Mobile Healthcare App Development – Future Of Healthcare

As we have entered the digital age, we have become more and more attached to our smartphones and other devices, and not just to keep up with trends or for sentimental reasons. Smartphones have become so integrated with our lives that we have increasingly relied on it to manage our schedules, organize work and business processes, stay informed, and connected through social networks, forever changing our way of we live.  In today’s world, people solve the majority of their vital problems using their smartphones. The healthcare industry is no exception, especially in our new COVID-19 realities where so much depends on the remote services. Add to that the growing prevalence of chronic diseases and the rising use of wearables. The mHealth (Mobile + Health) industry is thriving in the world making the future of healthcare app development look bright. In this article we will see how healthcare app development has an impact.

What is the Healthcare Software Industry?

The healthcare industry has long ago distanced itself from the concept of waiting rooms. Present-day consumers of healthcare industry expect to receive something more than just regular coverage and annual medical examination. Demand for innovations and 24/7 support continues to grow. Especially, after wearable and other connecting devices became available to masses.Â

New diagnostic and treatment options emerged, provided by innovative technologies including those related to medical mobile app development. This is the reason why the healthcare industry started growing.Â

What is mHealth?

mHealth is an abbreviation for mobile health, a term used for the practice of medicine and public health supported by mobile devices.Â

mHealth broadly encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies as they are integrated within increasingly mobile and wireless health care delivery systems. The field broadly encompasses the use of mobile telecommunication and multimedia technologies in health care delivery.Â

The mobile healthcare market can be divided into 2 main areas:

• Fit– These are mHealth apps focused on fitness and healthy lifestyle.
• Med– In this case, it\’s not enough to download the application and get the appropriate gadget (say, a fitness bracelet). It\’s often required to cooperate with the clinic, doctor, diagnostic center (and so on), able to provide the user with proper feedback.

Facts about Healthcare apps.

• More than 95,000 medical apps for doctors and patients are listed in AppStore catalogs;
• Almost 45% of mHealth apps are using paid business models (more about business models for healthcare apps read here);
• 15% are aimed at healthcare experts (CME, PRM, healthcare mgt);
• The most popular mobile health apps generate about 5 million free and 300,000 paid downloads around the world per day.

Factors Contributing to Growth of Mobile Health App Services.

5 major factors as identified by J\’son & Partners Consulting-

• The population living in the countryside– In villages, people often don’t have access to qualified medical assistance. In order to receive treatment to get better, they won’t mind getting remote treatment, and therefore they are left with the use of patient health tracking apps as their primary choice.
• Active distribution of mobile devices– The number of mobile subscribers has already exceeded 7 billion.Â
• Medical staff deficiency– It is expected that by 2020 the US will have missed 1 million nurses. And again, mHealth apps are a great solution to the problem.
• Health systems are becoming more expensive– Growth in the number of people on the planet enlarges medical expenses. The cost of healthcare in the United States will increase from $ 3 trillion in 2014 to $ 5 trillion in 2022.
• The aging population– According to UN forecasts, by 2050, 22% of the world\’s population will have been retired. Older people are more likely to suffer from chronic diseases and more in need of medical care.

Types of Healthcare Apps.

• Collection and preservation of various medical user metrics (pulse, arterial and intracranial tension, heart function, sleep, etc).
• Fitness apps (exercise complexes, control of performance).
• Mobile apps for a healthy lifestyle (diet, tips, etc.).
• Control of drug taking and treatment.
• Healthcare apps aimed at people suffering from a particular disease.
• Apps to interact with a medical center or clinic.

To be precise we can divide it into 3 major categories-

FOR PATIENTS

-Appointment scheduling

-Fitness and wellness apps

-Mental health apps (including meditation)

-Self-diagnosing

-IoT products

-Applications for caring for the elderly and sick people

-Patient’s well-being diaries, vital signs monitoring (blood pressure, pulse, glucometer data)

-Health management apps such as water monitoring, calorie calculator, diet tips, etc.

-Social networking, health forums, and portals

-Assistants for pregnant women

-Women’s health

-Telemedicine

FOR MEDICAL PROFESSIONALS-

-Medical resource and education apps that contain information about drugs, medical articles, or lists of symptoms

-Remote diagnosing

-Remote monitoring

-Communication

-Appointment management

-Telemedicine

FOR INSTITUTIONS-

-Clinical assistance apps with EMR and -EHR access

-Appointment and scheduling

-Billing

-Inventory management.

Initial Requirements and Healthcare App Features.

Medical Center or Clinic

Features of doctor appointment booking applications must include:

• convenient record to the right doctor;
• preservation of doctor\’s instructions and orders;
• preservation of clinical record and test results;
• the possibility of obtaining data (test results, etc) via the Internet;
• ideally, a convenient interaction with the attending doctor and the administration via a mobile device.

Medical Laboratory

• basic rules of the process of taking tests (such as, what you should know when going to have a blood test);
• record to get in without queue;
• receiving and saving results;
• convenient use of the results (send to the doctor, print);
• a convenient view of the results change (say, a graph).

Drug store and Pharmaceuticals

In mosy cases, customers come to a drug store without visiting a doctor, and not knowing exactly what medicine they should buy. Healthcare app is one possible way to make your costumers choose you. In today\’s case, they want to know the most effective one. In this case, mHealth might come in handy.Â

Following functions are to be performed-

• a reliable source of data on medicines (reference book);
• information about the availability of drugs in the store;
• pre-order;
• getting an order in the store;
• home delivery.

Benefits of Mobile Medical Apps:

CONVENIENCEÂ

Multiple wearable devices are now available to help end-users (not limited to patients) to track and manage health data without physically going to a hospital or medical clinic. Fitbit, Apple, Samsung, Garmin, and many others have manufactured wearable devices to monitor the health, diet, sleep, and well-being of end-users makes them more aware and conscious of their general well-being more than ever before.Â

AVAILABILITY

You won’t run out of apps to choose from either, because according to research2guidance, the mHealth app market will grow by 15% to reach $31 billion by 2020. As of this year, there are 165,000 mobile medical apps available on the market. Medical professionals continue to create mobile medical apps for specific uses and work hand-in-hand with manufacturers to deliver mobile medical apps and mobile technology to serve end-users better. Even remote areas that often lack attention, accessibility, and resources can enjoy immediate treatment and information with the help of these apps. mHealth technology has increased ground support for local medical professionals and humanitarian workers serving in these remote, underprivileged locations.Â

CONNECTIVITY

Mobile medical apps also allow patients to have online consultations with their doctors, secure messaging systems that inform loved ones when their relative is out of surgery and enhances communications amongst practitioners. More and more medical practitioners are equipping themselves with tablets in the office and hospital to ensure their available access to their patients. When time is of the essence, mobile medical apps and the mHealth technology helps doctors save more lives as they are enabled to give help immediately and remotely, preceding needed medical attention the patient needs

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