How to Develop a Mobile Medical App: Comprehensive How-to Guide

Published: December 29, 2023

35 min read

Nowadays, the healthcare industry is becoming more digitized at high speed. Every day, the market sees the emergence of more and more mobile applications aimed at health care. According to Statista forecasts, in 2023, the revenue in the digital health market will reach $170.20 billion. The annual growth rate is projected to be 10.07% from 2023 to 2028, and by 2028, the market size is expected to be around $275.00 billion USD. The Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is estimated to be $57,770 per user.

China is expected to be the leading market in the global healthcare sector, contributing over $46 billion to the market in 2023.
Such demand is driven by the fact that mHealth solutions aren’t dependent on location & time so people can use such services wherever and whenever they want or need.

The exact same reason explains why you as a provider of HealthCare Products or Services might benefit from it. You can reach a much wider audience & generate more revenue in less time since there’s no need to physically connect with your customers to provide services.

Moreover, the COVID-19 pandemic has forced health and wellness services to become more digitized. It happened primarily because many people wanted to minimize the risk of getting infected & use as many services as they possibly could remotely. Thus, businesses had to adjust to these conditions.

The market of mHealth is growing quickly which makes healthcare mobile app development relevant

The rapidly growing mHealth market underscores the relevance of mobile medical application development.
(image by Royhan Muhammad)

So, if you're exploring how to make a medical app, whether for development or educational purposes, this article will provide the guidance you need. We have prepared comprehensive information on types of these applications, key features, and healthcare app development stages. We will also tell you about the most suitable technological stack and estimate the approximate cost of mobile medical app development. Let's go!

❓ How Healthcare Mobile App Development Can Help You Improve Your Services

Having an app can help healthcare providers improve their workflow & profitability in many ways.

The most obvious ones are reaching a wider audience, and getting rid of location limitations, language barriers, and other deterring factors.

So let’s take a look at something that doesn’t lie on the surface.

# 1: New Niche

The initiative to start a medical app can change the world, as these apps aid in early cancer detection, stroke risk minimization, and improving life quality for those with chronic illnesses and rare diagnoses.

However, the medical industry still has a lot of slots for new heroes to enter the market with life-changing ideas since many diseases don’t have enough digital and remote resources to help people to deal with them.
So, once your idea enters the market, it will most likely disrupt the industry and be demanded, which will make it easier for you to start making higher revenue, which will then make it easier for you to build a highly scalable business.

# 2: Additional Functionality

It can happen that an existing health application doesn’t cover all of your potential cases.

Such a problem with limited app functionality is often relevant for businesses whose product are made with the help of different “out-of-the-box” mobile health app development services like Fliplet and Appypie that allow you to create a healthcare app by using a template.

Custom healthcare mobile app development can help you extend your app’s functionality and be fully tailored to your case

The process of how to build a medical app plays a crucial role, as it enables automation of many processes, significantly reducing the workload on medical staff.
(image by Anastacia)

Additionally, there won’t be any extra features that aren’t relevant to your app, thus, such an approach is more beneficial in the long run.

Another reason why some businesses contact development teams is that they want to add some 3rd-party integrations to an existing product. There are two main outcomes:

  • If the current product allows integration with needed APIs or BLE-devices (like fitness bands, heart & breath rate trackers), etc., the development team can easily do this.
  • In case the existing app can’t be modified with such integrations, your Technology Partner can suggest a solution to the use case.

# 3: Workload Reduction

Nowadays, it’s quite challenging to make an appointment with a doctor — the waiting can go on for weeks. One of the main reasons for that is that the workload of doctors is really high.

A healthcare app can reduce the workload of doctors

A healthcare app can reduce the workload of doctors (image by Purrweb UI)

A healthcare mobile app can help with this as well since many processes can be automated, and that reduces the workload on the medical staff.

Here are a few use cases of how such apps lower the workload:

  • Instead of having to physically meet patients to prescribe physiotherapeutic exercises, doctors can simply upload the video with instructions to the app or directly to a user’s profile.
  • Many skin conditions can be monitored through the app. Thus, there’s no need for doctors to have a patient in their office for a check-up — the person can easily & safely upload a photo to the app.
  • All prescriptions and recommendations can be securely stored in the app so if users need to freshen up the information, there’s no need to bother specialists anymore.

In terms of your profitability, it can help you provide services to more clients in less time.

# 4: Constant Connection

From the medical point of view, it’s highly important to regularly stay in touch with patients to have a more detailed overview of their well-being.

The healthcare mobile app development is perfect to stay in touch with patients

The healthcare mobile app development is perfect for staying in touch with patients (image by Saikat Kumar)

Mastering how to build a healthcare app is key, as it empowers doctors to detect and prevent diseases at their early stages, so patients don’t come for a visit only when the situation gets critical.

It can be done through photo “reports” from patients, various symptom checkers, etc.

Healthcare mobile app development offers significant benefits for improving services and workflow in the healthcare industry. These apps can open new niches by addressing unmet medical needs, enhancing functionality beyond standard offerings, reducing the workload on medical staff through automation and remote monitoring, and maintaining a constant connection with patients for early disease detection and management. In essence, to make a healthcare app can offer a comprehensive solution for providing high-quality, accessible care to a wider audience, while also streamlining healthcare delivery.

