Are you interested in digitazing medical industry and build health apps? Or, probably you want to solve particular issues in the medical industry or improve the existing fitness apps through innovation?
As mentioned by Statista, the digital healthcare market size was estimated to be 417 billion USD in 2023. This amount of mobile healthcare apps is projected to generate up to 657 billion USD by 2026 at 25% CAGR.
The COVID-19 outbreak has shown us all that the global healthcare system needs to make serious adjustments in order to adapt to new realities.
Healthcare application development or mHealth implies the process where software like telemedicine, EHR apps, appointment booking, lab results and tests, and apps for prescriptions, are created for mobile devices (e.g., smartphones, tablets, wearables). In the process, it is necessary to comply with regulations like HIPAA, GDPR, and other specifics.
Healthcare apps help improve medical and public health practices, as well as provide greater patient care through online consultations, service payments, access to patients’ history, managing healthcare information, and so on.
This article is a subtle guide on healthcare application development and lists information to help you make the right decisions, namely:
- MLSDev’s experience in mobile healthcare app creation
- Step-by-step process to start with digital healthcare services
- Detailed cost estimation of healthcare applications
- Key types of healthcare mobile apps
- Trends to look out for on the mHealth app market in 2023
- Security and privacy matters for medical app development
- Healthcare app design aspects
- Risks and vulnerabilities for medical apps development
- How healthcare apps can benefits patients, doctors, and healthcare institutions
Once you’ve read this article, you’ll know where to start and in which direction to move!
MLSDev Expertise in Healthcare Mobile App Development
MLSDev, a software development company, has experience in delivering complex healthcare projects to provide better services to patients, medical personnel, help create an app for hospitals - from a project’s planning stage to successful development and release.
On the MLSDev website, you can check out extra expertise and healthcare solutions provided by healthcare app developers.
Among our healthcare application development services is the Idana project, where we had great cooperation with Tomes GmbH.
Idana helps to perform anamnesis on a patient before their actual visit. Due to the project's specifics, our team offered to develop a progressive web app that was compliant with the IEC 62304 standard used for medical device software.
You may check out what one of Idana’s co-founders said about us on the GoodFirms platform.
Another healthcare mobile app development project by MLSDev is medical appointment booking software on iOS, Android, and the web. The platform unites and digitizes the work of various medical institutes, laboratories and delivers advanced patient care services. Feel free to check out the details of the medical app in our case study.
Our team has extensive experience working on healthcare solutions to provide better services to patients, medical personnel, and to help create an app for hospitals. On the MLSDev website, you can check out extra expertise and healthcare solutions provided by healthcare app developers.
Do you need to develop a healthcare app?
Contact us for the initial, free consultation and we will elaborate on your healthcare app project from both business and technical perspectives. We can advise you on the best way to develop your project, as well as provide a budget and timeline.
What Are the Types of Healthcare Apps
As of 2022, Statista states that there are over 50,000 healthcare apps available on Apple Store and over 40,000 on Google Play accordingly. This number is continuously increasing with a 4.86% growth compared with the previous quarter.
In general, all healthcare apps can be divided into two categories - professional healthcare apps and healthcare apps for patients.
Doctor apps are used for medical instruction, access to healthcare records and diagnoses, prescriptions for medicine, and essentially all other internal matters.
The other category consists of apps used by patients in clinics and personal healthcare apps.
Professional Healthcare Apps
Here, we briefly describe the ideas for healthcare mobile app development in terms of professional solutions for doctors.
- Healthcare reference & database apps
These apps are like databases designed to store information about diseases, drugs, and prescriptions in one place (e.g Medscape, Epocrates, VisualDX).
- Professional networking apps
Thematic social networks where healthcare providers and professionals can connect, interact, exchange knowledge, and grow their community (e.g. DailyRounds, Figure 1, Among Doctors).
- Patient health tracking apps & remote patient monitoring
Solutions that help doctors monitor the health of their patients throughout the healthcare treatment process. Results from various labs and tests are listed there, as well as all other documentation (e.g VitalHub Chart).
- Doctor appointment & clinical assistance apps
Apps for appointments help to reduce the handwritten work of keeping journals. All parties are automatically notified about changes in the calendar (e.g. Zocdoc).
