Develop Customized Telemedicine Apps and Know Its Scope for Telehealth Industry

What is a Telehealth App?

The idea of telehealth app development happened to bring patients and the healthcare providers closer to each other irrespective of the distance. These kinds of apps help patients to contact physicians from anywhere and anytime as per their convenience.

The online appointment booking app like Practo is also an example of a telehealth app. In this, the patient can interact with the healthcare provider and get their consultation online.

Whereas the physician on the other hand can assess the reports and diagnose the problem followed by online appointments for consultation.

The Fact- It takes around 3 minutes on average for a patient to get connected with the doctor. Therefore, there is a skip of long waiting rooms.

According to HealthIT.gov, Telehealth is ‘the utilization of electronic information and telecommunications technologies to support and promote long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health education, public health and health administration’.

The telehealth app industry is also known as the m-health industry. The reason being its usage over mobile phones and tabs with the internet. The industry is vast and is branched out into three major departments as shown below.

1. Tele Education

Tele education refers to long-distance learning with the assistance of the internet. In this, the teacher and student need not stay traditionally present in a particular school set up.

The classes are conducted online. The online classes students taking up today are the latest example of tele education.

Now you may be wondering why we are talking about tele education in telehealth? The reason is that these apps let the users themselves learn and adapt the routine to take care of their health like a calorie counter, nutrition apps, or fitness tracking apps.

Also, things like healthy food diets, or body postures and activities that are written in the descriptive form or explained through videos impart education.

Therefore, tele education is also a major part of the telehealth industry.

2. Telemedicine

Telemedicine is the part of the telehealth sector that majorly deals with clinical services. It is used to bridge the gap between users and physicians by providing them medical and clinical services.

The health services are provided using IoTs like mobile phones, smartwatches, tablets, and computers. The consultations happen over video consultations.

3. Patient Portal

In this, the patient has full access to upload their reports, learn about the prescriptions, and do doctor consultation. It is like a dashboard that has all the medical journey records of the patient and the prescriptions, medications, and report analysis done by the assigned doctors.

Telehealth Apps could function in 3 different ways as shown below:

• Real-time Interaction

In this mode, the patients can interact with the health providers in real-time. This means that the user and the service provider are having conversations at that particular time through audio or video calls, or messages in some cases.

• Remote Monitoring

In this, the telehealth app development is done to track the progress and activities of the patient through contactless means. That is their progress could be recorded through IoTs like virtual reports, smartwatches, heartbeat counter, etc.

• Store-and-forward

These kinds of telehealth apps allow the patient and the healthcare providers to record medical reports, share information about blood tests, lab reports, X Rays, and everything that is crucial to assess the health condition of the person.

What are Telemedicine Apps?

According to WHO, Telemedicine is referred to: 

‘delivery of health care services, where patients and providers are separated by distance’. 

The telemedicine software development is done to purely cater to medical needs. 

The www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov  has declared it as a means of “forward triage” in COVID 19. This means that patients are triaged before they actually visit the doctor physically in emergencies. 

They are on-demand medical app services that deliver services like online consultations, medicine prescriptions, or counseling for the betterment of health. The online appointment booking app like Practo is one of the examples of the best telemedicine apps. Below is the basic functional model you see while having telemedicine app development.

These apps help in connecting with health consultants or getting medicines delivered at home just like you order something from an on-demand courier delivery app and get your courier delivered.

Best Telemedicine Apps in 2020

Below is the image of all the best telemedicine apps in 2020 that got great ratings and downloads from the users.

Let us learn the functionality of each that made it popular amongst the users.

• Md Live

This app connects users to medical and pediatric doctors. They provide health therapy services and psychiatry services online. This telemedicine app offers fast assess to expert doctors in non-emergency situations. The average waiting time to connect with the doctor is less than 15 minutes.

• Lemonaid

The app charges 25 US dollars as a doctor consultation fee and the free delivery of medicines from Lemonaid pharmacy. In this telemedicine app, you have to simply select the service, answer basic health-related questions, and get consultations. Once you pay fees, you can get connected to a doctor within 2 hours or immediate video consultation.

• LiveHealth Online Mobile

This app provides services for the flu and bronchitis to allergies, skin infections, and much more. The user has to sign up or log in and get connected to qualified doctors. This app features qualified and licensed doctors, therapists, consultants, dietitians, and other professionals.

• PlushCare

This app allows users to get treatments through video consultation or online prescriptions of various medical conditions. In this, you have to choose the time of appointment, insurance information, and get connected to the doctor.

• Doctor on Demand

This app lets you have a face to face consultation with healthcare providers like doctors, psychiatrists, dietitians with or without insurance. You can get an online video consultation after the doctor learns your medical history and symptoms.

