The advancement in technology has changed the way the healthcare industry used to operate. It helped the industry to provide better services and encouraged patients to take better care of themselves and meet their health goals using the numerous health apps available in the play store.
As per Research and Markets, the global healthcare market reached a value of nearly $8,452 billion in 2018, having grown at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 7.3% since 2014, and is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.9% to nearly $11,908.9 billion by 2022.
The use of advanced technologies is an important factor behind this growth. Let’s read more about the mobile health app trends.
Mobile app trends in the healthcare industry
- The mobile health market is expected to continue to grow in the coming years and is predicted to exceed 300 billion U.S. dollars by 2025 according to Statista.
- According to another study by Statista, during the last measured period (2015-2021), there were 53,054 healthcare apps available, representing a 6.51 percent increase over the previous quarter
- According to Mobius MD, over 60 percent of people have downloaded a mobile Health app. These fall into two major categories with wellness being much more common (85%) than medical (15%).
- The biggest cost-saving benefit from mobile health apps will be in reducing hospital costs by decreasing readmission rates and length of stay, and by assisting with patient compliance to medication plans. That’s according to the majority of respondents (60 percent) in a Research2Guidance report.
By now you must be aware of the growing use of mobile health apps. If you are thinking of investing in healthcare mobile app development then this blog is your ultimate guide. Let’s Start…
Steps required to develop a healthcare mobile app
Step 1: Identify the opportunity
Identify which feature is not available in the existing apps and work on it. This will give your app an edge over others. Carrying out market research and talking to healthcare workers can help you identify this opportunity.
Step 2: Understand the audience
Once you decide on the features the app will have, work on identifying your target audience. Once identified, carry out extensive research to know and understand the requirements of both medical professionals and patients. This will help you to create a practical and efficient app.
Step 3: Design your app
The design of the app depends on your target audience. The older audience prefers apps with larger fonts while the younger audience prefers colorful UI with better functionalities. Furthermore, the design of mobile health apps for patients will be different from that of an app for health workers. Remember, investing in good UI/UX service is the key to every app’s success.
Step 4: Develop your app
This is the development phase of the app. You must tell the app development company whether you need a cross-platform app or a native app as well as which framework or tools to use.
Step 5: Testing and app deployment
Test the app to make sure it meets the requirements. If it does, then it’s time to deploy the app to app stores.
Step 6: Feedback and maintenance
Update your app according to the customers’ feedback and latest market trends.
Different types of healthcare apps
Healthcare mobile apps are divided into two categories:
Apps for healthcare providers
- 1. Medical record appsMedical record apps help health workers to update patient records, including blood pressure, medical visits, examinations, prescriptions, and other information to keep track of a patient’s progress.
- 2. Professional networking appsThese apps help health workers to share knowledge, ask and answer questions and interact as a community. Professional networking apps improve clinical decision-making and communication with clinical specialists in a particular hospital.
- 3. Risk assessment appsHealth workers can monitor their patient’s health using these apps. Using Electronic Health Records (EHR) and wearable devices, health professionals can monitor patients’ health conditions, track heart rate, and identify patients at risk.
- 4. Medication dosage tracker appsThese apps help health professionals to keep track of their patients’ medication cycles by providing daily reminders. Furthermore, doctors can directly update patients regarding any change in medication.
Apps for patients
- 1. Doctor-on-demand appsDoctor-on-demand apps allow patients to easily connect with their doctors and receive treatment and consultations using telemedicine apps. Users can also book their doctor appointments and set reminders for themselves and their doctors using these apps.
- 2. Fitness appsThese apps allow users to keep track of their fitness journeys such as daily calorie burn, weight, steps, and much more. This data can also be shared with health care workers.
- 3. Diet and nutrition appsUsers can keep track of their daily calorie intake and diet using these apps. They are useful for users who are trying to lose weight or stay fit. Furthermore, such apps also provide personalized diets, customized according to the user’s fitness goals.
- 4. Medication appsMedication apps help users to maintain their mental health with the help of guided meditations. As a rule, such apps include a library with pre-recorded sessions of guided meditations, timers, gamification, and useful tips about breathing exercises.
Key features of an effective healthcare mobile app
Monitoring
An effective healthcare mobile app should be able to monitor the patient’s vital signs, such as blood pressure, blood sugar levels, pulse, heart rate, calorie intake, among others.
Scheduling
A healthcare mobile app should allow its users (both patients and doctors) to schedule appointments and set reminders. Users should also be able to schedule reminders for medicine intake, sleep, water intake, and daily calorie consumption targets, among other things.
Physician information
Users should be able to look up doctors by specialty, availability, location, and other parameters.
Geolocation
Sometimes it gets difficult for patients to locate a clinic or hospital, therefore an effective healthcare mobile app should provide the clinic’s location using apps like Google Map or any third-party app.
Patient information database
This feature enables the software to store prescriptions, medical history, reports, and other sensitive data that both patients and physicians can access at any time.
Some other important features you can add to your app based on your requirements are:
- Payment gateway
- Reviews & ratings
- Real-time chats
- Social media integration
- Video-conferencing
- Push notifications
- Prescriptions
- File sharing capabilities
- Wearable Integration
- One-click emergency service
- Report management
Conclusion
The future of healthcare is being driven by developments in mobile technology. With more demand for efficient, user-friendly, and secure medical applications, it is now the right time to invest your resources in health app development and create future-forward solutions.
Are you looking for a mobile app development company to partner with?
Jellyfish Technologies is one of the leading healthcare application development companies. The JFT team provides healthcare applications outsourcing services, healthcare software development services, and healthcare application developers for hire.
Whether you are a healthcare startup or an established healthcare company, Jellyfish Technologies can help you with mobile application development, web application development, API integration, Blockchain implementation, quality assurance, or any other custom requirement.
