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

Telemedicine is the solution to the problem. 89% of patients are willing to use telemedicine and accept it as a sufficient form of medical care. It shows us that telemedicine is not only needed but has a high demand.

The importance and benefits of telemedicine app development became especially clear during the COVID-pandemic. Many people would prefer to get medical care from their own homes and don’t unnecessarily risk their health. The same thing is true for healthcare professionals — they provide medical care remotely which mitigates the risk of getting a virus. Thus, telemedicine software makes it safer and more comfortable for both patients and doctors.

So now it’s easier than ever to develop a telemedicine platform and take off right from the start.

If you are interested in how to build a telemedicine app or website for doctors and patients but don’t know where to begin — we got you. Follow us to the next section!

✅ Top 4 Reasons Why You Should Develop a Telemedicine App

Before we get into details of telemedicine app development, why don’t we take a quick look at the benefits the telemedicine platform can bring you.

But firstly, we would recommend watching this video to better understand how important telemedicine apps are during COVID-pandemic:

Let's see what benefits healthcare app development services can bring you!

Reach a wider audience safely 👫

We all are used to taking it as a fact that to see a doctor we have to schedule an appointment in governmental or private healthcare organizations. Normally, we go somewhere near our home or in our city at least.

Speaking of telemedicine services, geolocation doesn’t play a significant role anymore. You can reach a wider audience and provide medical services from your web or mobile app to those who couldn’t get it without the platform because of being far from the hospital.

More importantly, if a person is infected by a virus and contagious, they won’t have to go to a hospital. Thus, the risk of getting other people or a doctor infected gets negated.

With a telemedicine platform development, or even a specialized yoga application development or corporate health app development, people can quickly and easily access healthcare or wellness services with minimal hassle. Additionally, they can choose the most suitable doctor for their needs, thanks to the extensive list of healthcare providers available.

Moreover, there is a significant social aspect to consider. People living in rural areas often face challenges due to inadequate healthcare systems — they either cannot reach a hospital quickly or cannot afford the associated costs.

The perfect solution for this purpose is to develop a telehealth app. Not only it’s easy to collect health data, but it's also simple to transfer it to other doctors, as long as it complies with the Patient Privacy Policy.

By collecting medical data, you contribute to research, help develop new treatments, and gain more insight into various diagnoses. As a result, you enhance doctors' knowledge and skills — leading to higher payments and improved credibility.

Most importantly, you improve the quality of telehealth services, since it becomes easier to access and store data.

Cut Costs ❎

This is a clear advantage — online platforms, whether in telemedicine or meditation app development, tend to be cost-effective in the long run.

Of course, it doesn’t replace offline hospitals — chronic illness or another health issue can't be treated online. However, the decision to build a telemedicine system significantly reduces operational costs, allowing healthcare organizations to offer primary care through a web or mobile app.

According to a study by the American Hospital Association, healthcare providers saved nearly $2,750 per patient by using telehealth physical therapy for post-knee replacement surgery, instead of in-person visits.

What's more, there will be less paperwork — almost everything can be digitized and handled within a telehealth app. This will not only cut costs by reducing paper use for documentation, doctor-patient agreements, and prescriptions but also allow you to focus on actual tasks and increase profits.

You can ask for details after they sign-up or for basic ones (email or phone number, name, and specializations) right at the start — either way they will have to provide them since telemedicine is quite a responsible business to run. For different categories, you would need different details. Except for basic info like name and email/phone number, you’ll also need to collect more detailed info:

# 2: Home Screen 📊

Type: Common Feature

The Home Screen is the first thing users see in telehealth apps. It needs to be useful and convenient but not overloaded with information.

The Home Screen for patients and doctors should be different.

For Doctors

When you make a telemedicine app, the Home Screen for doctors may display:

• Revenue
  Consider adding this feature to help doctors track their income. It could show monthly, weekly, or even income for different months.

• Today’s Appointment

This feature can help doctors manage their time through scheduling, ensuring that every patient on the list receives appropriate care.

• Rating

This useful feature allows doctors to see whether patients are satisfied with the healthcare services they provide, enabling them to offer better care in the future.

• New Patients

The list of new patients helps doctors track how many people want to see them shortly, allowing them to manage their workload during the review stage of patient requests.

