mHealthcare market has grown significantly in the last few years. App development of dedicated mobile apps for hospitals, healthcare centers, doctors and patients is booming. Thanks to this the healthcare service today is more available, convenient and of higher quality. Today, patients don’t have to wait their turn in a queue and medical staff don’t have to fill in data manually as the databases are now digitized. Doctors can treat patients all around the clock if there is an emergency, providing timely consultation. In this article we focus more on healthcare apps for patients and describe what types exist and for which purposes.
So there are a bunch of medical apps designed specially for patients. They include:
- Rehabilitation apps
- Medication apps
- Telemedicine apps
- Mental health apps
- Wellness apps
The first category, the rehabilitation apps, are meant to support patients on their journey to recovery. Such apps offer postoperative care plans and rehabilitation journals, online physical therapy sessions, different trainers to gain back the healthy condition.
Medication apps remind patients at what time to take their medicine, provide them with e-prescriptions and help to search for best medicine prices online.
Telemedicine apps made it possible to provide healthcare service remotely in the sparsely neighboured areas. These apps enable conducting chronic disease management and making diagnosis from a distance. Patients can also get real-time consultation from a doctor via an app.
Mental health apps are aimed to help patients with different kinds of mental disorders and addictions. Usually such apps include mood diaries, self-care tips and relaxation manuals as well as addiction trackers.
Wellness apps are the most popular app so far. A lot of people use them to keep fit and stay healthy. There are fitness apps that offer online workout sessions, nutrition schedules, healthy recipes, calorie counters, blood and heart rate trackers, etc. This kind of apps often come along with wearables such as wristbands that collect information about the users and send it to the app on the phone.
The last but not least are patient engagement apps that encourage patients to care more about themselves and not rely solely on the professional medical help. Using this type ot medical apps patines can get access to health portals created specially for patients and databases of healthcare professionals. Patient engagement apps also provide different health-related tips.
What to pay your attention on when building a medical app
Upon creating patient dedicate app you should take into account the following aspects:
Condition-based apps. Note that you can’t develop an app that will cater for all meed of the patients. It’s more wisely to address certain health conditions at a time to provide individual approach to patients with different health issues (diabetes, cancer, asthma or mental health)
Two-way communication. Your app must provide a two-way communication between doctors and patients. It can be achieved with the help of video, photo exchange and also online consultations.
User-friendly interface. Both appearance and usability of your app have to be simple and comprehensible. A user-friendly interface and logical navigation will provide your end-users with a valuable user experience.
Medical device integration. As healthcare sector actively embraces IoT technology, your app must be compatible with various kinds of medical devices that provide tracking and measuring of patients conditions. They include instant glucometers, smart thermometers, fitness or sleep trackers, smart asthma inhalers and many other devices.
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