- Telehealth mobile apps (doctor-on-demand apps)
Telehealth apps are a great solution for online doctor visits and consultations (e.g. KRY).
Mobile Health Apps for Patients
Below is a list of the most common apps used by patients and individual consumers.
- Patient healthcare education apps (patient portals) - to monitor useful information
- Reminder apps - includes tracking apps, or some healthy habit reminders (e.g. water consumption)
- Diagnosis apps - for preventive purposes
- Healthy lifestyle apps - health tests, fitness apps, wellness apps, cardio apps
- Remote patient monitoring apps - for chronic condition management like diabetes, blood pressure, cancer, etc.
- Mental health apps - stress relief apps, meditation apps, apps for good sleep
- Dieting apps - trackers, exercise, weight loss apps
- Women's health apps - for pregnancy, feeding, or monthly calendar
Among the top-grossing health applications, the majority are calorie and diet apps, as well as workout and fitness apps. Statista states that the top-grossing healthcare app in September 2022 by revenue worldwide was Fitbit with over $2 million, followed by Strava: Run, Ride, Hike fitness app.
All in all, the list gave you some idea of what variety of medical apps and fitness apps you may need. Here you can check out how to create a fitness app.
Key Healthcare Mobile App Development Trends in 2023
Simply think that the market of mobile health is only 10 years old. Nevertheless, according to Statista, the health apps market accounts for over 50,000 mobile health apps available on Apple Store and over 40,000 health apps on Google Play. This number is growing tremendously with 34.8% CAGR and is expected to account for $314.6 billion in medical apps in 2028.
- But are all of these undertakings in healthcare mobile application development appeared successful?
- Are those mobile health apps effective and trustworthy?
- Have you conducted market research and analyzed the target audience for future health apps?
- These and more questions should be answered in the initial step of conceptualizing mobile health application development to build a successful mobile app for real.
In perspective of healthcare industry, the 10-years timeline is the usual timeline for developing a new drug, while for a digital industry it can be compared to an eternity.
The main challenge is to effectively combine these two environments of slow-paced healthcare and digital speed. As well, complex healthcare industry regulations have a great influence on healthcare mobile app development.
What technologies and tech innovations can be applied within the healthcare industry?
What technologies can you utilize during medical app development?
Let's now cover these tech innovations in detail:
1. Telemedicine Services
As of 2020, the global telemedicine market (healthcare services conducted via online tools) was valued at over $40 billion and is expected to reach over $430 by 2030 with tremendous growth at 25.9% CAGR. These services have begun to change communication between patients and doctors. The majority of patients (53%) would consider scheduling a virtual meeting or have already done so.
Our team has specifically created a guide: Telemedicine App Development. You can find details on functionality, tech components, challenges, and so on.
2. Cloud Solutions for Healthcare App Development
Cloud solutions have great potential in healthcare app development. All the EHR (Electronic Health Records) and EMR (Electronic Medical Records) can be stored in the cloud, making data easily accessible, shared, and verifiable. Through cloud solutions, mobile health app services become more accessible.
Want to build powerful EHR software for the industry?
Get details for healthcare mobile app development inside the extensive article: Guide on EHR Development. Information for essential features, specifics, and key examples to pay attention to.
3. IoT in Healthcare
The Internet of Things has also become widely used in many industries, including healthcare. Wearable devices track and collect necessary information and transmit it to the system. By 2025, healthcare-related IoT revenue is projected to increase to over $135 billion.
This helps to create a health application to monitor a users health and where physicians can easily track patient vitals. Currently, the IoT goes even further by empowering clinics via administrative time-management and the ability to suggest patient treatments.
Our team created the article IoT Healthcare: What the Future Holds for the Healthcare Industry. Learn more about the appliance of IoT for healthcare mobile app development.
4. AI in Healthcare
Artificial Intelligence is expected to bring major breakthroughs in the field of self-examination. There is an even greater possibility for carrying out complex operations without a patient being physically present.
In general, AI technology is worth your investment. This will reduce costs for clinic visits and supplementary costs. As well, major investments have been made to support AI from IBM’s Watson and Google Deepmind to interconnect the tech and healthcare fields.