✅ Types of Medical Apps

The healthcare sector is highly diverse in its services, with numerous applications targeting different demographics, including starting a women's health tracking app, and healthcare industries. Medical applications can be broadly categorized into four main types:
1. For Patients: These applications do not require specialist involvement but provide valuable health information.
2. For Providers: These applications are designed to meet the needs of hospitals and clinics, such as tracking medication supplies, scheduling nurses, and more.
3. For Doctors: These applications serve as assistants to healthcare professionals, facilitating tasks like prescribing medications or monitoring patient conditions.
4. Appointments: These applications enhance the convenience of scheduling online appointments for both doctors and patients, allowing them to book appointments or procedures.

In this section, we will discuss the most common types of medical applications, with a particular focus on patient-centric applications as they occupy a significant portion of the mHealth market.

If your idea requires unique insights into how to design and develop a healthcare app, feel free to reach out to us for specialized assistance.

App for Patients. Tracking & Reminding

The expertise in how to develop a medical app is vital, as it aids in creating apps that help people track their well-being and ensure timely medication intake.

Let’s take a look at what essential features are often used in such apps.

# 1: Medication Control & Reminders

This feature can help people keep control of their medication regime so that they don’t mistakenly miss the time or confuse the pill.

It's especially relevant for people with chronic illnesses since many of them have to take medications every day and it’s quite complicated to stay focused all the time.

You can create an app for health tracking

Understanding how to make a medical app with such crucial features is essential for catering to the needs of patients with chronic illnesses.(image by Simon Rico)

For a better user experience, you can add a feature that’ll scan the QR-code on the medication & automatically add it to the list.

It can be done either by building it into the app or integrating it with the camera on users’ devices.

In addition, it might be a good idea to correlate components of a patient’s medications to make sure that they’re compatible with each other.

# 2: Activity Tracking

This feature can include various activity indicators:

  • Distance traveled.
  • Workout planners.
  • Screen time for eye-related health issues.
  • Some specific customizable indicators like swimming, cycling, jumping, etc.
The health tracking app development is one of many options you can opt for

The health tracking app development is one of many options you can opt for (image by Alena)

So that the development would be easier and faster, you can integrate third-party services like Apple Health and Google Fit into your app to enable certain features, instead of developing custom ones. Also, you can use fitness bands, smartwatches, smart fitness equipment, and other BLE-devices.

This can allow you to track heart & breath rate, blood pressure — everything and anything that such devices & APIs provide. If you’d like to learn more about how to do so, here’s our article dedicated to this topic:

Read Also

How to Enable Google Fit, Apple Health Kit, and Other Services to Share Data with Your App

# 3: Sleep Tracking

To help people improve their sleeping habits and inform them about different activities during sleep, you can add a feature to track such things.

Another function of a healthcare app is sleep tracking

Another function of a healthcare app is sleep tracking (image by Citra Gunasiwi)

After tracking sleeping activity, you can give advice on how to improve the current situation, offer some sleeping meditations, relaxing sounds, audio sleeping guides, etc.

Read Also

Meditation App Development: Using examples like Headspace or Calm

To increase engagement, you can add a sleep recording feature since many people would like to know if they sleep talk to analyze the quality of their sleep or just for entertainment.

# 4: Exacerbation Control

It’s a good idea to add customizable questionnaires to capture the exacerbation phases & how users feel throughout them.

A healthcare app can be used for tracking exacerbation stages

A healthcare app can be used for tracking exacerbation stages (image by Dibbendo Pranto 🚀)

Moreover, healthcare spheres can be absolutely different — from mental health to skin conditions.

Take a look at some typical use cases of this feature so you can have a clearer picture of what we’re talking about. The exacerbation of:

  • Bipolar disorder.
  • Pain during oncological diseases.
  • Skin conditions.
  • Respiratory conditions.
  • Allergies & others.

# 5: Symptom Check-Ups

To deeper understand the state of each user’s health, you can add various questionnaires on how people feel every day.

To begin with, you can add general questions like temperature, heart rate, blood pressure (if possible to measure), typical symptoms like headache and/or stomachache, dizziness & a bar to add notes that these questions don’t cover.

Healthcare mobile app development can help you reduce the workflow of doctors

Healthcare mobile app development can help you reduce the workflow of doctors (image by Zuzanna Cwiakala)

After that, you can offer to create custom questions to tailor the app to each user’s needs.

Additionally, you can offer them to generally track their daily activities so doctors can determine the possibility of certain symptoms being influenced by routines of patients.

# 6: Camera

This feature is intended to picture any external symptoms of illnesses. In addition, it is perfect for preventing & controlling purposes.

During healthcare app development, you can add a built-in camera

During digital healthcare app development, you can add a built-in camera (image by Filip Justić)

You should also leave a bar for notes so people can type in some additional symptoms that can’t be captured on camera like pain, itchiness, etc.

Furthermore, offer users to generally track their daily activities so doctors can determine the possibility of certain actions being influenced by routines of patients.