• Amwell

Amwell is a paid quality medical care on demand. Their service charge varies on average from 69 US Dollars to 200 dollars depending on the health consultant and type of medical service the user is asking for.

• Talkspace Therapy and Counselling

It is a type of app that allows the user to connect with a therapist. You can send text, audio, or video about your mental status and feelings to the user and will be heard at least once per day for 5 days a week. You can also have live sessions with your doctor. 

There are also other self-monitoring meditation and mental healthcare apps that are getting in demand by users today. Click this link to know more.

• Teladoc

The app allows you to talk virtually to various medical experts regardless of the chosen healthcare plan. Connect to the medical expert you want the prescription from and get counseling.

• BCBSM Online Visits

This is a free app that helps users to connect with almost any Blue Cross Blue Shield (BCBS) health plan. It allows patients to cater to their health needs online. It means that they don’t have to visit the doctor’s clinic place physically. You can request care service for your child too.

• Spruce

This app provides a facility to maintain a virtual dashboard for both the user and the health care provider. The medical information uploaded and stored is absolutely confidential information through HIPAA laws that secure video, audio, and text. As a user of the app, you can fill out essential health questionnaires or send templates to get consultation without stepping out of your room.

• Telehealth 

You can book your online health insulation with a calendar system. This app connects you directly to the doctor with the given date on the calendar. 

• DocsApp

In this app, you have to log in and fill out some necessary information and you will be connected to a healthcare provider in a short waiting time. You will be receiving medications after an analysis of your health condition. This app has a referral policy if you put a review for the app post your session. 

Scope of Developing Telemedicine Apps

The telemedicine apps have gained popularity especially post COVID 19. The COVID 19 has given a chance to many on-demand apps that are increasing rapidly due to the present situation’s demand and telemedicine apps are one of them.

Even after the COVID-19 situation goes under the curve the telemedicine industry will be growing. The reason being the convenience it provides to users. The users can skip the process of waiting in medical facilities and meeting the doctor physically to get the treatment.

The app does bookings, consultations, and prescriptions online which saves users a ton of time. Here are some of the stated facts that acknowledge the growth scope for telehealth and telemedicine apps.

1. According to Statista, the telemedicine market size would increase to $41.2 billion by 2021.

2. NRHA states that there is a shortage of healthcare personnel and this will increase the chances of people relying on telemedicine apps.

3. Based on the Research2Guidance questionnaire, the majority of patients prefer to have remote doctor visits. 

4. In one of the researches by Doctor on Demand, it was found that around 15% of doctors experience burnouts and depression due to heavy work hours.

5. The United States government reports the country spends over $2.9 Trillion on Healthcare every year.

6. According to Gartner, the market for IoT will grow up to 5.8 Billion endpoints by the end of 2020.

7. Telehealth Is Practical and Relatively Inexpensive for Patients- HealthTech

There is no disputing that we are in the midst of a digital transition, with the healthcare business at the forefront of it. The analysis of this sector differs, but the fundamental point is virtually unanimous: in less than a year, telehealth has gone from “future aspiration” to “mainstream.”

There may come a moment in the not-too-distant future when medicine and telemedicine are indistinguishable. Therefore, it is quite evident that the telehealth app industry is going to boom and telemedicine app development to create one of the best telehealth apps will be a great thing in this decade.

Prerequisites for Developing Telemedicine Apps

Now we know what are telemedicine apps and what is the scope. It is very important to understand the first steps you need to take for taxi app development.

Being the best telemedicine app development company, it is our responsibility to tell you the three factors you have to consider-

1. Target Audience

Know what is your target audience. Select a particular niche and then develop the app accordingly. For example, you can create telemedicine apps that only deals with delivering medicines or an app that only collects blood samples from your home and gives reports online.

Know your expertise, what are the competitors, and then develop the app.

2. Technology

Technology is the heart of your app. Choose on what technology stack you want your on-demand telemedicine app development to happen. As these technology work frames decide the functional flow and facilitate the working of the phone.

It included the integration of the panels, designing and logistics, and record of multiple doctors and users on board with our app. If confused about technology and technical combination of work stacks to choose from. You can contact our app developers for insights.

3. The Budget

It is the fuel to the car. You have to be clear with the budget and cost estimates of the telemedicine app development. On average it could cost around 60,000 US dollars to 120,000 US dollars.

It all depends on the functionality and complexity of the features you want to integrate. Rest you can contact fitness app development company to get a better idea of cost.

Conclusion

One who goes with the trend goes with the growth. Some multiple apps and trends will be outdated by 2021 and many of the apps and startups will be coming in limelight. The telemedicine app is one of the latter. The coming times will make everything functional online and we can see that from now only. It is the right time to take advantage of this new wave and make the best out of it.