Telehealth App Development Guide For Beginners With HIPAA Guidelines

Requirement Of Hipaa Policies For Telehealth App Development

Whether it is Facebook or Whatsapp, whenever we share our details we are really conscious and particular about the person with whom we share our details. Even the smallest detail about us sometimes leads to a big cybercrime. In the telehealth app, a person enters all his drawbacks and what makes him sensitive. Every good and bad thing for the better consultation with the doctor or physician. Therefore such telehealth apps become very prone to digital crimes and hence require extra security policies.

HIPAA policies underline that under any circumstance one cannot leak the patient’s detail. In case of any information breach, the company or the health workers associated with it will have to answer and have to face serious consequences. 

As per HIPAA’s rules and regulations, one cannot just breach any principle of the act and if you do not abide by this then your telehealth app may collapse before starting.  

In case you display any medical record or information regarding a patient, firstly you need to take their permission to display that. In order to know more about this HIPAA read from a health and human services website.

How To Create Telehealth App With HIPAA Policies

Just like any other application, telehealth apps also need some factors to look at. As in this app, HIPAA policies are very important to consider. So first of all there should be proper planning for the patient’s privacy and information. If it is not taken into consideration then the developer and the telehealth app developing company have to face many legal problems. Once you are done with HIPAA policies and now start the further procedure for creating the telehealth app. 

Right, Approach To Create a Telemedicine App With Respect to HIPAA policies.

1. Focus On Privacy And HIPAA Policy Guidelines

It is the prime duty of a health app developer to create such an app that ensures the complete privacy of the patient or the people who enrolled themselves with the app. HIPAA policies strictly follow this and if you do not follow any of its regulations as mentioned above then your app might be forbidden. Provide a safe and secure gateway for login and logout. Even the reports and prescription notes shall also be secure by OTP or any other code. Try not to be casual with this even if you need to spend a little more on this.

2. Keep The App Simple

When it comes to developing telehealth apps then don’t try to experiment with bright colors or fonts. Just go with a simple and normal format with font size which is easily noticeable by every age group. Use colors that are not too bright and not too dull. Does not make the app very complex, it must be easily accessible by aged group people. As health-related apps are more targeted to aged people. So keeping that in mind, give a layout to your telehealth app.

3. Make It Available For Every Device

If you want to develop an app that is recognized by a larger group of people then make it available for every system. Whether it is android, iOS or Microsoft make sure the app runs smoothly with all sorts of software. This will also be a useful point where you can invest your money. But make sure as you have to develop software more aligned with HIPAA policies so make sure privacy is intact with every step.

4. Other Functionalities And Features

Now apart from basic features and functions if you need to add on other features too then you need to prepare your budget as per that. In order to read extra functions and features needed for the app you can read our blog “ Learn about costing and features for vaccine booking app development”. 

5. Budget For Marketing And Maintenance

Here you need to create your budget for advertising your app and for future updates. In order to make any update or advertise your app, you need to spend your money on this point also. Like if in the future you need to update your app with a video chat feature or photo-sharing feature then you need to balance your budget here also. To know more about how much it can cost for a video chat feature and photo sharing feature read our articles “How to make a video chat app and its costing” and “How much does it cost to make a photo-sharing app”.

Features Of Telehealth App Development

We must have seen many telehealth apps. There are some basic features in the app, which everyone knows while there are few advanced features too. Also, such features affect the cost of the telehealth app. So this section is very important to understand. Below are some features related to telehealth app development with respect to HIPAA policies.

• Simple Login

The first thing is first, here also we will start with the log-in feature. This log-in feature will include a short intro of the patient with a username and password so that their details remain safe and secure. This login feature will be the same as Instagram and Facebook, where the user needs to remember their credentials before logging- in. Keep the credentials confidential, in order to maintain complete privacy.

• Enter Brief Details

This section provides the user a place where they can enter their brief information about concern issues. Then later proceed as the page or instructions allows. Just the way we do on Instagram and Facebook. Through this feature, it will be easy for users to connect directly to their concerned physician. As far as the HIPAA policies are concerned, keeping the information and details of the patient secure and safe is the prime responsibility of every telehealth app development company. If not taken seriously it might put the developer in big legal problems. 

• Choose Major Concern

This feature will allow patients to choose their major concerns from the provided options on the app. For example, if there is a section where a patient has to choose the disease he is suffering from or medicine he wants, this will make the app more user-friendly. As he will click there automatically a down flow chart will appear, there will be a list of options available from where anyone can easily check for their requirement.

• Make An Appointment

This feature will help your user in the way that if they want to visit their concerned physician so they can easily book an appointment through this feature. This will help in creating more loyalty among your users and will make your app suitable as per HIPAA policies guidelines. If you want to know how appointment booking apps are created then click on the link to read more.

Why Do We Need Telehealth App

Everyone is dependent on technology whether it is for food ordering apps or any other issue. We prefer checking it out on the internet. Similarly, when it comes to our health we now prefer getting solutions at home rather than going to the hospital. We search for thousands of solutions to our problems online. That is why the idea of telehealth app development has taken place. We need such apps for the reasons like:

• It Is A Time Saver

Such telehealth apps save our time, so we don’t have to go to the hospital or to the doctor. We can simply log in to the app and get the consultation from the doctor. If due to workload one can not go to the physician so he can also get his issue solved just by sitting at the office or from home. It gives the independence of taking prescriptions without being into waiting lines and rows.

• Help Preserving Previous Reports

Usually, people lose their prescription notes or details given by the doctor but with an online telehealth app, the details of the patient will be saved on their devices. Just the way, order history or details get saved on Myntra or Nykaa, in the same way, the user’s every interaction with the doctor will be saved with this feature. So it can be helpful for the physician to better understand the patient’s situation through the last medical status. Also, keep users free from collecting and managing previous records for medicines and prescriptions.

• Order Medicines Online

With the help of telehealth apps, one can also order medicines online with the right prescription.  Can easily check the expiry date and dosage as advised by the physician. Due to corona, everyone was trapped inside the house and many have raised the issue for daily and useful medicines like sugar patients were the main sufferer. So it also gives users a chance to get medicine on time even during hard times like lockdown.

• Can Get Prescription At Home

If someone is not too well and unable to go to the physician then they also have a chance that they can connect to the physician online and can easily explain to them about health sickness. Like if someone is suffering from fever and not willing or able to go to the hospital. In that case simply login yourself with the telehealth app and get the prescription from professionals.

• Payment Made Reasonably

Sometimes such apps provide you discounts on your bookings or orders. For example, if the medicine is 10 Dollars per tablet in the market, you can get it for a good discount on the app. The Pharmaceutical industry is the most flourishing market and medicines are really expensive these days. So if you can get some discount why won’t you avail it? Therefore online telehealth apps provide you legal drugs at reasonable prices. Payments can be done with any digital or standard payment gateways like Paytm, google pay, or e-wallet. 

Conclusion

Telehealth is the most growing sector in the market these days. It has been estimated that this industry will grow tremendously in the upcoming years. Therefore investing money in this sector would only give you benefit in coming years. Entrepreneurs understand the demand of the customers or users and hence provide them with the best available services related to telehealth app development.

Healthcare app development services is too much in demand by the entrepreneurs because they know the importance of this. It has been observed that telemedicine apps will have great recognition in upcoming years. Whether it is about ordering medicines or any other medically related item telehealth app development will be a real success from the business perspective