Here are some typical use cases for this feature:

  • Regularly take photos of the body to monitor moles & help detect potentially dangerous changes on the skin at early stages.
  • Monitor the course of diseases like pink eye.
  • Track acne improvements or worsenings, etc.

Examples of Tracking Apps

Here, we’d like to show you some existing examples of such apps:

App for Patients. Healthcare Assisting & Healthy Lifestyle

This type of medical apps is normally dedicated to treatments that aren’t pharmacotherapies.

They can include physiotherapies, dietary, comfort therapies, etc.

You might want to add the following features:

# 1: Exercises

This feature can help people who were prescribed physical exercise or just need some supporting treatments to deal with certain pains (i. e., knee pain).

So, without having to see patients in their offices, doctors can simply send them video instructions on how to perform certain physiotherapies.

A healthcare mobile app development can be used for implementing exercises into your medical app

A digital healthcare app development can be used for implementing exercises into your medical app (image by 415Agency)

You can also offer some premade universal exercises that surely won’t be harmful & will help with certain conditions.

It might be a good idea to provide a tracker where patients will give feedback on how they feel during & after exercising, rate the difficulty of it, and the level of pain.

In this way, doctors will be able to track the progress and tailor the prescription.

# 2: Nutrition Tracking

With this feature, doctors’ can send dietary prescriptions to their patients and they can always have access to it.

In addition, with an app, patients don’t have to bother doctors anymore if they need to double-check or recall any information.

It’s might be a good idea to add features for nutrition control during healthcare mobile app development

It might be a good idea to add features for nutrition control during healthcare mobile app development (image by YanBin Tan)

Also, providing a list of recipes for different categories of patients, such as diabetics, people with different allergies, as well as people with different dietary preferences, might be a pretty good idea too.

Moreover, you can add low and high calorie recipes and many other categories to cover as many needs as possible.

In fact, we have an article dedicated to the topic of nutrition and diets if you’d like to check it out:

Read Also

Diet and Nutrition App Development

Examples of Healthcare Assisting Apps

Let’s take a look at some existing apps in this sphere:

Healthcare Assisting: Our Expertise

We, at Stormotion, have developed both a mobile and a web app for FitTracks, a fitness app with audio-guided workouts for all categories of people — from absolute beginners to experienced athletes.

Their workouts fully meet all World Health Organization recommendations and each one of them is designed to last for 8 weeks with a possibility of a 4 week extension.

All courses have detailed video & audio instructions, as well as written texts so you can get yourself acquainted with the needed info before the workout and feel more confident about its structure.

A fitness health app can be combined with healthcare mobile app development

A fitness health app can be combined with healthcare mobile app development (shots from (image by Stormotion)

In fact, FitTrack’s workout programs are recognized by the German government as prevention courses.

For users, it means that they can request 100% reimbursement from their health insurance companies.

Their app helps people adjust their workout routines for different muscle groups, prevention purposes, and joint workouts.

If you’d like to learn more about this project, there’s a case study on our website:

Read Also

FitTracks: Case Study

App for Patients. Mental Health

Mental health issues are something that’s easier to deal with remotely. And that’s also the reason why such apps are very popular nowadays.

Furthermore, the diversity of such apps is quite impressive. Some of them help to deal with specific problems, from anxiety and panic attacks to OCD and bipolar disorder. Others are intended to improve general mental well-being, and some don’t specialize in any field, but rather offer a customizable experience to every user.

Let’s review what features such apps normally have.

# 1: Well-Being Check-Ups & Tracker

In mental health app development, incorporating features like well-being check-ups and trackers are essential to monitor patients’ mental health regularly, as mental issues are rarely a permanent state.

Mental health app development can be a great way for you to help people to support their well-being

Mental health app development can be a great way for you to help people to support their well-being (image by Choirul Syafril)

You can add questionnaires on general topics like current mood, concerns, psychosomatic symptoms like headache, stomachache, feeling of heaviness in the chest, etc.

Then, if a user requires such, you can provide specialized customizable questions that will be suitable for their disease. It might be a good idea to leave a bar for additional notes.

A tracker can be simply organized as a calendar with all dates where any notes or check-ups are taken. Normally, this information is accessible anytime.

# 2: Tools to Get Grounded

Many people often need to get grounded to simply understand what their genuine feelings are or to calm down the temporary acute phase of an issue.

Healthcare app development in the field of mental care is important to maintain a general well-being of people

Healthcare app development in the field of mental care is important to maintain a general well-being of people (image by Igor Savelev)

“Grounding” with help of a medical app can be done by using these tools:

  • Leading questions to pinpoint the true feeling.
  • Memory games like looking at a picture for a short time and then trying to recall it in detail.
  • Meditations & other tools.

# 3: Support Chats & Groups

When dealing with mental health issues it’s really important for patients to be understood, and with an app, it’s easy to provide such feelings.

During healthcare app development for mental care, think about adding online support

During healthcare app development for mental care, think about adding online support (image by Shafeez Walji)

You can create multiple chats & groups on Social Media so people with similar concerns and issues can feel united and comforted by each other to feel less stressed.

