Telemedicine App Development Guide: Cost, Features, & Hazards

Summary: Are you venturing into the next best telemedicine app development? You might as well are looking for telemedicine app development solutions cost, features, and other factors revolving around a great online health software solution. This blog is specifically curated by our expert coders & developers, providing you with a successful telemedicine app development guide. Dive into it & obtain some fruitful information for your application.

How can the healthcare industry stay behind with the online world expanding its wings to ease off every sector? The IT infrastructure backs the health & medicine industry with several App developments and data management solutions. The adoption among healthcare providers is also commendable as these digital platforms increase their accessibility to approach patients in real-time. Hence, health organizations’ critical challenges are met cost-effectively with the help of health development app. 

The pandemic has played a major role in drastically changing the healthcare industry. Now a patient no longer waits in a queue to meet a doctor. On the other hand, the doctors, too, have access to patients’ data, easy consultation sessions, easy communication, effective time management, etc. Thus, with a great adaptability ratio in recent years, medical app developments have gained popularity. According to the graph below, you can notice a gradual growth in medical application development.

The global telemedicine market size is expected to reach USD 380.3 billion by 2030, with a CAGR of 19.5%. So, after knowing its futuristic increase, you now must be interested in knowing its tech advancements, features, types, and more.

Virtual healthcare complements the regular healthcare industry. It is a boon to the doctors who wants to give time to every patient & build a global health network online.- Pramesh Jain.

Whether you are thinking of a telemedicine startup cost or planning to have healthcare app to eliminate your mundane hospital expenditure, the information below will easily help you out. 

Three Main Categories of Telemedicine Services 

Store-and-Forward:

This kind of service, referred to as “asynchronous telemedicine,” allows patients and doctors to exchange and share medical records. These consist of visual assets like videos and imaging data, including scans, prescriptions, test results, and lab reports. Additionally, these documents are transferable in case the assistance of other experts is required. Sharing and forwarding medical records through the program is more secure than sending this information over email.

Remote patient observation (RPM):

This service is typically utilized with high-risk patients who need regular follow-ups and continuous monitoring. Some examples are individuals with serious heart diseases, those who have recently been released from the hospital, and diabetic patients.

Telemedicine using Real-Time Audio and Video:

Online video chat and audio messaging are the most common & necessary functionality of a health app. This service is primarily for medical consultations, follow-ups, and urgent care.

If you are still unclear whether it is worthwhile to spend money on developing a bespoke healthcare app, let’s discuss the types and features you can provide the market and the advantages your users will receive from the platform.

Types of Technologies Integrated in Telemedicine App Development Solutions

To excel in the online health department and be one with the millennial updates, one has to integrate certain technologies in telehealth app development.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is usually integrated into health applications to get accurate diagnostic information about a patient’s condition. And a patient also gets his diagnosis report faster than the traditional informative ways. 

The doctors can analyze the information through a patient’s application to make real-time decisions. Artificial intelligence learns a user’s behavior and recognizes the user’s thinking pattern. Thus, it enhances doctor-patient interaction. 

AI has its chatbot integration that allows virtual assistance to patients to reach doctors instantly. It also helps schedule appointments and provides timely advice from experts & other primary care help.

Internet of Things (IoT)

Wearable device integration is a must to monitor one’s health remotely. The telemedicine application’s IoT advancement can easily facilitate a user’s health tracking capabilities through a smartwatch or third-party integration. The taken measurements are also directly transferred into the app for healthcare so that the doctor can give a verdict on one’s body condition to make a futuristic decision.

Big Data Analysis

Regarding health-related documents, there is a lot to maintain & record in one place. Big data has been immensely popular among developers to store large data, including lab reports, wearable measurements, etc., and make such information available in seconds. It helps other diagnostics and treatment processes take place efficiently within a stipulated time frame.  

Blockchain 

Blockchain allows seamless exchange of data from third parties without any mishap. All the data is encrypted and stored in a decentralized system. Personal healthcare records are easily accessed by the owners & with their permission only. It is the most secured & safe data storage advancement for a health organization. 

Cloud technology

Cloud-based technology was the most recent innovation used to create a healthcare app. So, with the advantages of the cloud, data from an app is viewed from any device and location. Furthermore, using this technology makes personal information security less vulnerable to data breach activity.

Now, after knowing this trending technological advancement for your medical app, let’s look into the essential benefits you will obtain by investing in healthcare app development.

Core Benefits of Building a Telemedicine App for Your Healthcare Business

Reduction in overall healthcare costs

With technology at its front, you must be looking for a tangible cost-cutting benefit. The cost of renting a workspace is eliminated effectively when you develop a telemedicine app. A doctor can work independently even when he is working with a hospital. 

The overall consultation process becomes faster as the medical software consists of an appointment scheduling calendar, organized video chats with experts, and more. It gradually cuts down the costs of other miscellaneous expenditures like stationary, printing, etc.

Timely treatments

With the advent of telemedicine solutions, there is no time-consuming procedure for availing treatments. In a conventional hospital, some doctors are working, and some are on a day off. For a patient, it becomes difficult to avail appointments or get the diagnosis of a disease if the respective doctor is on a day off. But through a health application development, both parties can get a hold of each other when needed.

When building such telemedical applications, you must consider how the application can save your user’s time. Let them book an appointment through the app at ease with the desired doctor. On both ends, there will be no confusion in scheduling a consultation and allocating respective time to a patient.