5. HIC as a Distribution Channel
Health Insurance Companies are a key party that might be extremely interested in healthcare mobile app development services. This year, “health insurers” overtook the app stores as the best healthcare app distribution channel.
It is assumed that patients would be more likely to share their personal and healthcare data for cheaper services and health recommendations.
6. Blockchain
Keeping patient data secure is one of the main concerns within the healthcare industry.
Blockchain is expected to be widely used in healthcare app development due to its highly secured system. Its patterns allow for keeping all the data genuine, transparent, and secure.
For extended information about the practical use of this technology in healthcare, you might want to read: Blockchain and Healthcare: Use Cases Today and Opportunities for the Future.
7. Big Data & Analytics
To manage such a large amount of data, both patient-related data and hospital records, the application of Big Data and Analytics is of great use. These can greatly facilitate resource management by making use of available statistics to analyze and predict patient inflow. As well, this helps to predict diagnoses and offer the most effective treatments.
8. Mobile Payments
With the widespread adoption of mobile devices, it is clear that mobile payments have continued to grow as well. This makes all healthcare transactions easier, especially in emergency situations.
9. Immersive 3D Video
Doctors, physicians, and future medical workers are interested in video content depicting surgeries and treatments. These 3D videos could become a valuable source for education, including for patients who want to learn more about their disease in this way.
To sum things up, if you are planning some sort of healthcare mobile app development, think of embracing some of these innovative technologies. Make sure your solution allows for quicker access to health records and aligns communication among all the involved parties.
Discover how you can add value to the healthcare industry with your project.
Contact the MLSDev team and discuss your project idea. By combining your innovative idea and our technical expertise, we can create something that users will enjoy using.
7-Step Process of Healthcare App
App development consists of 7 steps - starting with the identification of a problem in healthcare, moving on to market research and analysis, and resulting in successful healthcare application development.
Step 1: Identify a Problem in Healthcare
There are hundreds of healthcare apps already on the market. Do you think that all of them are unique?
Of course not.
In most cases, apps duplicate one another and thus bring no value to end-users. It is believed that this is due to ignorance of market information and a lack of research into competitive products.
Check out the diagram below to better understand why it is so important to understand your competitors. Then, you can create your own successful healthcare app business model.
The key idea behind successful healthcare mobile app development is its practical use.
Define what issues doctors, nurses, patients, and your target audience are experiencing and in what way your mobile healthcare app can solve this problem. Your digital solutions should add real value, not just replicate some patient portal by being mobile-optimized.
For that, answer the following questions:
- What problem do you want to solve with your app?
- Who is your competition?
- Are there successful solutions similar to your app?
- How do they attract customers?
- What is their USP (unique selling proposition)?
A general recommendation is to start with a simpler version of a potentially complex project. The cost to build a healthcare app could be very high, especially if you want to resolve a greater problem and build apps on multiple platforms for multiple users.
The graphs above show the projected therapy fields, where the top 3 issues experienced by the majority are diabetes, obesity, and depression. It might be a good idea to start healthcare app development with a solution that will address one of the problems.
Step 2: Get to Know your TA for a Healthcare App
As a reference, 75% of US hospitals attempted to offer a healthcare mobile app without conducting a preliminary analysis of target users. In reality, only 2% of all the patients used the service.
Patient engagement and surveys are great ways to define needs and make a list of future healthcare app ideas. It is better to brainstorm what you can bring to the table and then start working on and testing these concepts simultaneously.
Another important element is to analyze the market and environment where your healthcare app project will be kicked off. The most important aspect is meeting all the mobile healthcare regulations in whichever country you are targeting. The most favorable countries to offer digital health solutions are the USA, the UK, and Germany.
To summarize things, for successful app development it is crucial to know your TA and what is expected from the product. Then, it is easier to align your healthcare app functionality with consumer wants and needs.
Step 3: Think of a Design for the Healthcare App Project
The following design characteristics are good to keep in mind when creating an app.
1. Get Familiar With Colors
It is necessary to define a proper color scheme and fonts depending on the app’s purpose and theme. In most cases, delicate and calm colors work better than those that are vibrant.