Additionally, it’s also a great idea to provide users with emergency mental health support from professionals, so people in need can get primary psychological assistance anytime.

# 4: Meditations

One of the most important parts of mental well-being is meditating. So, it might be reasonable to offer your app users a wide variety of meditations.

To support users’ mental health, you can add meditations to the app

To support users’ mental health, you can add meditations to the app (image by Samuel Oktavianus)

Meditations can:

  • Help to deal with anxiety and intrusive thoughts.
  • Help with grounding.
  • Be voice-guided or without any accompaniment.
  • Improve sleep & others.

Examples of mental health apps

Here are some real-file mental healthcare app examples:

Mental Health: Our Expertise

Our team has worked with Feel amazing, which is a the project of Ailsa Frank, a British hypnotherapist and motivational keynote speaker. It is targeted at general mental health improvement & self-development.

We have an expertise in healthcare app development for mental care

We have an expertise in healthcare app development for mental care (image by Stormotion)

Their team’s main goal is to help people overcome their bad habits and be a better version of themselves through audio & video courses, as well as live streams.

The app has many courses dedicated to various topics — from alcohol and nicotine addictions to women’s well-being. It helps people to fight their fears, mend relationships with their loved ones, and gain confidence.

It’s also child-friendly since the content includes sensitive topics regarding alcohol and smoking, which we secured with the Child Lock feature that hides content with age restrictions.

So, if you want to create a mental health app feel free to reach out to us!

App for Patients. Women’s Health

Women have to deal with different health issues on a regular basis — from cramps and breast pains because of their physiology to menstrual disorders.

That’s why FemTech apps have already become a whole industry and help women take better control of the general health as well as of their well-being during pregnancy, period, etc.

Let’s take a look at what features can be used to create a women health app:

# 1: Period Tracker

This feature is one of the most used ones in such apps. It can include:

  • Menstrual cycle tracking & prediction.
  • Ovulation calculation.
  • PMS symptoms tracking & others.
During women health app development, it’s important to add period tracking

During women health app development, it’s important to add period tracking (image by Bettina Szekany)

Moreover, by tracking different symptoms and pains before and during “that time of the month”, women can get a better overview of their general health.

This information can also help doctors understand each woman’s specificity to provide better services and lower the intensity of the symptoms.

# 2: Pregnancy Control

Regardless of the fact that pregnancy is an extremely tender process and requires constant doctor control, an app can still be helpful.

A mobile healthcare app for women health can include pregnancy control

A mobile healthcare app for women health can include pregnancy control (image by Rudi Hartono)

Such a feature can provide a bunch of useful tools:

  • Daily well-being check-ups.
  • Pregnancy journals for positive moments like baby’s first kick, ultrasound results, etc.
  • Pregnancy journals for body changes & further medical care.
  • Lists with recipes for pregnant women.
  • Reviews of medications that aren’t allowed during pregnancy etc.

# 3: Birth Control Tracker

Hormonal birth control medications are usually very strong, so their taking has to be medically prescribed & strictly controlled to provide efficiency and minimize side effects.

With an app, it becomes much easier to control this process.

A healthcare app development for women health can include adding birth control tracking

A healthcare app development for women health can include adding birth control tracking (image by Zuzanna Cwiakala)

So, such a feature can have these tools:

  • Birth control pill reminders.
  • Side-effects checkers & a bar for notes.
  • Customizable trackers for those who use other types of contraceptives like the contraceptive implants, IUDs & others.

Examples of Women's Health Apps

Let’s take a look at some existing solutions on the market:

App For Providers

Medical service providers, such as hospitals or clinics, require advanced diagnostic systems that reduce the number of misdiagnoses and treatment plans. Healthcare provider applications aim to simplify the patient intake process, coordinate staff work, and manage patient records.

Such applications may include features such as:

  • Electronic Medical Records
  • Electronic Health Records
  • Hospital Information System (HIS)
  • Revenue Cycle Management (RCM)
  • Custom software solutions for managing medical staff
  • Patient data analysis
  • Hospital medicine inventory management
  • Tracking hospital medical equipment and accessories
  • Admission, discharge, and transfer (ADT) systems

Examples of Providers Apps

VisualDx is a clinical decision support system widely used in dermatology and other medical fields.

PEPID is a comprehensive clinical decision support tool designed for healthcare professionals. It offers a vast database of drug information, medical calculators, and clinical content.

DrChrono is a comprehensive electronic health record (EHR) and practice management platform designed for healthcare providers.

Locus Clinician is an app designed to assist healthcare providers in managing their clinical workflows and patient care more effectively.

App For Doctors

This type of application is designed to benefit doctors, nurses, and other medical staff.

Doctor applications may have a range of functions, including:

  • Patient diagnosis (it can unclude video and audio calls)
  • Digital workspaces for doctors and nurses
  • Care coordination applications
  • Assistance in prescribing medications
  • Medication management
  • Management of medical images (X-rays, MRI, etc.)
  • Laboratory management
  • Viewing and analyzing medical images
  • AR/VR for surgery planning and medical staff training

Examples of Doctors Apps

Lybrate is a versatile platform that connects patients with healthcare professionals.