Effective time management for doctors

With the in-app schedules & push notifications, the doctors and staff can easily manage to consult and reach a patient on time. It does provide features & functionalities to administer one’s work. Even the administration can track a doctor’s work and maintain his work-life balance. One can also integrate CRM solution to the telehealth app for easy monitoring of leaves, schedules, time calendars, doctor availability, etc., which helps in effective management.

EHR availability

Telemedicine app keeps electronic health records for doctors to access patients’ clinical records on time. A single place for all the information saves a lot of time and allows patients to look into the changes done as and when required. 

Expert advice: When planning a telemedicine online venture, you must consider data security at its core. Prioritize securing the information and choose your mobile application tech stack, framework, and architecture to avoid digital data mishaps.

After knowing its tech integration and benefits, you might think of how to create a telemedicine platform. So, without overthinking it, you should start by listing important features you need in your telehealth app development.

Features for Telemedicine App Development Solutions 

Telemedicine app for patients

• Registration/ Sign-up:

A personal account is important as a health app collects a lot of data. An easy sign-up form with Facebook or Google sign-in, place a simple form for easy in-app registration. Also, ensure a two-step authentication via SMS or email for securing a personal account.

• Profile management:

For keeping EHR records, a patient’s profile must be maintained accurately. A user has to fill in necessary details, which can help a doctor to know past treatment history and health conditions. Under HIPAA regulations, the EHR of an unverified third party is prohibited. 

• Search filters:

Your telehealth app must have powerful search algorithms to engage a user. They should reach out to the desired doctor in real-time without wandering inside the application cluelessly. 

• Video/chat:

These features are essential for meeting doctors as and when needed. Ensure that your video-audio quality is high, optimize real-time connection, and, if needed, stream protocols like RTMP & WebRTC. 

Developer’s advice: One can also integrate text chats as video calls might distract a doctor. Attaching a photo-video file is a great feature for texting; thus, you can seamlessly integrate Twilio & allow live chats into your telemedicine app development.

• Google Calendar:

In-app calendars allow patients to manage their appointments with physicians on time. Facilitate rescheduling of consultation and other timely issues. A calendar can sync easily with API; thus, there will be no communication error between the parties.

• Payment gateway integration:

Integration of trustworthy gateways is very important. One should opt for platforms like Braintree, Paypal, Stripe, etc., for easy and seamless online transactions. 

Note: If you are planning to make a custom gateway for your healthcare software solution, then it is recommended that you approach an experienced software development company for flawless implementation of the feature.

In other features, ratings & reviews & push notifications to allow a user to be on track with a reputed and faithful physician in business. All these features and others which you suggest completely depend on the cost of telemedicine app development. You can experiment with many other technological advancements and features if your budget is flexible. 

Telemedicine app for doctors

• Profile creation: The physician has to specify experience and other medical competencies. To gain credibility online, it is necessary to give more information and create online goodwill in the application for your specialization.

• Calendar management: An admin role has to be assigned to the doctors to manage and change their schedules with patients when required. Alterations in the calendar in real-time help save a lot of time and effort for a physician and a patient.

• Access to EHR: A doctor must have access to every patient’s EHR for viewing the progress and adding or editing one. So, he gets a proper track of his patient’s health. 

• Video/chat communication: You need to provide two-way communication so that a doctor can ask questions to patients as and when needed and keep in touch about the condition saving his visiting time for an emergency case in the future. 

Cost of Developing a Telemedicine App Development Solution

There is endless investment to be done when it comes to developing a seamless healthcare app. But, herein we have mentioned some of the essential features with its approximate hours for you to calculate your app development cost.

There are some basic features that you will get in your telemedicine app. Whether you are planning for small or big telehealth app development, these are essential features to be integrated into your health app.

Modules	Core Features
Authorization	Signup Sign out
Patient management	List of patient Search patient Filter patient
Doctor Management	List of doctors Search Doctors Filter doctors
Navigation	GPS
Payment management	List of transaction
Send push/email notification	Select all users/specific users

The overall turnaround time for the project completion is approximately 4 months. This again varies on what other tech advancements you are planning to integrate with your telemedicine application. The approximate starting cost of such a project is $30,000.

We have given you an approximate timeline & cost as it will change depending on your scope of work and the requirements. These figures will thus give you an idea of a sum to consider while discussing app development with a software company.

Before ending the blog, look into our esteemed deployments in the digital healthcare world. Our experts have been working on some very innovative genres of the health industry.

Projects Contributed by Us to the Healthcare App Development Space

Online pathology and diagnostics app

The telehealth app was created to provide pathological needs across India. It is an intuitive mobile application designed to obtain test results, prescriptions, etc., in one place. 

Sterling Accuris Case Study

Health and wellness app development

The website has been built to ensure the user’s time is spent living life to its best, not decoding how to best live it. The various modules like Movements & Arts, Recipes, Menu Plan, Shopping List, FoodFacts, Culinary Crafts, and Nutrition Knowledge provides a one-stop solution for the healthcare system where users will get videos related to workouts, yogas, and meditation.

Primally nourished case study

Conclusion

Endless opportunities in the healthcare industry that has opened numerous gates to digital prosperity. Partnering with a proficient web and mobile app development company will make your path easier. Choose wisely between onshore and offshore app development according to your budget and the kind of online performance you are looking for. Invade the digital space!