The healthcare industry has continuously been one of the most conservative industries. We’re used to seeing doctors in person for a consultation, receiving a paper prescription for medicine, etc. This gives us more peace of mind about the quality of the medical treatment we get.
Over the last ten years, there has been a noticeable change in how consumers acquire goods and services. Telemedicine is now beginning to transform, changing the healthcare industry. It is projected that it will rapidly become the diagnostic and treatment method used by most people.
The Importance of Telemedicine App Development
If you are still confused as to why this industry has such great potential, look at the benefits available for patients and medical personnel.
Patients’ perks
Saving time and money
The inconvenience of spending time on the road to a hospital and managing to babysit kids while visiting a doctor is eliminated.
Access to Medical Care
People of various ages and abilities, such as children, the elderly, and those living in rural or isolated areas, now have increased access to medical treatments that were previously only available to individuals in more urban settings since telemedicine has made them more accessible.
Selection of the Best Experts
Patients now can arrange appointments with medical specialists in any part of the globe due to the advancement of telemedicine.
Preventive Care
People are encouraged to take better care of their health daily due to the accessibility to online appointments and the capability to check their health remotely. This approach has proven to be quite successful. For instance, a study carried out in 2012 on people with coronary artery disease found that preventive telemedicine improved their overall health.
Market Research and Product Concept
Before launching a product or service into the market, you need to research the telemedicine industry since this sector is undergoing fast growth. We recommend that you analyze the leading products and services and then look for a niche market that other companies do not yet hold.
App Development Using the Latest Technologies
As soon as you have identified your specific market segment and the target audience, it is time to start thinking about the technologies that will be integrated and used in your product. You won’t be able to release a simple app since the most successful telemedicine companies have already adopted the most recent industry developments.
MVP for a Telemedicine App
Now we’ve reached one of the most exciting points in the product development process – identifying the feature set that our potential product has will go forward. Please keep in mind that this is not a mandatory instruction and that you are free to experiment with the various functions according to the vision that you have for your product.
Sign Up/Sign In
Your app’s launch to the public is the most important phase; thus, it should be fast and easy. We recommend implementing a phone sign-in/sign-up in the initial edition as it helps to simplify the process and simultaneously confirms the identification.
Personal Profile
The user will be prompted to identify themselves as either a patient or a doctor immediately after the sign-up procedure. The profile creation will need various data inputs according to the response provided.
For patients: name, age, gender, photo, location, and language.
For doctors: name, age, gender, photo, location, language, area of expertise, license, introductions, available types of services, and prices.
The data can be updated later in the user’s profile.
Last but not least, patients and doctors must be able to deactivate their accounts without losing all of their personal information by downloading, for example. This means that you should provide secure and trustable storage for users’ information inside your app.
Search for a Medical Specialist
The patients can search for the appropriate doctor depending on their choices, which may include location, field of expertise, price, rating, language spoken or time slots that are available.
If you want the search results to be more convenient, we can add the sorting capability so that consumers can filter the list of doctors based on a variety of criteria, such as price or rating, etc.
Reviews and Ratings for Doctors
Detailed information on the specialists, reviews, and feedback from other patients and a doctor’s rating should be accessible.
Messaging
Not only can you utilize chat for a quick consultation, but you can also use it to share crucial information such as medical records, photos, test results, and other relevant content. Therefore, the ability to send photos, videos, and documents should be an integrated chat component.
Video Calling
This is the primary feature of the first app version. Patients and medical professionals are going to interact with one another here.
Appointment and Scheduling Management
The content of this section will change based on the type of user.
For patients: The ability to see a list of consultations (completed, upcoming, or canceled) and to change or cancel an appointment.
For doctors: The list of consultations (finished, upcoming, canceled, paid/unpaid), the schedule with the opportunity to establish free time slots for the calls, and the choices to approve, cancel, or postpone the call.
Payments
Based on the monetization model that will be adopted, patients or doctors should be able to simply pay for the services offered by the app while they are still inside the app. Let’s say that we’ve decided to go with the approach in which patients are responsible for paying for each consultation.
Final Thoughts
It is difficult to cover all facets of the telemedicine sector in one article due to the breadth and depth of the subject. Because it offers so many growth opportunities, the discovery of new niches, and the use of the most recent technology, telemedicine is an area that is impossible to ignore. We have every reason to assume that telemedicine will soon become the standard in our society and that, over the long run, it will greatly boost the level of care provided by medical professionals and, as a result, the overall health of the population.
Do you share the passion for this field to the same degree as we do? We hope this little trip into the exciting world of telehealth app development has provided you with various innovative ideas on how to dominate the industry. In addition, we are available to assist you in completing this task and await your call. Just let us know what you have in mind, and one of our specialists will provide you with a free consultation and an estimation of the project’s cost.