Medscape is primarily known as a medical news and education platform. Healthcare professionals widely use Medscape for up-to-date medical information.

Appointment management/Telehealth

This type of healthcare apps is basically an app where people can schedule doctor appointments, access their prescriptions, and visit appointments.

We won’t get into detail here since we already have an article dedicated to developing telehealth apps. So if you’d like to learn more about this type of healthcare apps, feel free to follow the link:

Read Also

Telemedicine App Development: How to Make a Telehealth App or Site

To conclude the section, we’d like to point out that healthcare apps can be absolutely different, as they can consist of 2 or more types, partially have features that we’ve mentioned and/or also have something unique, etc.

The point of a custom healthcare mobile app is that you can customize it to your liking. So, if it’s possible to put your idea into practice from the technical point of view (which we can help you determine as well), we’d be more than happy to help you!

In conclusion, the diversity in healthcare app types offers vast opportunities to build a medical app tailored to specific needs. Whether it's for patients, providers, doctors, or telehealth services, each category addresses unique aspects of healthcare. Patient-centric apps focus on tracking health metrics and medication reminders, while provider apps streamline hospital operations. Apps for doctors enhance diagnostic and treatment capabilities, and telehealth apps facilitate remote consultations. This variety underscores the potential and importance of how to create a healthcare app that can significantly improve healthcare delivery, patient engagement, and overall medical management.

🏃 Our Expertise: WePulse & MoveYoon

In this section, we’ll review two cases of our expertise in this field.

WePulse

One of the projects is WePulse — a corporate well-being platform that’s intended to encourage employees to live healthier lives. We started working with them when our other client HUMANOO, a German corporate health platform, acquired WePulse.

Their team asked us to proceed with the BackEnd development for the mobile app. For health & fitness user data exchange, we’ve integrated 3 fitness services:

Now, they can get all necessary activity data without having to measure it on their own.

MoveYoo

Another project that we’ve worked on is MoveYoo - a German physiotherapy app that allows therapists to remotely prescribe exercises to their patients.

What we did was basically developing the whole app from scratch - we added well-being check-ups, therapeutic exercises with individual plans from doctors, etc.

⚙️ Healthcare Mobile App: Universal Features

In this section, we’ll review features that most types of healthcare apps can have.

# 1: Sign Up & Profiles

For healthcare apps, this feature is something rather necessary since the policies of apps that in some way work in the field of healthcare are way more strict than they are for many other apps.

If we’re talking about general information, email, phone number and name should do it, and you can ask for it before or after the sign-up.

You can add the Sing Up & Profiles features for a healthcare app development

You can add the Sing Up & Profiles features for a healthcare app development (image by Tatiana Livinska)

However, healthcare apps might need a little more than that. For instance, you might additionally ask for certain health details, but it can be required when users would complete their medical profiles.

Such profiles are often anonymous to meet all GDPR requirements. In this case, personal details either stay strictly inside the app or are stored by healthcare providers & other businesses without knowing to whom this information refers.

# 2: Medical Profile

To be fully aware of what to pay attention to when working with each patient, you should offer (or require, depending on the type of your app) to fill in a medical profile.

General information can include:

  • Photo.
  • Sex.
  • Age.
  • Weight.
  • Height.
  • Insurance (if they have one).
Don’t forget to add a medical profile feature during healthcare application development

Don’t forget to add a medical profile feature during healthcare application development (image by Filip Justić)

After that, you might need to ask for any special details about one’s health.

What’s important here is that each use case is unique, depending on the type of your app in the first place. For instance, if you work with sleep tracking, the medical profile would show the sleep schedule to users, while asking questions relevant to the issue.

In case you work with mental health issues the questions would be regarding any disorders, anxiety, etc.

Yet, in most cases, you might need to know certain details such as chronic diseases, allergies, medical history, etc., so the services you provide are safe and accurate.

# 3: Chats with Doctors

Before we start talking about it, we’d like to point out that many types of healthcare apps don’t imply direct communication with doctors, which makes the feature irrelevant for them.

To enable patient-doctor communication and still reduce the doctors’ workload, you can add chats, so patients have the option to ask doctors questions, and doctors can reply when they’re free, without having to be distracted from working with other patients.

Think about adding a chat during healthcare application development

Think about adding a chat during healthcare application development (image by harman zai)

It might be a great idea to place an emergency button for cases when patients can’t wait and need a consultation as soon as possible.

# 4: Push-Notifications

Many healthcare apps use push-notifications to remind users about daily activities like taking medications or birth control pills, doing well-being/symptom check-ups, etc.

Basically, it’s a universal feature that can be used for a variety of purposes, marketing included.

If you have a special offer, like a discount for a premium account (if you have it), notifications are a great tool to inform users about such events.

# 5: Payment Gateway

In case you offer any in-app purchases or the app itself isn’t free, you might need a secure, reliable & user-friendly payment gateway.

It’s important to add a payment gateway during healthcare application development

It’s important to add a payment gateway during healthcare application development (image by Afshin T2Y ⚡️)

For a better user experience, the payment gateway should:

  • Be consistent with different OS types.
  • Allow using popular payment methods like PayPal, Google & Apple Pay, a credit card, etc.
  • Function fast with no delays.
  • Provide strong protection of users’ personal data.

