Look at Smart Watches, Biosensors, telemedicine apps and AI-based health chatbots. These applications of machine learning and robotics on app architectures have helped healthcare apps bridge the urban-rural patient care gap, made instant care accessible to remotest areas, catalyzed drug research, discovery and identification, accelerated automated mental health checkups and dermatology assessments and most importantly – automated the overall healthcare sector and set it on the road to digital transformation.

Considering the huge potential in the progressing market, healthcare is the hotspot for entrepreneurial opportunities especially in the domain of mobile applications. If you too are an aspiring appreneur with an epic idea and a mission to disrupt the telemedicine, this article covers a quick guide to help you with everything from investing in healthcare apps to finding the best healthcare app developers for your project.

Why Should You Invest in Healthcare and Telemedicine Apps?

For all technical developers as well as non-techies interested in taking a plunge into healthcare app development, here are 4 statistics from Statista to prove why this is the right time to invest in this domain:

• 1.The global mobile health market is estimated to grow to 189 billion USD in 2025.
• 2.The Google Play Store currently has approximately 53,054 apps, while App store has around 53,979 apps.
• 3.Mobile healthcare apps will have a market size of approximately 50 billion USD in 2025. Out of these, 3.5 billion USD is predicted to be occupied by medication adherence apps.

Healthcare App Ideas for 2022

• 1.Telemedicine apps that allow users to seek online medical checkups, assessments and consultancy
• 2.AI and ML based health apps that diagnose skin and other body conditions after image and voice recognition
• 3.Fitness monitoring apps that connect to wearable gadgets and biosensors
• 4.Disease monitoring apps that monitor the symptoms and progress in specific health conditions
• 5.Pill and meditation reminder applications
• 6.A smart healthcare app powered by Internet of Things
• 7.Drug delivery service application
• 8.Medicated accessories ecommerce or marketplace app

How to Develop a Healthcare App

Here is a 5-step healthcare app development process for appreneurs and businesses planning to invest:

1.Choose the type of healthcare app you want to develop.

You can choose to solve a healthcare-related or care delivery problem from your environment, or develop an app with a unique idea, or imitate an app model that you really appreciate.

Also, mental health apps are trending. Calm and headspace are examples of top mental health and anxiety apps that are transforming people’s lives, all while earning revenues via sponsored ads, premium features and in-app purchases.

It is ideal that you approach the technical development team with a strong idea and a robust business plan. If not, USA has got some best healthcare app developers who can guide you on what’s trending and what the market needs right now.

Do remember that you’ll have to choose a developer depending on the type of mobile application you wish to launch.

2.Create development strategy.

Your development strategy has to have 5 important parts:

• -The platform or device you want to develop the app for: iPhone, Android or cross-platform with similar performance on multiple operating systems
• -Goals behind app development
• -Technology stack: programming languages and development frameworks, AR and Machine Learning frameworks, APIs and databases
• -App development budgets and timelines: both of these factors will also influence your launching plans
• -App’s monetization model: free app and ads, freemium, premium or affiliate marketing

A lot of your development and non-technical decisions and efforts will depend on your development strategy. Most importantly, youhiring for a healthcare app developer will depend on this strategy.

3.Decide app features you want to add.

Here are the most common app features most consumer-side healthcare and telemedicine software programs usually have:

• -Easy sign up and sign in
• -Custom notification settings
• -User registration, especially their living conditions and income group
• -Historical and current health conditions
• -Biometric factors
• -E-prescription
• -Integration with wearable devices
• -Daily mood and symptom check-in
• -Multilingual support
• -2 Factor Authentication

While these are quite common features now, you can add or remove more depending on the scope and coverage of your app. More importantly, your app has to have a simple User Interface and User Experience so that the overall app doesn’t overwhelm the user.

4.Complete technical specifications.

Technical specifications include designing the app, coding the basic app MVP and then building onto it for advanced features, testing it during the agile methodology and using the technology stack as and when required.

Developers usually start with coding the front-end of the application. This is the client-side of an app that interacts directly with the app user. It receives the data, and user queries and represents the app responses.

Second up is the back-end development, which is basically the skeletal structure and the server-side of the app. This side processes and protects the data, returns responses to client queries and takes care of the overall app infrastructure.

The layer between back and front-end is the API – Application Programming Interface. These are small units that take over the littlest of back-end’s tasks and exchange data between layers. For example, Gmail signup or pay through Apple are two APIs that make the app’s work easier.

• 5.Test the app and deploy.

Once the three layers of the app are complete in technical terms, developers forward the stack to testers and quality assurance staff. They assess the app on specific benchmarks including:

• -App’s loading time and overall speed
• -App’s performance, bugs, viruses and other glitches
• -Content, graphics and app responses

Hiring Developer for Healthcare Apps

Healthcare is a sensitive field, especially if you want to integrate AI, ML or marketplace features for users. For an effective hiring decision, we recommend appreneurs and startups work with developers who operate in their local region, since that makes project management and communication more convenient. Also, hire someone with mid-level experience at least, so that you can strike the right balance between app development cost, timelines and quality of design and development services.

Wrapping Up…

Statistics reveal that mobile health and telemedicine, especially software programs and smartphone applications have endless opportunities to be capitalized. The overall business success in this domain depends partly on the epic idea and partly on its right and timely execution. While making a hiring decision, find someone that matches your vision and can turn it into a digital reality. Once your app is launched, ensure its success, smooth working and profitability with regular maintenance, updates and testing.