Telemedicine apps like Doctor on Demand, Teladoc, MDLive, Amwell etc are playing as the game-changer in the healthcare industry. It reduces physical contact. Telehealth is defined as the delivery and facilitation of health-related services including medical care, provider & patient education, health information services, and self-care via telecommunications & digital communication technologies.
Index
- TeleMedicine App Statistics and Definition
- Types of TeleMedicine App
- Benefits of TeleMedicine Apps
- Challenges while developing a TeleMedicine App
- Features of Telemedicine App
- Telemedicine App Monetization Model
- Cost to Develop a Telemedicine App
- Top Telemedicine Apps in 2021
- FAQ for Telemedicine App Development
TeleMedicine App Statistics and Definition
The delivery of health care, health education, and health information services via remote technologies. According to statistics telemedicine apps have become an integral part of the healthcare industry. Most of the health organisations have adopted the telehealth platform to provide medical cure to all the patients in a comfortable way.
According to Santa Clara, California- telemedicine will become a mainstream health option in the coming 5 years. The telehealth market is in an early-stage development but it will witness considerable growth in the coming years.
According to Statista Telemedicine market has revenue of $45 billion in 2019 and it will reach a whopping $175 billion by the end of 2026.
Types of TeleMedicine App
- Real-time TeleMedicine
- Remote patient monitoring
- Store-and-Forward
- Consultation between Specialists and Primary Caregivers.
- Medical Imaging
- TeleMedicine Networks
Benefits of TeleMedicine Apps
Every Person wants to live a healthy life. And after the covid-19 pandemic, people are being more protective about their health.
TeleMedicine services can support the Healthcare IT Solution system across medical foundations, doctors, and patients. The prime task of this service is to increase the efficacy of medical services, offer remote doctor visits, and check health conditions virtually.
Benefits of the TeleMedicine App Development to keep in mind:
1. Time-efficient & Viable Medical Care
At this point in time, people ignore going to the hospitals and standing in queue for consultation. If you require visiting different medical specialists, the process can take more time. Hence, you can use a telemedicine app to fix appointments for remote medical care. Doctors and patients can connect at the foremost convenience. The required treatment begins fast and more efficiently.
2. Availability of Service
Telemedicine application can offer medical services for remote areas without access to clinics. The services help people from rural areas where there is a shortage of healthcare personnel.
Patient handling and managing system
Telemedicine app can help with fatal disease monitoring, updates to prescriptions; follow up consultations, and more.
3. Medical Record
With the help of telemedicine app, doctors can easily maintain and go through any patient’s records, it will help the patients if they want to consult some other doctors.
4. Admin Operation
By using the telemedicine app, you don’t have to fill out multiple forms and internal documentation, as the maximum paperwork will be automated. Reducing this inefficiency corresponds with higher profits directly. Which will help the administrators to focus on the actual work.
5. Extra income
It will also help the doctors to generate more revenue as they can consult other patients after their particular hour of the shift.
Challenges while developing a TeleMedicine App
The admin challenges faced by telemedicine apps are as follows:
Backend Framework
The performance of the app has to be at the top. You can integrate a third-party service into your telemedicine app.
UI/UX Application
The design, logic and the Layout of the app has to be user friendly which will help you to gain more popularity amongst the users
HIPAA Compliance
Apps which are managing patient’s data must be HIPAA compliance.
Security
Telehealth app must have the best security measures for medical records and personal details. Every required precaution must be taken for storing, exchanging, and proceeding with this type of data. In order to ensure more security, one can insert Biometric security.
Trustworthy App Developers
It is very important to go with the developers who are good at their work and also trustworthy. Choose your telehealth app developers with caution so they can provide the best service and deliver your app within the time period. one of the best options is to connect with a reputed TeleHealth App Development Company that has app developers with previous experience in developing such healthcare solutions.
Features of Telemedicine App
Telemedicine app itself being a unique app has some of the best features applicable to both users and the doctors.
User login
When a new user signs into your application, he/she are required to enter details regarding severe conditions and give data about insurance, sex, and age while making an account.
Search for the medical expert
Whenever a patient requires particular expertise for a particular problem, he/she can easily search for that expert with using this feature.
Book an appointment
With the help of this feature, the patient can easily book an appointment with their doctors at their convenience without standing in a queue.
Video conferencing with doctors
Now with the help of this feature patients do not have to make appointments for regular check-ups, they can easily do it directly with their doctor through the video call.
Payment Gateway
Patients can pay doctors for the medical service offered, after the online consultation. To accomplish this, you should integrate payment gateway through API.
Doctor review
When the patient gets medical care from a doctor, he/she can give reviews and state his/her experience with the doctor and rate him also.
Doctors panel
This panel is a part of a telehealth application for doctors. It is integrated with electronic medical records that comprise data regarding medicine prescriptions, patients, and a calendar with fixed appointments.
Manage appointments
When a patient discovers the required medical expert, he/she is required to book an appointment through the app and provide data regarding medical records and health conditions if needed. The app can handle time slots automatically and display when one or other medical experts are available.
In-Apps messages
Because of this feature doctors and the patients can easily communicate through the app and share all the reports, prescription and x-rays.
Telemedicine App Monetization Model
Once the app is live and available for users, it’s time to monetize the app. Here are app monetization strategies that can be applied to Telemedicine Apps.