# 6: Customer Support

To help users figure out how to use certain features or deal with simple technical malfunctions, you can add user-oriented customer support.

A good customer support system normally includes:

  • A chatbot that will solve simple troubles & pass user requests to specialists.
  • Live chat with support specialists.
  • FAQ sections with a wide range of pre-answered questions.
  • 24/7 phone support for emergencies.
  • A list of contacts with mobile numbers for different operators, an email address, links to Social Media, messengers (Viber, WhatsApp, etc.).

📚 Legal Compliance & Privacy Policy

Healthcare apps often have to work with sensitive medical records regarding other people’s health issues, mental problems, private data & information, the stealing of which can lead to an illegal use of it and be traumatizing for people to whom it refers, not to mention that companies that violate these regulations can get penalties, fines, and individuals can press charges against them for doing so.

So, to prevent the leaking of health records and be sure that patient data is stored as securely as possible, you might need to comply with certain privacy and international standards.

Why don’t we review some of the most important ones?

Bear in mind, the regulations may differ depending on where you work or are registered, and with data of which citizens you are dealing with.

# 1: GDPR

General Data Protection Regulation is a privacy & security law of the EU. Its rules relate not only to businesses in the EU but also for anyone who has something to do with the information related to EU citizens.

The first thing you need to keep in mind when working with GDPR is what the definition of “personal data” actually implies, according to this law:

  • Name.
  • Phone number.
  • Location.
  • Identification number.
  • History of the browser.
  • IP address.
  • Other kinds of data related to a user's economic, social, mental, physical, physiological, or genetic identity.
You’ll need to comply with privacy and security regulations

You’ll need to comply with privacy and security regulations (image by David Salvatori)

For you to be GDPR compliant, you’ll need to fulfill 6 key requirements, which are:

  1. Lawfulness, fairness, & transparency.
  2. Purpose limitation.
  3. Data minimization.
  4. Accuracy.
  5. Storage limitation.
  6. Integrity & confidentiality.

We won’t get into details, however, we have a whole article dedicated to GDPR and two more laws (HIPAA, PIPEDA) that we talk about in the next subsections of this article if you’d like to learn more on how to make your medical mobile app compliant with these regulations:

Read Also

How to Make Sure Your App or Website is HIPAA, PIPEDA, GDPR Compliant

# 2: HIPAA

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act is the US regulation that requires healthcare institutions, businesses & their associates to develop and follow methods that can ensure the security of patients’ data on each stage of working with it — receiving, transferring, sharing, and handling.

This regulation is more specific and imposes rules on handling PHI (protected health information) that you need to implement into your medical mobile app to be HIPAA compliant:

  • Treatments.
  • One’s past, present, or future mental/physical condition.
  • Past, present, or future payment for healthcare one receives.

However, the identity of a person needs to be authenticated by one or more of 18 HIPAA-determined identifiers.

Again, we won’t fill you in on the details, but you can follow this link for an in-depth analysis of HIPAA compliance.

# 3: PIPEDA

Personal Information Protection And Electronic Documents Act is a Canadian privacy law that governs the use & collection of personal data in a way that complies with the people’s right for privacy.

This regulation covers quite a wide range of information from one’s name, age, and IP address to medical records, employee files, etc.

The principles of it are partly similar to the ones of GDPR:

  1. Accountability.
  2. Purpose.
  3. Consent.
  4. Limitations.
  5. Duration.
  6. Accuracy.
  7. Protection.
  8. Transparency.
  9. Access.
  10. Challenge.

For more details, you can click on this link.

To create a medical app you have to navigate complex regulations to ensure privacy and security of personal data. Key regulations include the GDPR, HIPAA, and PIPEDA. The GDPR focuses on protecting the personal data of EU citizens, with principles like lawfulness, accuracy, and data minimization. In the U.S., HIPAA mandates secure handling of protected health information (PHI), with specific rules for healthcare-related data. PIPEDA, applicable in Canada, governs the use and collection of personal information, aligning with principles similar to GDPR. Understanding and complying with these regulations is a critical step in how to create a medical app, as it helps avoid legal issues and ensures user trust.

🤖 Tech Stack

To make your medical mobile app more functional by using external resources, you can use various APIs and integrations:

By integrating them during the digital health app development process, you can make it faster and reduce the costs.

IoT, BLE & Healthcare App Development

Bluetooth Low Energy (aka Bluetooth LE, Bluetooth Smart) is a digital technology for data transferring, which implies low energy consumption & short range.

But for consumers and providers, this technology is known for the devices that use it in the first place. These are:

  • Wearables like fitness bands.
  • Smart home devices & others.
You can integrate your healthcare application with BLE devices

You can integrate your healthcare application with BLE devices (image by Florencia Yannuzzi)

Here are some use cases of how a mobile health app can use BLE devices:

  • Integrate fitness trackers to check heart rate, physical & sleeping activity, etc.
  • RHMS (Remote Healthcare Monitoring System) is used by healthcare apps to cooperate with doctors for remote monitoring general state of health, chronic diseases, etc.
  • Inner body sensors. There are certain small sensors that are “inserted” in patients’ organisms to detect specific symptoms of dangerous diseases at early stages & have enough time to save them. Such sensors can be connected to an app and send signals to doctors if there’s an emergency.