Cold tones (white, blue, etc.) are mostly used for app backgrounds to highlight the app features. On the contrary, warm colors are used to get attention and make accents.
2. Apply Proper Notification Design
Notifications are very important in medical app development, especially with core reminders and tracking goals.
There could be many notifications placed within an app and, to avoid confusion, different design elements should also be applied. For this purpose, color-coding, choice of fonts, specific animations, or gestures can be used.
3. Take Into Account Android & iOS Design Differences
iOS and Android operating systems have different design guidelines (Design for Android; Design for iOS).
Google and Apple have distinct design patterns, where iOS products use a flat design that is more direct and plain. Alternatively, the material design used in Android products has a more three-dimensional appearance.
If you are interested in launching your healthcare startup on the web, check out the following guide: Medical Website Development: Design Essentials, Features, & Processes.
4. Apply Insights from the Target Audience Analysis
In any process of healthcare mobile app development, it is important to consider the following disabilities during the design phase:
- Blindness or sensory impairments
- Deafness
- Low vision
- Dyslexia
- Attention deficit
- Physical disability
As well, consider audio and video content representation within the medical app. There may be a need to provide transcription, add more white spaces, make images simpler, and apply adequate color contrast.
In general, it is recommended that complex text and fonts not be used.
There are set requirements and standards in the USA:
- ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act)
- Amendments Act
These standards state that software should be accessible to users with sensory, cognitive, and physical disabilities. The same approach is accepted in Canada, Germany, France, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.
Step 4: Start with the First Version of your Custom Healthcare Product
Healthcare mobile app development should proceed with easy scalability and adaptation in mind. At this stage, you can build your application with existing solutions, such as third-party portals, APIs, and services.
The best approach to any healthcare project is to begin with the first working version of a fully-fledged system. Starting with a minimum delightful product is the best decision at the first stage since it allows you to invest a small amount at the start, test your idea, and add more features to your solution with further applications.
Step 5: Test & Receive Feedback
The main purpose of healthcare mobile app development is to release the first version of an app to the market as soon as possible. Every subsequent version should be updated based on user feedback and your strategic vision. This will help you avoid big errors and financial losses that may appear if you launch the full product all at once.
Therefore, beta tests, distribution tests, user comments, and app ratings, all provide invaluable information about your ongoing strategy with a project.
Step 6: Think of Widespread Distribution
There are a couple of ways to get an app distributed depending on its purpose. Health mobile apps that are solely developed for a specific group can be downloaded from a generated link meeting all the necessary safety policy works.
If a wide audience is going to use an app inside a particular organization, it makes sense to create a private enterprise app store. This brings the highest level of adoption, positive user experience, and can serve as an analytics center for ongoing app development.
Step 7: Healthcare Mobile App Monetization
The healthcare market offers a range of business opportunities. The majority of healthcare apps available on Google Play or the Apple App Store are free of charge, but are monetized in one of a few ways, namely:
- Via device or medicine sales
- Advertisement
- Subscription model
- In-app purchase model
As well, there is a growing demand for health API, so why not develop one and sell it to other companies?
The solutions developed for a specific healthcare institution are not monetized in most cases, as this tends to improve healthcare service and patient experience.
Want to receive an all-in-one checklist on how to make your app successful?
Our team has designed a complete guide: How to Make Your App Successful. A Detailed Step-by-Step Guide. Pro tips and advice presented in this article can help you incorporate best practices for successful healthcare app development.
Features for Healthcare Application Development
Healthcare mobile app development fully depends on the features that will go into your solution. They impact UI and UX design services, app (client-side) development, back-end (server-side) development, quality assurance, and further maintenance. All these services depend on the specific healthcare app project concept and the solution it provides.
Depending on the purpose of healthcare mobile app development, healthcare products may include the following functionalities mentioned in the illustration.
1. Profile Creation
As with any other mobile applications, healthcare solutions usually have a user profile. After creating an account, patients can add their personal information (name, age, chronic diseases, insurance, etc). This type of account can also provide the ability to store their health data and include a personalized dashboard.