Freemium Model:
Free+ Premium= Freemium is the most popular monetization model used by many businesses these days. This model allows the users to fully access the app’s features and functionality for a trial period and post the trial period users are required to pay the subscription fees for using the app. This way, users can use the app and get full hands-on experience, and if they find the value, they pay to keep using the app.
Running Advertisement Campaigns:
Irrelevant ads tend to frustrate users, resulting in a bad user experience. Instead of showing too many irrelevant ads, the user should be shown relevant ads that enhance the user experience. For instance, if a user’s location is near a drug store, showing the user advertisement offering discounts on medicines can make the user buy the required medicine.
Sign up:
The app can ask patients or users to pay signup fees to use the app to get virtual consultations with doctors or other medical personnel. According to Statista in Netherlands for ophthalmology or allergology consultation patients could expect a wait time somewhere around 9 weeks. A telemedicine app can help patients get a consultation from ophthalmology or allergology consultation in less time.
Commission:
The App can be used to connect patients with doctors, and commission can be charged from doctors per consultation.
Sponsorship:
The mHealthApp publisher can partner with sponsors that could be either Pharma companies or doctors or insurance companies. So instead of coming across ads, users would be seeing popup content of sponsors. So app publisher is giving access to its user database to a third-party, and the sponsors pay to app publisher for using their app.
Paid Download:
The app publisher can put a price tag to download an app. According to Statista, 7.3% of paid apps on the iOS App Store are paid apps, while 92.7% of apps are paid apps. Unless your app is well-known, asking users to pay an upfront fee to use an app won’t yield desired results.
There are different monetization models; however, not every model can yield results, so the strategic combination of multiple models can help achieve the objective.
Cost to Develop a Telemedicine App
The Cost of Telemedicine Apps varies on different factors like the technology that will be embedded, features included, and the time required to implement the required features. Additionally, these factors also contribute towards estimating the cost of Telemedicine App:
1) App Platform:
The app could be developed only for the android play store or IOS app store. The cost of developing mobile app increases if the app is developed natively for both Android and IOS.
2) App Development Team:
The development team contributes significantly towards estimating the cost of telemedicine app. The development team includes Business Consultant, UI/UX designer, front-end and back-end developer, App tester, and the team led by the project manager. If the app is complex and has many features, more resources are needed to be deployed, contributing to a rise in cost.
3)Project Time & Area of Development:
The Estimated time to finish the telemedicine app development project is about 12-14 weeks. If we consider it to be developed in an IT hub country like India, then the telemedicine app developers hired in India charge about $20-$40/ hr. For other countries we can say that it will range from $39 and $52 while in UK it will be around $40 – $70.
Depending on the project’s time frame, features, and complexity, the approximate cost to develop Telemedicine App is between $30,000 to $50,000. Depend on the customization, the price will change.
Top Telemedicine Apps in 2021
We searched for the best telemedicine apps ranked high in user ratings, quality, and overall reliability and they are as follows:
MDLIVE
Connect to medical and pediatrics doctors and access behavioural health therapy services and psychiatry whenever you need them. MDLIVE offers fast, easy, convenient access to a doctor for non-emergency issues when your primary care physician isn’t available. Average wait times are under 15 minutes to consult with a state-licensed and board-certified physician.
Lemonaid
This app offers a simple way to get a diagnosis and treatment. Just select a service and answer basic health questions. Pay your fee, and you’ll get a doctor review within 2 hours or immediate video consultation.
Live Health
LiveHealth brings qualified doctors to you whenever you need them. Just sign up, log in, and choose the right doctor for your needs. Doctors using the app provide care for everything from the flu and bronchitis to allergies, skin infections, and much more. The app also features licensed therapists, lactation consultants, registered dietitians, and other professionals.
Doctor on-demand
Get face to face with a doctor, psychiatrist, or psychologist whether you have insurance or not. The app providers are licensed physicians, psychiatrists, and psychologists, and they can treat hundreds of issues online through a video. Your doctor will take your history and symptoms, perform an exam, and recommend treatment.
Amwell
Amwell offers quality medical care on demand. You can schedule appointments, often with next-day availability. Before insurance, Amwell services vary between $69 or less for urgent care and up to $200 for an online psychiatry visit.
FAQ for Telemedicine App Development
1) How does telemedicine make money?
It makes money through the following things.
- Transaction fees
- Annual membership
- Monthly fees
- Franchising fees
- Advertisement
2) What about security and privacy?
It’s mandatory for such app to provide very secure code structure with reliable data security. If we consider USA region then one cannot publish a healthcare app which is not HIPPA compliant. Similarly different countries have range of compliance.
3) Is the quality of care the same as an in-person visit?
Yes, telemedicine apps are safe with the same quality, cost-effective and convenient way to provide medical service.
4) What things do you need for telemedicine?
You require a secure internet connection, a video platform, Technology support.
5) How much does it cost to make a telemedicine app?
Typically, a basic telemedicine app development cost will be in range of $30,000 to $50,000. Depending on the project’s time frame, features, and complexity and customization, the price will change.
Conclusion
If you are thinking to enter the telemedicine market, it is the right time to make your mark in this vast field. As we all know that telemedicine market will definitely see high growth in the coming five years.
