Healthcare Apps for Patients Do's and Don'ts: Most-asked Health App Development Questions This Month

The Basics of Healthcare Mobile Apps for Patients   

The healthcare landscape is transforming at a rapid pace. It is now safe to say that technology has taken over like never before. Healthcare organizations with great enthusiasm are lapping up healthcare apps for patients and telehealth solutions. Patients, likewise, are increasingly relying on apps for patients and healthcare for treatments, general wellbeing, and health management. Within this domain, mobile healthcare apps for patients are taking center stage. According to recent predictions, the global healthcare app market is poised to exponentially rise to generate a whopping revenue of approximately $111.1B.   

The benefits of patient engagement software solutions are truly undeniable. A good quality healthcare app can improve patient-physician communication, emergency care, nurse-patient engagement, and access to a remote health monitoring system, electronic data interchange, and overall healthcare management. Patient engagement systems can further automate appointment scheduling, health reminders, check-ups, and much more. As you consider creating your own healthcare mobile application development, here is our guide to help you maximize your resources and get the best out of your investment.   

What Patients Want in a Healthcare App   

Patient engagement software solutions are designed to cater to patient needs and general users looking to take health into their own hands. Through advanced patient engagement technologies and multiple trials for patient engagement, healthcare apps for patients have evolved to offer many features.   

Educational Patient Engagement Solutions:  

Certain patient engagement solutions are targeted toward specific demographics or populations that are prone to illnesses. During COVID-19, these professional healthcare apps proved crucial. They provide patient health education about the specific disease through digital patient engagement solutions.   

Diagnostic Healthcare Apps for Patients:  

This patient engagement software allows patients to access diagnostic services and works toward preventive purposes. Healthcare apps for patients, such as these, are an essential tool for early diagnosis and can go a long way toward improving patient health.   

Reminder Patient Engagement Software:  

Patient engagement health care has grown by leaps and bounds, and telemedicine has been seamlessly incorporated to offer patient engagement software for medication reminders and general wellbeing updates.   

Patient Engagement Solutions for Health Monitoring

These mobile healthcare apps for patients work through nurse engagement and patient outcomes to manage chronic diseases. Through integrated healthcare solutions with healthcare apps for doctors, remote monitoring and preventive care are successfully established.   

Patient Engagement Technology for Mental Health  

Owing to the current pandemic, mental health has grabbed attention like never before. Patient engagement solutions for mental health range from patient scheduling solutions to special provisions for meditation, stress, and other lifestyle choices. Custom mHealth app development is now able to offer specific relief for specific mental health conditions too.   

Patient Engagement Solutions for Wellbeing  

As patient engagement technology widens its scope, features for the general wellness of users are continually expanding. Through holistic patient portals and patient engagement, weight management, fitness, nutrition, and women’s health apps are being readily used.   

Frequently Asked Questions  

1. Do I need an MVP?  

The simple answer is an emphatic yes. In the mHealth app development journey, the Minimum Viable Product (MVP) is a basic version of your final product. Patient engagement technologies need to build an MVP to focus on the main purpose, receive general feedback, and keep the budget under control. Also, the MVP version is the beginning step of clinical trials patient engagement that can give you a fair idea about how successful your mHealth app development will be.    

2. Do I need to design for the User?  

Apps for healthcare or automated healthcare solutions for patients need to be designed keeping the patients’ needs in mind. They can be vastly different from apps for healthcare professionals in their features, complexity, and purpose. Therefore, you must carefully evaluate the User of the patient engagement technology, and only after this crucial step must the mobile health app developers execute digital patient engagement. Healthcare apps for patients should also be developed through careful and consistent user feedback.   

3. Do I need to maintain accessibility?   

Accessibility is key to the success of your patient portal development. Healthcare apps for patients that do not ensure quick and seamless accessibility are unlikely to be used. Through healthcare cloud computing and medical informatics, EHR systems can be embedded into the apps for healthcare and accessibility magnified. Accessibility is a feature that holds benefits for healthcare apps and patients alike.   

4. Do I need to invest in appointment scheduling features?   

This depends on the purpose of your mobile healthcare application development. If you are looking to create patient engagement solutions for hospitals, clinical patient engagement solutions, or practice management solutions, then this answer is yes. Patient scheduling software solutions make it easier for patients to schedule appointments in an automated fashion while also easing the appointment scheduling hassle through integrated apps for healthcare professionals.   

5. Do I need to consider the patient’s requirements?   

The main purpose of developing healthcare apps for patients is to fill the gap in patient expectations. Patient engagement technology is, therefore, targeted toward addressing multiple patient expectations. Digital patient engagement can be successful only when the specific requirement of the concerned patients is identified and addressed. The ideal digital patient engagement platform is developed while keeping the patient requirement as the priority.   

6. Do I need to opt for integration?   

Again, integrated mHealth app development solutions are designed to meet specific and multiple requirements. For example, apps for healthcare professionals that require patient input about symptoms, vitals, etc., will require the integration of EHR with other relevant features. Similarly, healthcare apps for patients who offer prescription assistance will require integrating with doctors’ prescriptions. The general rule is that if you are looking to address more than one patient requirement through mobile apps for healthcare, you are likely to need integration.   

7. Don’t I need to look into encryption?   

Mobile apps for healthcare have an underlying trust factor between the app owners and users. This is multiplied tenfold when it comes to healthcare application development. A digital patient engagement platform that fails to build trust among patients is not likely to be successful. Healthcare mobile app development that doesn’t fit the confidentiality requirement will result in patients withholding crucial information from their providers. The legal ramifications of a personal healthcare app that breaches patient privacy are undeniably gruesome. Medical apps for patients, therefore, need to invest in stringent encryption of patient data. There are set healthcare encryption standards to ensure effective protection of sensitive data on mobile apps for healthcare.   

8. Don’t I need to spend time on testing?   

Healthcare mobile application testing should be executed in a step-by-step format. After every developmental stage, it would be prudent to undertake sufficient testing. A practical method, along with testing, is to get periodic feedback from the User of the personal healthcare app. Healthcare apps for patients that undergo testing at regular intervals to ensure that errors can be fixed in a timely fashion, with as little rework as possible.   

9. Don’t I need to ensure compliance?   

Healthcare mobile app development is bound by specific state and national laws and policies that regulate how healthcare data should be handled. Depending on its functionality and geographic location, healthcare application development needs to abide by compliance standards. Patient engagement healthcare developers need to be cognizant of the compliance regulations. As a starting point, healthcare apps for patients in the U.S. must look into HIPAA compliance requirements.  

Conclusion  

Patient engagement in healthcare is rapidly evolving, and understanding patient needs and wants is the first step toward successful patient engagement strategies. Follow the above-mentioned guide and sail your way through patient engagement in healthcare.