We had the experience of working with integrating data transactions from cadence and heart rate sensors right into the Platoon Fit app.

If you’d like to learn more about integrating BLE devices into your healthcare application, you could read our article on this topic:

Read Also

What to Consider When Integrating BLE in Your Reacht Native App

10 Steps to Develop a Successful Healthcare Mobile Application

If you are wondering how to develop a healthcare app, we have prepared a step-by-step plan for you. Where to start and what not to miss? Let's figure it out.

Step 1: Market Analysis and Understanding the Audience

Market research should be done before digital health app development starts. Learn about the industry trends in healthcare, recognize your competitors and assess them in terms of their strengths and weaknesses.
Also, make sure that your app will answer real questions and solve serious problems of your potential users.

Step 2: Defining the App Type and Features

Determine the kind of healthcare app you desire to invent whether meant for patients, healthcare providers, or all. Therefore, list the required elements of the app you create. These include appointment scheduling, telemedicine, medicine tracking, health data monitoring, and secure means of communication.

An example of mHealth app

Implementing blockchain technology in a healthcare app ensures secure, data protection and transparent management of patient records. (image by Sam Halpert)

Step 3: Designing User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI)

The focus is on making a user interface. UX should be simple but effective targeting the users’ individual specifications. UI in app design should be interesting to use creating pleasant user interface conditions.

Step 4: Ensuring Compliance and Security

Data handled by healthcare applications deals with personal health information, and thus it is important to adhere to healthcare legislations such as HIPAA in the US or GDPR in Europe. Ensure good enough security such as data encryption, secure user authenticity, and privacy protection.

Step 5: Develop the App

Select the best technology stack for your app, taking into account issues such as performance, scalability, and compatibility across platforms. Build the front-end and back-end of an app that will be compatible with the available health systems.

Step 6: Testing and Quality Assurance

Thoroughly evaluate the app concerning functionality, usability, security, and compliance. This is a significant step that involves checking and removing any bugs or problems before taking the application live.

An example of hospital app

The healthcare software development process involves creating advanced solutions to enhance the efficiency and quality of healthcare services. (image by Anastasia Golovko)

Step 7: Launching the App and Marketing

Build a healthcare app, test it, and launch it on the relevant platforms. Use a powerful marketing strategy to highlight the app's unique features for the target market when promoting it.

Step 8: Feedback and Continuous Improvement

Gather user data, analyze its effectiveness, and review app performance after launch. Review this information and use it to make the necessary improvements and updates to ensure the app is still relevant and helpful.

Step 9: Support and Maintenance

Continue providing support to address any user challenges and constantly update the app to fix bugs, enhance features, and keep compliant with new laws.

An example of online therapy app

In the realm of healthcare software development, thorough debugging is crucial to ensure the accuracy and reliability of medical applications, helping to identify and rectify potential issues in the system. (image by Sigma Software Design)

Step 10: Scaling and Adding Advanced Features

As your app grows, think of expanding it to cater to more users and incorporating sophisticated features such as AI-derived analysis, wearable device integration among others, and personalized health tips.

However, by following these steps and tailoring them to the unique needs of the healthcare sector, you may create a viable healthcare mobile application that satisfies the users.

💰 How Much Does Digital Healthcare App Development Cost?

The cost of the medical application development will significantly depend on what special features (in other words, what healthcare industry you're operating in) you choose. Here's a rough estimation of what costs might look like.

Digital Healthcare Features & Development Stage Estimated in Hours
Using React Native

⚙️ Feature

⏳ Min Hours

⏱ Max Hours

🌍 Project Discovery

60

132

🎨 UX/UI design

40

80

🔐 Sign Up Flow

24

42

👤 Profile Management Flow

18

36

💬 Chatting Flow

32

48

🔔 Push Notifications

40

64

💲 Payment Flow

64

78

🎧 Customer Support

18

28

💊 Medication Control

80

96

🏃 Activity Tracking

120

160

😴 Sleep Tracking

90

120

👨‍⚕️ Exacerbation Control

88

164

📑 Well-Being Check-Ups

78

152

📝 Symptom Check-Ups

48

82

📷 Camera Integration

24

36

🍏 Nutrition Tracking

88

164

🧘 Meditation Flow

100

140

♀️ Period Tracker

90

148

🤰 Pregnancy Control

24

36

Birth Control Tracker

24

36

🌐 Social Networking Elements

15

66

💻 Admin Panel

75

200

🤓 QA and Testing

75

132

📱 Release

16

24

Since the medical application development is quite a specific topic, the cost will depend on various factors such as the type of application, basic and additional features, and the technological stack. In the table above, we provided approximate time estimates for the development of a specific feature or the implementation of one of the development stages.

Keep in mind that the QA and testing stage will take at least 8% of the total time spent on development.

By estimating the time you will need for the mobile health app development, you can also get an approximate cost. On average, the development of an application will take you 900 – 1 300 hours. We recommend basing this estimate on the average cost of a development team's work, which is $50 per hour.

