medicine.
Users have to enter all data manually in simple medical apps, and the app is typically only used for tracking analysis or body parameters such as blood pressure. There are not many functions, and the process is much less complicated. However, basic medical applications are inefficient or time-consuming since everything is done manually.
In more sophisticated medical applications, you can use automation, integrations, comprehensive medical reports, and even medical advice. The creation of such an application might cost more and need a more sophisticated tech stack with APIs and improved UX design. That is why it's crucial to understand your consumers' expectations while you're developing a personal medical application.
What do people expect from medical apps?
Personal medical applications must provide several basic capabilities. Here are some examples.
Simple Ways to Use the App
It's helpful to have distinctive capabilities in your app, but the fundamental features should be readily available to users. Patients will not use an app that adds to their already spent caring for themselves.
Patients are looking for a smartphone app that helps them save time on scheduling, changing, or canceling their doctor's visit. Patients will abandon your mobile app if it takes them a long time to figure out how it works. It's that easy.
So, whether it's booking an appointment or scheduling an online diagnosis, a successful mobile healthcare app is the one that makes everything accessible without complications.
It will speed up the process for doctors, but it may also save much time and work for patients. It should save a lot of time and effort for patients rather than adding to it.
Information that is detailed, actionable
According to app downloads statistics, patients appear to be quite interested in mobile health applications and platforms. Patients are downloading these applications because they provide a benefit in return.
Providing information just for its sake will not make your app successful.
Patients want to understand everything there is to know about their condition, its reasons, and how they may use this knowledge to improve their health. Your healthcare app must provide information on a specific situation and guide patients through the pool of knowledge.
Make confident your application is engaging by utilizing interactive tools and non-technical language.
Professional help is always accessible
Patients should be able to interact with healthcare providers through the mobile healthcare app readily. According to the research, 75% of hospital visits are "elementary" and may be handled over the phone or video.
Providing a place where patients and doctors can interact would benefit both parties. Telehealth services allow patients to save time and money on hospital visits while also allowing doctors to care for them more personally.
Again, make sure that these features are simple for the end-users.
Patients' Social Network
Patients desire to interact and communicate with one another. It is critical to include a social networking element in your healthcare software.
There are several advantages to incorporating social aspects into your app. When someone is diagnosed with a specific illness or condition, they will generally want to communicate with others who have been similarly afflicted.
It makes patients feel welcome and a part of a caring community. It's possible that patients will be more interested in your healthcare app if they're notified of new versions when they download it.
Simple yet unique digital experiences
Consumers in today's world want a simple and attractive user experience. According to statistics, 90% of mHealth applications are not used frequently after they're downloaded. Poor user experience might be why so many mobile health applications fail to make an excellent first impression.
Data reveals that around 21% of millennials would delete an app if it provided a poor digital experience.
As a result, your mobile app must have an intuitive user interface. It's important to highlight that these healthcare apps are helpful and engaging, especially when it comes to data visualization.
Patients are far more inclined to save and use them if they have eye-catching visualizations.
Users generally prefer websites and designs with relaxing hues. Aside from that, make sure to keep your target audience in mind while developing the overall appearance. For example, if you're marketing to older people, your software should have more significant icons and larger copies.
Wearable connected devices
Wearable technologies, such as health trackers and smartwatches, are the rage. According to Juniper Research, the healthcare wearables industry will reach $20 billion in value by 2023.
The quicker adoption rate provides a unique opportunity to develop a healthcare app that may be easily linked with wearable technology.
The wearable device can monitor vital information such as heart rate, blood sugar levels, tremors, posture control, sleep cycles, and physical activity. This information can assist patients in gaining a better understanding of their exercise routines and giving them more control over their health.
Why do people need medical apps?
There are some main reasons:
- Patients and caregivers can use the app to help them monitor their health conditions, such as heart disease, diabetes, pregnancy, mental health, and more.
- Let healthcare providers share and report on a patient's health records anywhere.
- Keep track of medicines.
Key steps in a medical app creating
The personal medical app development process, like any other app, begins with determining the target audience and includes typical phases such as competitor research, feature set selection, selection of a technology stack, and coding.
Understand your user
When we spoke about consumer expectations, it meant getting to know your customers better. Many activities are simplified if you understand your user:
- Developing a superior product;
- Identifying product features;
- Devising a strategic and beneficial promotional plan are all examples.
- Gather the necessary information for a user persona by conducting research and establishing critical demographic criteria.
Think about security
Enhanced security is a meaningful way to safeguard users' information. What you can do:
- Two-factor authentication, also known as two-step verification, is a form of multi-factor security that uses both a password and a one-time code sent to your phone;
- To protect yourself against possible security risks, shorten the session mode to a particular time;
- Personal information should be treated with care. It's not good to use colorful and attention-grabbing fonts in medical apps. Therefore it might be safer to run them in public places.
What features to include in a medical app?
Begin with the essential features of every personal medical application.
- Account authorization: make this process fast and easy, but remember that it must be secure as you work with lots of private information.
- User profile: for users to enter the general information about them with the ability to change it.
- Tracking: allow users to control all their data, get quick access to them, and provide filtering by period and medical categories.
- Categorization: users need to categorize their medical documents and appointments with doctors.
- Notifications: get them notified about upcoming appointments.
Besides this, you can add advanced features to your medical app.
Choose a tech stack
Once you come to the app with the list of features and the overall image of your medical app, decide on the tools and technologies you will be using to build the app. These tools and instruments will include libraries, programming languages, frameworks, etc.
For the front-end part, it is ReactJS, and NextJS.
The backend stack often includes NestJS, Hasura, and AWS Lambda.
Databases need to be secure and be able to process queries fast. Among the best options is Postgres.
Depending on the complexity of your medical app, you may need to consider APIs functionality and AI solution integrations.
It is also essential to decide whether you go with a native application or cross-platform as it will require adapting the technical stack.
Create a convenient UX design
Data management should be easy with the personal medical app. Think of the user flow and switching between screens. Show only necessary information at one moment to not overwhelm users.
We recommend using simple language to make everything easily understandable. The medical app does not have to be caught up in unknown terminology.
Test and launch
When the medical app development stage is almost finished and ready to present the first MVP, have your QA team test everything properly. It will be helpful to involve people related to medicine in the process.
Once everything is checked and improved, launch your medical app. Keep in mind that launching doesn't mean just posting the product to stores. There is a marketing strategy behind the successful performance of the application.
Tips for creating a powerful medical app
To summarize, here is a list of pointers to help you develop a compelling personal medical application:
- Consider your clients and their requirements. Always keep the design process in line with your users' needs and expectations to get a useful medical gadget.
- Please keep it simple. Users will be gratified by UX design and data visualization that is easy to use.
- Customer care is a must. Make sure your clients know that their data is secure.
Making a medical app in 2022 is an excellent concept. Don't be afraid of the high competition. Users want to be able to manage their health state using the mobile app. You can try building your first no-code medical app on our AppMaster.io platform.