• Quick Access to Client’s History and Health Records

To provide better services, doctors should be able to quickly access a patient’s history and lab results — like an outpatient e-chart — directly from their dashboard.

For Patients

When you build a telehealth application, the Home Screen for patients should include:

• Search Bar

To speed up searches, it’s a good idea to add a search bar to the Home Screen so patients can easily find the doctor they need without scrolling too far.

• Appointments Calendar

The calendar can serve as a reminder for appointments, allowing patients to easily cancel or reschedule if needed. We recommend highlighting dates with a bright color to ensure they stand out.

• Quick Access to Main Features

Provide quick access to essential features like a list of top doctors, prescriptions, recommendations, and chat or video conferencing with a doctor. This ensures patients can access important information as soon as they open the app, preventing them from missing any medication or messages from their doctor.

• Health & Movement Indicators

This additional feature can help your app stand out. Provide patients with activity trackers and offer basic information (e.g., heartbeat, steps) about their current health status. This is especially useful if you want to build your own telemedicine application for daily use.

📌 Also, we offer services to create a personal trainer app that meets high-quality standards.

# 3: List of Doctors & Filters 🔍

Type: Features for Patients

Patients should be able to view a list of all doctors, including their name, specialization, average rating, and consultation price. To make searches faster, you can include categories based on doctors' specializations, as shown in this picture.

When patients click on the "Book an Appointment" button (which should be conveniently placed near each doctor's name), they should see all the necessary details about their potential doctor, such as:

• Other patients’ comments,
• The doctor’s education and experience,
• Available dates and times.

Adding search filters to your telehealth software is also a great idea to make results more precise. When you build a telehealth app, consider including filters such as:

• Specialization,
• Price,
• Available dates,
• Location.

# 4: Questionnaires & Health Control 📋

Type: Common Feature

Before appointments, nurses typically ask patients to complete medical forms with questions about their background, basic health indicators, and complaints.

Telemedicine apps simplify this process for both patients and doctors. Patients can easily open a pre-made form and fill it out on their smartphone. Doctors can then access the form remotely and review it within the telehealth app before the appointment.

Including this feature during telemedicine application development is invaluable for tracking treatment progress and effectiveness, and adjusting plans if a patient's condition worsens.

# 5: Video & Audio Calls 📞

Type: Common Feature

This feature is essential for building a telemedicine video mobile app. It fosters a sense of live communication and helps establish a more trusting doctor-patient relationship.

Additionally, it enables doctors to observe a patient's external symptoms and overall well-being (e.g., whether they appear sleepy, pale, or dizzy). Advanced Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence algorithms can also be integrated to support more accurate diagnoses.

For therapist appointments, the emotions, reactions, and facial expressions of both the doctor and the patient play a critical role, making this feature a top priority when building a telehealth app.

Moreover, it helps a doctor to see a patient's external symptoms and their well-being (whether they’re sleepy, pale, dizzy, etc.). Moreover, it's possible to use some machine learning and artificial intelligence algorithms to make more accurate diagnoses.

If it is a therapist appointment, then emotions, reactions of a patient, and faces of both doctor and patient play one the most crucial roles.

# 6: Feedback 💬

Type: Features for Patients

The reputation of any doctor is critical — knowing about other people’s experiences can prevent a lot of troubles or ensure to choose this or that doctor.

In online telehealth apps, it’s easier than anywhere else. Just leave a comment on a doctor's profile or rate them.

It would be great if you implement some premade feedback forms with the most important questions (“Did the doctor ask you about…?”, “Rate the efficiency of a treatment”, etc.).

# 7: File Uploading & Downloading 📤

Type: Common Feature

A doctor may need their patients to upload a picture of their rash on a hand, for instance. Or to take a photo of their bruise. Or some patients may want to print out their X-Ray scans, prescriptions, diagnoses, and so on.

That is when the file uploading feature could come in handy. Consider this during your own telemedicine app development.

To enable this, you can request camera permissions from your users, allowing them to take photos directly within the web or mobile app.

# 8: Medical History 📘

Type: Common Feature

Patients should have easy access to their current and previous diagnoses, prescriptions, medical records, and recovery plans.

When you develop a telehealth app, add this feature because it allows patients to stay informed about their health and recall important details from doctor visits.

Doctors should also have access to Electronic Health Records (EHR) to provide better treatment, taking into account past diagnoses, prediction, and any relevant details that might have emerged during previous appointments with other healthcare providers.