2. Tracking
This feature is the most important within a healthcare mobile app. It allows for the monitoring of a patient's blood pressure, heart rate, calorie consumption, pulse, and glucose level. This feature is possible thanks to integration with wearable devices, such as heart rate monitoring trackers, glucose meters, and other solutions.
3. Scheduling
This function allows users to book a doctor visit or appointments with healthcare specialists easily. It is also possible to schedule a drug prescription, sleeping times, water consumption targets, etc. From a physician’s perspective, they are able to manage their time table efficiently and track how patients follow doctors’ prescriptions.
4. Payment
There is a growing trend toward mobile payment integration. Payment features allow users to pay for healthcare services or insurance. Payments may also be made for regular bills for doctor visits, emergency rooms, hospital admissions, etc. Online payment with a few clicks offers great user satisfaction.
5. File Storage
The EHR system is an integral part of any application for healthcare. These systems allow doctors to store patient files and other information.
As a part of healthcare application development, you can include the development of file storage and management systems for patients. Thus, they will be able to store their medical information inside your solution, including the results of any analyses, x-rays, reports, and other files.
This feature is also very beneficial for doctors since patients can upload their data and get recommendations remotely.
6. Geolocation
This is another feature that you need to consider for your project. The availability of this feature can help patients find a doctor’s help in a nearby location.
7. Real-Time Chat
The ability to chat with a doctor inside an app will make services faster and will help build trustworthy relations between patients and healthcare service providers.
8. Video-Conferencing
You can take the communication part of your application further by adding a video conferencing feature to the healthcare application development process. Telemedicine application development is a popular practice today since not all patients have the ability to visit doctors in person.
With video-conferencing, patients can have an in-hospital experience and visit the doctor’s office without leaving their homes.
9. Social Integration
Social media sign-in is an attractive feature to involve, yet when integrating it into a healthcare app, you should pay extra attention to data security.
This feature should be optional as many users find the sharing of any medical information with third-party services (via Facebook SDK, for example) unacceptable. Therefore, the privacy policy on your app should clearly state that a user shares access to their profile information.
For those clients who opt into social media sign-in, include multiple options like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook.
10. Ratings and Reviews
For apps that give access to information about healthcare personnel, this feature will be beneficial. Firstly, any patient will be able to share their experience with a doctor and help other patients make decisions. Secondly, this will boost the engagement of personnel in building loyal relations with customers.
Alternative app features that can be included in a healthcare product are as follows:
- Appointments
- Photo gallery
- Analytics
- Prescriptions
- Notifications (push notifications)
Security & Privacy for Healthcare Application Development
As mentioned, health data is compiled with highly secured standards since it includes healthcare records, personal info, and financial data.
Therefore, healthcare applications hold the great responsibility of keeping this data safe.
HIPAA, HITECH regulations, and FDA guidelines should be followed by healthcare mobile app development companies in the way the app is designed, programmed, and distributed.
As well, regulations may differ by country and it is important to check them out in any target market. Here we shall give a brief description of privacy regulations by region:
Healthcare Application Development Standards in the USA
When speaking about healthcare information security in the United States, the HIPAA regulations are first to come to mind. This Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act sets the standards for managing patient data. If it is not in compliance with these rules, an app cannot be approved.
HIPAA compliance is a must when it comes to building a healthcare app for the US market. The HIPAA Security Rule Toolkit will help you through the process.
1. HITECH Act
The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH Act) was implemented during the Obama administration. The act aims to cover the loopholes in the HIPAA regulations and streamline the development of Electronic Health Records.
Section D of the HITECH Act covers the topic of privacy and security with regard to electronic health information.
Important: The HITECH Act regulations were incorporated into the HIPAA Final Omnibus Rule in 2013. The two acts now make up one piece of legislation. If your app is compliant with the latest US HIPAA guidelines, it’s automatically compliant with the HITECH Act too.GitHub has an extensive guide on how to develop a HIPAA-compliant application.
GitHub has an extensive guide on how to develop a HIPAA-compliant application.
2. CCPA
There is one more piece of legislation that will change the whole world of electronic records privacy starting in 2020. We are speaking about the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) from 2018 that comes into force this year.
Note: for information security standards in other states, check The Definitive Guide to U.S. State Data Breach Laws.
