Telemedicine App Development: Types, Features, Technologies, Benefits, and Cost

Quick Summary:

Telemedicine is now in use in half of US hospitals, but it is also intriguing to entrepreneurs, private practitioners, healthcare systems, medical organizations, and even insurance companies. So, what exactly is telemedicine, and how might it benefit your company? This article will tell you all you need to know.

The World Health Organization defines telemedicine as-

“The delivery of healthcare services where patients and providers are separated by distance.”

A telemedicine app allows app users (patients) to book a medical treatment at their fingertips to tackle disease or disorder. As a leading digital healthcare app development company, we’ll go through some of the basic yet essential features you should include in your telemedicine app.

This article contains information for digital-centric health startups and entrepreneurs. Here is a list of features commonly integrated into telemedicine apps.

What is a Telemedicine App?

In its most basic form, a telemedicine app connects a patient with a healthcare professional remotely, replacing an in-person visit with a combination of live video and text conversation.

This capability appears straightforward at first glance, but the component elements needed to work efficiently and securely at scale can be surprisingly hard to build. It’s critical to define upfront which capabilities are necessary and which belong to a larger telehealth platform to establish proper project scope.

Telemedicine may be just one component of a larger platform that includes patient forums, insurance assistance, medical resource libraries, and other resources outside the direct patient-provider relationship.

How to Develop a Telemedicine App?

To develop a telemedicine app or telehealth app, you must first define the scope of your application. For example;

• The amount of money you invest
• The platform(s) you choose for the telemedicine app
• The region/s you want to serve
• The telemedicine app development team hire to develop the project

Then, to begin app development, identify which modules will be included in the app and finish your tech stack.

Types of Telemedicine Apps:

There are three main types of telemedicine apps. When used effectively, all of these have a beneficial role in general health care and can significantly benefit both healthcare professionals and patients.

• Store & Forward Telemedicine

Data collection, patient records, photos, reports, and any other tools beneficial to healthcare providers are store-and-forward telemedicine. It is also known as asynchronous telemedicine. A shop-and-forward example is text messaging, and it’s similar to email, but a solution with built-in enhanced security features is used to ensure patient privacy. Telemedicine’s key advantages include convenience and access to care, patient satisfaction, speed, increased practice efficiency, etc.

• Remote monitoring

Often known as self-monitoring or self-testing, remotely monitorsa patient’s health and clinical signs using various electronic technologies. It is extensively used to treat chronic diseases such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and asthma. The advantages of remote monitoring include cost-effectiveness, more frequent monitoring, and improved patient satisfaction.

• Real-time telemedicine

Allows you to see a doctor at any time and from any location. Any two-way contact that will enable clinicians and patients to connect in real-time is considered live telemedicine (including video conferencing and telephone consultations). Telemedicine allows real-time medical history assessments, straightforward visual exams, psychological evaluations, and ophthalmic diagnostics.

Must-have Telemedicine App Features:

In general, a web and mobile application of this type should have separate logins for different user types (e.g., doctor login, patient login, admin login, etc.), text messaging capabilities, video conferencing functionality, meeting scheduling abilities, the way of keeping EHR (Electronic Health Records), Insurance verification API, and so on.

A robust database, effective security solutions for patient records and doctor-patient interactions, and HIPPA (or other/more) compliances are all requirements for your telemedicine software. Maintaining a clean and user-friendly interface will increase user retention. The following are features that your app must have:

For Patients-

• Registration
• Chat
• Adding patient/family records
• Audio and video calls
• Appointments,
• Payment Getaway
• Insurance redemption/taking
• Reviews,
• Viewing/searching doctors/profiles

For Doctors-

• Registration
• Chat/Voice Chat
• Viewing and forwarding of EHRs
• Audio and video calls
• Schedule viewing/changing]
• Earning withdrawal
• Maintaining doctor profiles
• Evaluating one’s performance

For Admins-

• Adding/deleting users for their organization
• Insurance verification
• Viewing/forwarding EHR
• Platform payment
• Performance monitoring for various people in the organization
• Searching
• Appointment checking
• Money withdrawal
• Canceling/confirming schedules, etc.

Technologies Used in Telemedicine App Development

Telemedicine software development covers a set of technologies that are utilized in the creation of excellent solutions. The following list is the most common technology solutions used in telemedicine app development nowadays.

• Artificial Intelligence

The most common application of AI in telemedicine apps is robust chatbots. Because doctors can’t always be online, artificial intelligence-based chatbots can help create a doctor’s calendar, answer basic questions, etc. Language processing, voice recognition, and machine learning are different areas of AI technology that, when combined, produce a supercharged experience in healthcare services.

• Big Data-

The telehealth app sector generates a large amount of data used in healthcare. The use of big data allows for processing obtained data to improve services, provide better treatment and diagnoses, conduct medical research, etc.

• IoT

Telehealth mobile apps extensively use the Internet of Things (IoT). This technology connects the usage of many devices and solutions, such as tablets, smartwatches, cameras, medical trackers, etc. These can keep track of critical medical issues to provide a more accurate diagnosis and treatment.

• Blockchain

This technology’s primary purpose is to prevent and protect data loss. The data is stored in distributed ledgers to prevent data tampering.

Benefits of Telemedicine App

With custom telemedicine app development, you can conduct medical practice from the comfort of your own home. It will provide the following benefits to your company:

• Easy access to specialist treatment for people who live in rural places.
• Medical assistance is available 24/7 for those in need.
• Medical aid is readily available in emergencies and natural disasters.
• There are no obstacles to communication between health clinics that provide professional services and consultations.
• There is no need for patients to be admitted to the hospital for check-ups or commute.
• Health-care-related treatment expenditures are lower.
• Efficient medical record management and secure access to clinical data.
• Patient care and monitoring in one place, with follow-up appointments.
• The ability to track patients with chronic conditions and update medicines online.

How Much Does it Cost to Build Telemedicine App?

Because of the many different features that such an app can offer, it’s impossible to give a specific price for it.

The typical app development cost in 2022, according to approximate estimates, will begin at $30k.

Some critical factors combine to determine the price:

• The set of features that your solution will have. The required level of complexity.
• Which platform are you planning to build on? It’s worth noting that the more platforms you choose, the more money the software will cost—building for both Windows and Android, for example.
• Depending on your developer’s location, developer fees may be greater or lower than your base nation.
• The technology that is used in the connection may require third-party services.

Why Dash for Telemedicine App Development?

Dash is a well-known healthcare technology provider who has led the industry by using the power of healthcare software development to enable many of the world’s largest pharmaceutical and healthcare organizations.

When you choose a healthcare web/mobile app development company, you will estimate the work needed and pricing. Also, make sure you know the developers billing for after-deployment management or maintenance.

Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.