An Ultimate Guide to Developing a Healthcare App

Mobile applications are propelling technology adoption in the healthcare sector. Today, we can witness a myriad of apps that are actively contributing to the betterment of people’s health while improving and streamlining medical services. According to a report, the global mHealth apps market is anticipated to reach $11.17 billion, exhibiting a growth of 21.1% CAGR by 2025.

To contribute to this market and improve ROI, many hospitals, medical institutes, and physicians have embarked on an app development journey. These apps not only enhance the well-being of people but also help medical professionals reach out to more and more people. While mobile apps offer enormous benefits in improving patients’ health and driving interoperability, one needs a meticulous approach to building a comprehensive app solution.

A Step By Step Guide to Building a Healthcare App

In today’s fierce competition, standing out from the crowd, reaching out to the target audience, and increasing the installation rate are not easy to achieve. So, starting on the right foot is extremely important as a task well begun is truly half done. Below is a step-to-step guide that you should follow to penetrate the healthcare market and make headway with your app.

Note: To create a cost-effective app and quickly step in the mHealth app market, we suggest to approach a reliable Hybrid app development company.

Brainstorm and Validate the App Idea

The key to a successful app lies in knowing what problem are you going to solve with your app. Focusing on the purpose instead of the product will lead to an app that your audience actually needs rather than that you think users want. Also, conduct thorough research to gather knowledge about the healthcare market, existing mobile apps, and make a list of features that you should incorporate into your application.

Furthermore, make sure not to create an app similar to one that already exists in the market. However, if your app functions similarly to an existing app, it should have some features that set you apart from the competition.

Some of the key features of a mHealth app are:

• Record Accessibility
• Minimal Data Collection
• Limited Access and Permissions
• Secure Authentication
• Application-level Security
• Clear Communication and More

Decide the Platform for App Development

Once you elucidate the problem, target audience, and app features, determine the platform for your app development.

Android, iOS, or both??

To decide the platform, you should introspect on your business requirements and the resources. Native iOS and Android applications offer an improved user experience (UX), but they also need a lot of time and resources to create an app for both platforms.

You can prioritize one platform first based on your target region and preferences of your target audience. However, if your audience is spread across a range of devices – both iOS and Android – incline to hybrid mobile app development. It is budget-friendly and works seamlessly across multiple platforms.

Hybrid app frameworks like React Native, Ionic, and Flutter accelerate the app development process as they allow developers to deploy a single codebase simultaneously in both the platforms.

Determine the Approach: Going All-inclusive or Building Incrementally

Everyone dreams of developing their business app that is all-encompassing and has the perfect set of features. However, following an MVP-first approach can contribute more to your app’s success.

A minimum viable product (MVP) is your basic app version that has all the core features and is devoid of additional features that can be incorporated later during future iterations of the app.

Since apps like Facebook, Uber, Instagram started as MVPs, following their footsteps will definitely land you to a better beginning. It will also expedite your time-to-market, give you an opportunity to validate your idea and add features as per the users’ feedback to the future version of your application.

Firstly, bring the simplest version of your healthcare app in the market, and then align it with your future, feature-packed vision by developing incrementally.

Design and Develop the App for an Excellent User Experience

The user experience can make or break an app as it has a significant impact on its usability as well as user engagement. Apps that offer sub-par user experience have more possibilities to end up being uninstalled. So, pay more attention to the UI/UX of your healthcare app as it not only needs to works well but also needs to look well and attention-grabbing.

Besides, adopting an iterative approach and developing an app in distinct modules allows the developers to make changes without affecting the overall functionality of the application. Ensuring integration with frameworks and third-party APIs that already exist fastens the app development process by eliminating the need for reinventing the wheel.

Most importantly, app integrations with EHRs and EMRs are essential to driving healthcare interoperability. Considering the innovations in the Internet of Medical Things (IoMT), connecting the app with fitness wearables and leveraging the collected data to achieve outcomes is also something you must take into account. Modern healthcare applications can also exploit AI algorithms to use the data to obtain insightful and actionable inferences.

Pay Attention to Testing

The bar for quality, security, and accuracy for healthcare apps is quite high. So, the testing phase of your app should leave no room for bugs and errors. Below are the quality assurance aspects that your software testers need to consider before releasing the app.

Data Security – Since healthcare data is more prone to hacks, identifying and eliminating all the areas of vulnerability in the testing phase is crucial. Encrypting data through a transport layer security will facilitate data validation in your healthcare app.

Data Privacy and Confidentiality – Set up strict authorization and access control measures within your app to make sure data is received only by its intended recipients.

Usability— Usability problems in your app can result in clinical issues impacting the outcomes of the patients’ health. Even a small issue encountered in the app will be a turn off for the users. So, meticulous testing of the app’s usability will improve its overall performance.

Don’t Overlook Data Security

mHealth apps that garner personally-identifying information must meet the regulatory compliances like HIPAA. These compliances apply to both the covered entities and their business associates. Besides, the repercussions of non-compliance can result in hefty fines. So, your app developers should go through the HIPAA compliance checklist before creating your app.

Maintenance and Support

Your app development journey doesn’t end at the launch of the application but slightly extends beyond that. Maintenance, support, and scalability are the other essential factors that you should consider while planning for app development. These factors are not just about fixing bugs but also modifying the app to improve its performance and live up to user expectations. App maintenance and enhancement will also help you to match the app with the latest industry trends and stay competitive in the market.

Summing Up:

These are the essential aspects that you must know to develop a futuristic healthcare app. Following these guidelines will certainly help you to create an app that will help you to level up your business and make a statement in the healthcare market.

To create a cost-effective app and drive your business growth, approach the experts of our hybrid app development company.