Called “GDPR in the US,” this act profoundly extends customer rights for digital security. This includes:
- Asking for consent to collect customer data
- Letting the customer know what data the company collected
- Preparing a costless report on collected data on customer request
- Disclosing third parties that have access to this information
- Revealing the purpose of data collection
- Deleting the collected information on customer request
Forbes Technology Council Member, Joshua Lawton Belous comments on California’s novelty: “the privacy movement that started in the EU is quickly spreading throughout the United States.” It is very likely other states will follow California’s model.
Key Takeaway: Since other US states are expected to tighten screws on companies collecting personal data, you may have to tune up your healthcare app. We recommend focusing on California privacy rules from the early stages of app development.
3. NIST Compliance
When it comes to dealing with electronic health records in the US, compliance with the guidelines from the US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a must. NIST develops standards, tools, and technologies to protect healthcare data.
Tip: When making your mobile healthcare app compliant with NIST standards, the NIST Cybersecurity Practice Guide, Special Publication 1800-1: "Securing Electronic Health Records on Mobile Devices" with printable PDFs will be beneficial.
Healthcare Mobile App Development Standards in Canada, Europe
The most authoritative informational privacy legislation in Canada is The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA).
The general guidelines of PIPEDA are very similar to the European GDPR rules. Yet, the provinces of Alberta, Quebec, and British Columbia have their own privacy legislation that differs slightly from PIPEDA.
1. The United Kingdom
The British information security legislation for health apps will require compliance with the Data Protection Act of 1988.
The official body responsible for cyber-related security issues in the United Kingdom is the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). The NCSC gives advice and guidance on different information security topics, including personal data and mobile use.
Important: Although the United Kingdom is not a part of the European Union anymore, organizations that deal with digital information still have to comply with the GDPR rules.
2. European Union
The most important laws to comply with in the European Union are part of the General Data Protection Regulations, implemented in May 2018.
To put it briefly, if you want to be compliant with GDPR, you have to:
- Give customers access to information about the purpose, volume, and methods of data collection
- Use the data only for purposes that were declared by your company
- Only collect the minimum amount of data you need to process
- Delete data on demand
- Store data only for the period required for processing
- Not disclose information to third parties
3. International Standards - ISO
ISO is an independent international organization whose job is to set standards for environmental management, food safety, quality management, IT security, etc. Their guidelines are not obligatory, but when it comes to sensitive healthcare data, the ISO badge speaks of the intense focus on quality and responsibility.
The ISO/IEC 27000:2018 overview provides you with information about information security management systems that will help you better manage the security of personal or financial information.
It is worth mentioning that the app should be upfront with a Privacy Policy to get access to user data. It is expected that consumers should be able to freely check out the policy before downloading the healthcare app.
Once you hire a software development firm, pay precise attention to how this team handles data encryption, authentication requirements, app expiration policies, and risk mitigation in all parts of the system. It is crucial to plan the healthcare app architecture and layout accordingly in the early stages.
Want to know how to create a secure healthcare application?
You can consult with our team regarding all precautions and regulations to follow with your healthcare app idea. Just drop us a line to book a consultation with our Software Architect.
How Much Does it Cost to Develop a Healthcare App?
After you identify all the features that you want to include in your healthcare application development, you might wonder how much it costs to develop a healthcare app.
For starters, many services and related specialists are required to launch the final medical product. The list of services is as follows:
- Business Analysis for conducting market analysis and preparing product backlog.
- UX/UI Design for creating software interface and user experience.
- Software Architecture Planning for creating an infrastructure system plan for the best app performance.
- Quality Assurance is of great importance in healthcare mobile app development to check functionality, performance, and security.
- Front-end/ Back-end Development for implementation of the app functionality for the client app as well as works on the server-side of the application.
- Project Management for planning work, communicating, keeping track of the deadlines, and so on.
The price to build an MDP (minimum delight product) for a healthcare application starts at $60,000 per single platform (iOS or Android or Web). The final price can reach $500,000 or even go far beyond.
The cost of healthcare application development depends on a number of factors:
- Pre-development, during which you need to analyze the competition, market stage, identify features for implementation, etc.