If you are looking for specialists to develop your own healthcare application, we will be happy to help you! Write to us, and we will discuss all the details.

💡 Takeaways

As you can see, there are many types of healthcare applications, and each one of them is unique. So, be sure that whatever healthcare services you want to provide, you can make use of developing your medical mobile app.

Let’s briefly summarize the steps of healthcare app development process:

  • mHealth apps can help you improve your business in several ways: allow using more advanced functionality, reduce the workload on the medical staff, and help you stay connected with your users/patients 24/7.
  • There are so many types of digital mHealth apps — they & their features can be combined and form mixed types. Sure thing that the actual number of healthcare app types is significantly higher, but use cases are more specific as well.
  • Decide on what features you want to add to your application. There are features that may be suitable for each type of healthcare mobile app those that man particularly suit your type. Just make sure to properly educate yourself on the options first.
  • Make sure to determine what regulations you need to comply with so your business is fully legal and secure.
  • Find a Tech Partner and start the development! This step doesn’t need to be taken after the previous ones since any development team would gladly help you at any stage of the process.

In case you need any help with the medical app development or have any questions left unanswered, feel free to reach out to us. We’ll find a way to help you!

Write Us to Start the Development!

Questions you may have

Take a look at how we solve challenges to meet project requirements

Have you served clients in the medical and healthcare industry?

We have extensive experience in building custom web and app solutions for the healthcare industry. For example, the FitTracks, Feel amazing, WePulse, MoveYoo application. You can find out more details about the development of these applications in this article or by going to the portfolio on our website.

How do you ensure healthcare app compliance with regulations like HIPAA and GDPR?

Of course, we ensure compliance with HIPAA rules, HITECH, FDA, and other local legal requirements. This includes international regulations and local laws to safeguard both the user and the product.

What measures are taken to protect patient data and privacy?

If specific measures aren't detailed, our compliance with HIPAA and GDPR suggests a strong focus on protecting patient data and privacy.

How is patient data secured against data breaches and cyber threats?

Stormotion implements robust patient data security measures to anonymize patient data as part of their compliance with HIPAA and GDPR.

What is your typical healthcare app development process?

We offer platform-agnostic development (iOS medical application development, Android medical app development, desktop, smartwatch, tablet) and technology consulting to ensure the app adapts to market changes.

How are clients involved in decision-making during development?

We value client collaboration, therefore, all decisive issues are discussed exclusively with the client. During the custom app development for healthcare, our app developers is always in touch with the client to quickly resolve and approve certain issues.

Can you provide an estimated timeline for our healthcare app project?

The timing depends on the complexity and functionality of the application. For example, developing a healthcare app can take 900–1300 hours.

What key milestones and deliverables can we expect?

Key stages and results always depend on the specific project and the requests of our clients. In our work we prefer to adhere to the Agile methodology:

  • Pre-Project (Discovery Stage, Planning)
  • Agile Development (UX-Prototyping, Design, Development, QA & Testing)
  • Transition (Maintenance, Handover, Next Iteration)

Can you provide a breakdown of the project budget?

Costs depend on the app type and scope of work. We provide rough estimates for specific types of apps, based on the approximate amount of time spent on development. Write to us and tell us a bit about your project, and we will provide you with more precise figures.

What post-launch maintenance and support services do you offer?

We offer ongoing support, including bug fixes, SDK & API updates, OS updates, and new functionality implementation.

How are updates, bug fixes, and technical support handled?

We provide support for updates and technical issues.. When a new update or bug fix is required, our team assesses the issue, develops the necessary changes, and rigorously tests them to ensure the highest quality. Once validated, the update is released to users. Continuous monitoring and proactive measures are implemented to identify and address potential issues promptly, ensuring the reliability and performance of our services.

Is the app designed to scale as our healthcare practice or business grows?

Yes, we provide technology consulting to ensure growth and adaptability, and specifically design a custom healthcare app to scale as your medical practice or business expands. Our focus is on creating a robust and scalable healthcare solution that can accommodate the evolving needs and increasing demands of your organization over time.

How does it accommodate increased user volumes and data?

Accommodating increased user volumes and data in a medical application involves implementing scalable and robust solutions. Here are several strategies that we employ:

  • Scalable Infrastructure - using a scalable infrastructure that can handle increased user loads. Cloud services like AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud provide scalable resources that can be adjusted based on demand.
  • Caching Mechanisms - implementing caching mechanisms to store frequently accessed data temporarily.
  • Database Optimization - optimizing database queries and structure to handle increased data efficiently. We use indexing, query optimization, and appropriate database sharding techniques to enhance performance.
  • Monitoring and Analytics - implementing monitoring tools to track system performance, user behavior, and potential bottlenecks.
  • Regular Performance Testing - conducting regular performance testing to identify and address potential scalability issues before they impact users.

Read also

How can we help you?

Our clients say

Stormotion client David Lesser, CEO from [object Object]

They were a delight to work with. And they delivered the product we wanted. Stormotion fostered an enjoyable work atmosphere and focused on delivering a bug-free solution.

David Lesser, CEO

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