# 9: Schedule 📅

Type: Features for Doctors

This essential feature helps doctors manage their workload efficiently by showing how many patients are scheduled for the day and how many new patients are requesting appointments.

Remember, telemedicine platform development isn't just about catering to patients — it's also about supporting healthcare providers.

# 10: Chats 💭

Type: Common Feature

In case of an emergency or if patients have additional questions, they should have the ability to contact their doctor. Chat features in telemedicine apps are perfect for meeting this need.

Chats can also be useful for explaining test results or scans, ensuring that everything is clear and understandable for the patient.

Consider adding a "Smart Response" feature to make the app more time-efficient for both doctors and patients.

# 11: Customer Support 🤝

Type: Common Feature

In case something goes wrong on the technical side, customer support should be available to help.

When you decide to build a telehealth application, we recommend implementing AI features, such as chatbots (explore how to integrate AI in app in our guide). These chatbots can be programmed to answer common questions or provide contact options, such as email or messaging, for more complex inquiries. This can help you save time that would otherwise be spent on basic conversations.

Customer support should:

• Be quick.
• Offer 24/7 phone support in case of emergencies.
• Provide a list of contact options (email, messengers, etc.).

# 12: Payment Gateway 💲

Type: Common Feature

To make the doctor-patient relationship seamless and secure, use a reliable payment gateway for all in-app transactions. By "reliable," we mean:

• Compatibility with various devices and OS types.
• Availability of popular payment options (Google Pay, Apple Pay, PayPal).
• Fast processing without delays.
• Strong security.

Don’t underestimate this aspect of the app development process. Just like medical records, it requires extra attention and security to ensure a safe and smooth experience for users.

# 13: Push Notifications 🔔

Type: Common Feature

When creating a telemedicine app, don’t forget about push notifications, since they can benefit everyone: business owners, doctors, and patients.

• Business owners can boost revenue by sending personalized offers.
• Doctors can receive new patient messages, appointment notifications, and reminders (which should be customizable, e.g., "Remind N minutes before the appointment").
• Patients can receive reminders for appointments, as well as notifications for pill-taking, test results, and more.

This feature will encourage users to engage with your telemedicine app more frequently, enhancing their overall experience.

With encryption, even if a third party gains access to your app’s information, they won’t be able to decrypt it. End-to-end encryption (E2EE) is widely used by businesses to protect in-app communication and transactions from hackers, governments, and even the facilitating company itself.

If you’re considering adding encryption to your telemedicine software, we highly recommend focusing on implementing E2EE.

# 2: Proper Data Storing

The way you store medical and healthcare data plays a critical role in ensuring security. Overloaded servers are easier to exploit, so here are two essential tips to store data securely and minimize risks:

1. Avoid keeping unnecessary information.

This includes outdated test or scan results, unused patient data, duplicate documents, and anything no longer relevant. Reducing server load not only minimizes risks but also simplifies the management and maintenance of telemedicine apps.

2. Restrict and protect data access.

Limiting access to sensitive information is vital. Not all employees need access to everything — for instance, an accountant doesn’t require access to patient prescriptions. During telemedicine application development, create user categories with varying access levels to safeguard information.

Additionally, ensure that all server storage is protected by secure firewalls, robust passwords, and authentication systems. Collaborate closely with your telemedicine app developers to implement these measures effectively.

# 3: Educating Your Doctors

Developing a telehealth web or mobile app is just the beginning. The doctor-patient relationship is crucial for successful treatment, and doctors must be fully aware of how to treat patients online while safeguarding their privacy and data.

When you make a health insurance app, it’s equally important to educate insurance agents about protecting patient data and following privacy regulations.

Each web or mobile app is unique, with specific features and functionalities. Doctors need to understand how each platform works to ensure patient data safety.

Remember, patient data isn't just critical for patients and businesses — it directly impacts a doctor's reputation. If something goes wrong, the doctor is the first point of contact for the patient.

This highlights the importance of privacy and security. Everyone involved with the app — from patients to healthcare providers — has an interest in maintaining data privacy. Ensuring robust security is the key to success in telemedicine and wellness application development.

Regulations 📚

Medical apps must comply with the same regulations as offline medical institutions, with the added complexity of telemedicine platform development requiring specific considerations.