- Number of platforms that you are going to target (iOS, Android, or both)
- Use of some specific technology and innovations such as Machine Learning, AI, etc.
- Complexity of app design, including customizations, branding, animations, etc.
- Software development vendor you choose to work with
Take a look at the table below demonstrating services that come into custom software development at each stage of the process.
| Basic version (minimum feature set, 1 platform) | Full product (more features and design of a larger complexity, 1 platform) | Large app (complex app design, development, and support, 2+ platforms) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| UX/UI Design | $5,000+ | $15,000+ | $25,000+ |
| Custom Development | $40,000+ | $95,000+ | $200,000+ |
| Quality Assurance | $5,000+ | $15,000+ | $25,000+ |
| Project Management | $7,500+ | $15,000+ | $35,000+ |
| Business Analysis | $2,500+ | $10,000+ | $15,000+ |
| Total setup | $60,000+ | $150,000+ | $300,000+ |
| Time | ~3-6 months | ~4-9 months | 9+ months (ongoing) |
Please note that the above cost of healthcare application development is estimated based on an average hourly rate of $40 for software development services in Ukraine.
By outsourcing healthcare application development to Ukraine, you get access to a wider pool of highly professional developers and hire a programmer to make an app at a much lower cost as compared to services provided by professionals or teams from countries like the USA.
For instance, the average cost for mobile app development in Ukraine is $40/hour while the same level of service and expertise is available at $100 to $200 in the USA or Europe.
Benefits of Building a Healthcare App
At last, here is a long list of benefits that healthcare mobile app development may provide.
Benefits for Patients
- Streamlined appointment scheduling, rescheduling, and canceling
- Up-to-date information on drugs and vaccines
- Online consultations with doctors
- Direct communication with doctors
- Access to medical records from mobile devices
- Reminders and notifications to take drugs, visit the doctor’s office, etc.
- Calorie count and well-being diary
- Doctor evaluation based on reviews, photos, records, etc.
- Information about hospitals, directions, and departments
- Prompt medical aid via emergency calls
- Access to a specific, thematic healthcare community
Benefits for Doctors
- Patient information monitoring
- Electronic access to healthcare records, lab results, scans
- Remote patient monitoring & data collection
- Easier communication with patients
- Staying up-to-date with hospital events
- Better time and appointments management
- Useful news and information about the healthcare industry
- Access to the medical knowledgebase
Benefits for Healthcare Institutions
- Better customer loyalty thanks to the offer of a great experience
- Schedules management of various healthcare professionals
- Keeping in touch with doctors and clinic personnel
- Creating a strong thematic healthcare community
- Streamlined operations with patient records
- Access to customer feedback and reviews
- New customer attraction
- Saving staff time needed for clinic management
Have a healthcare app idea in mind?
You are welcome to reach out to our team. We can work through your idea, offer our suggestions, and prepare the right healthcare solution.
Frequently Asked Questions:
🏥 Main 2 types of healthcare apps
All healthcare apps can be divided into two categories - professional healthcare apps and healthcare apps for patients. Doctor apps are used for medical instruction, access to healthcare records and diagnoses, prescriptions, and essentially all other internal matters. The other category consists of apps used by patients in clinics or personal healthcare apps like wellness and meditation apps, trackers, exercise, weight loss apps, etc.
🚀 Most popular mHealth app categories by downloads
Among the top-grossing health applications, the majority are calorie and diet apps, as well as fitness and workout apps. The best grossing health application in 2018 on Google Play was Headspace, which is used for meditation & mindfulness and reached more than $1m in revenue that year. The third position was taken by the Calm app, also used for meditation, sleep, and relaxation.
🌎 The most favorable countries to offer digital health solutions
Another important element is to analyze the market and environment where your healthcare app project will be kicked off. The most important aspect is meeting all the mobile healthcare regulations in whichever country you are targeting. The most favorable countries to offer digital health solutions are the USA, the UK, and Germany.
🙅 Main reasons why a healthcare app may fail
There are several reasons why a healthcare app project can fail. The most influential considerations are poor app usability, inability to use user-friendly content and language, and development without concrete app concept. A mediocre understanding of the healthcare environment and lack of feedback from, and involvement of, clinicians - may result in product failure.