The recent COVID-19 pandemic lockdown has completely turned the landscape of the healthcare industry. Most of us hesitate to even step out for our medical conditions. The fear of this deadly virus has resulted in remote healthcare facilities thereby booming the Telemedicine app development industry.
According to a recent report by Statista– “The global telemedicine market will grow almost four times in six years. This number is predicted to take a jump amid COVID pandemic lockdown.”
Telemedicine has grabbed a lot of popularity from clinics, doctors, and patients. It is surely a boon to the Digital healthcare industry. Not only it simplify the consultation process for both doctors and patients but also facilitates powerful & efficient healthcare services for hospital staff & patients who are unable to make frequent physical visits to hospitals.
Among so many telemedicine apps, MDLIVE is one of the most popular on-demand healthcare apps. The app offers remote care facilities to elderly & physically-disabled patients who can’t stand in long queues at hospitals or clinics.
Investing in such a remote healthcare service provider app would surely give a kick to your healthcare facility. The article emphasizes on how to build a telemedicine app like MDLIVE and a thorough analysis of its cost, features included and tech stacks required.
In this article, we have listed out a thorough analysis of telemedicine app development like MDLIVE, its cost, and the benefits it brings in for patients & doctors.
Benefits of Telemedicine App like MDLIVE
A report by MarketWatch says that “the US telemedicine market saw revenue of around $11.8 billion and about 50% of the hospitals in the US use telemedicine programs.
The report further read that the telemedicine app is now seen as an interesting digital healthcare approach for private medical practices, entrepreneurs, healthcare systems, and insurance companies.
This clearly indicates that the Telemedicine app is the future of the Healthcare industry and promises prolonged business growth. Look below for the benefits a Telemedicine app like MDLIVE offers to both patients & healthcare professionals/facilities.
Remote Access to Healthcare
Telemedicine apps like MDLIVE can be of great use for people who live in distant, rural areas or those who cannot travel long for availing themselves of healthcare facilities. In absence of healthcare facilities nearby, patients can have their healthcare consultation directly via this app. All they need is a smartphone with a working internet connection.
Online video conference
MDLIVE allows permission to your device camera that enables doctors to examine the patient’s condition via video conferencing.
Real time Treatment advice
A telemedicine app allows patients to ask anything related to their health from hospital staff-nurses, and doctors. Patients can take remote advice related to drug schedule, emergency help, etc. via a text from the app or can even send a voice note.
Managing the Medicine Prescription
The app allows patients to get medicine and other medical equipment prescriptions online. Patients can just visit the nearby pharmacy with a prescription on their devices.
Convenient Access to EHR
Telehealth software keeps EHRs (electronic health records), so that doctors could access them on demand. A single place for a patient’s clinical records saves the doctor’s time.
Remote Patient Monitoring via Wearable Devices
Apps like MDLIVE are also used for managing & monitoring patients at high risk. In this case, the app allows healthcare professionals to monitor the patient’s health, signs & symptoms remotely via wearable devices and IoT-enabled health sensors. In case, the situation worsens, doctors connect to provide instant advice.
Cost & Time Efficient
MDLIVE like a telemedicine app saves a lot on Healthcare Costs. Patients have the liberty of connecting to any healthcare service without physically visiting the hospital. The app helps users instantly book their appointment with a doctor at a convenient time without a physical visit. So, no worries about the doctor being on a day off!
Must have Telemedicine App Features
A complete Telemedicine app is equipped with features for both patients & doctors.
Features for patients
1. Registration/Sign up – New account creation for patients by asking his email id, Name, address, phone number, etc.
2. Personal profiles- Patients may be able to create profiles by listing their name, age, gender, picture & medical history.
3. Ratings and reviews- Post-service, there would be a facility for patients to give reviews and ratings. This will help others & improve services.
4. Advance Search and filters-Advanced search options so that a patient could connect to a required specialist for his ailment.
5. Calendar and appointment booking– After a patient gets the specialist for his disease, he can book an appointment with him via the calendar given.
6. In app Text chat/calls – In-app Chat & call facility is given for better communication between patients & doctors.
7. Geolocation– Helps to find out the nearest doctor, pathology lab, pharmacy, or another medical facility.
8. Payment gateway-Multiple payment options are given to pay for the services taken by users/patients.
9. Push notifications– The app should be able to send notifications related to your appointment etc.
10. Video Conference- A video call option is given to allow live communication between doctors & patients as well as other departments.
11. Automatic send prescriptions to the pharmacy– Once the prescription is given by the doctor, the app should automatically send it to the pharmacy so that you receive your order at your doorstep.
Features for doctors
1. Registration and login– Doctors are able to login and sign up as per required information.
2. Doctor profiles & ratings– Doctors can manage their profiles & view their Ratings.
3. Schedule and calendar– Doctors are able to make any updates to their schedules & availability.
4. Accept/Reject Request: Doctors can view received requests for appointments as needed and their preferences.
5. Video session recording– For clinical purposes, doctors can be given extra facilities to record the entire session with the patient.
6. Easy to Access History: Doctors are free to view and access the history details of their patients.
Features for Admin Panel:
1. Login: An admin is able to login into their account using a valid ID and password.
2. Dashboard: Dashboard will help to get an insight into the total users, total doctors, daily registration, appointments, payments, etc.
3. Manage User/Doctor: The feature allows the admin to add, edit and delete any kind of user.
4. Get Reports: Admin is able to download all reports data and get pdf, excel files that can be viewed manually and shareable easily.
5. Manage Schedule: Admin can view all the scheduled appointments and can also make changes if required.
Tech Stack Required to Build A Telemedicine App like MDLIVE
Tech-enabled Healthcare Solutions are on a high rise these days. Read this entire Deloitte India Report stating the trends of healthcare IT solutions.
A feature rich MDLIVE live is equipped with technologies integration like-
Chatbots & AI
Chatbots & AI play an essential role in building a telemedicine app that can communicate well between a patient & the doctor. While a simple FAQ chatbot can answer users’ questions about the doctor’s schedule, fees, etc, AI further powers voice recognition, and other important features essential to patients.
Machine learning
Machine Learning integration helps the app to derive insights from massive medical data. This technology helps doctors make faster and more accurate decisions about their patients’ health.
Internet of Things (IoT)
IoT devices like wearables & other body equipment like Fitness trackers, stress meters, and scales allow doctors to monitor a patient’s condition and offer urgent medication or advice in case of emergency. It gathers patients’ health statistics so to allow doctors to adjust the treatment as per the received data.
Cloud Storage
All gathered data of patients will be stored in clouds. This digital data is stored on remote servers and is accessible via the Internet. One can have cloud storage services from AWS (Amazon Web Services), Microsoft, or IBM. They ensure the app is up & running as well as provide full data security and availability.
Blockchain Technology
Making the telemedicine app more secure is another need. This issue is taken care of by Blockchain technology that allows patients and doctors to share the data in a secure encrypted format. Blockchain offers highly secure data transfers and data storage while safeguarding the sensitive patient data hackers are hungry for.
Other Development Tools & Programming Language
Programming languages required are:
- Kotlin, Java (Android)
- Swift (iOS)
Back-end development:
- Programming language: Node.js
- Videoconferencing: RTMP, Twilio, WebRTC
- Chat: Twilio, Socket.io
- Database: MySQL
- APIs and frameworks: Stripe, EC2, S3
Tools:
- Search & filters: Elastic search
- Mailing: Elastic Emails
- Geolocation: Google Maps Platform
- Notifications: Firebase Cloud Messaging
Cost Analysis of Building a Robust Telemedicine App
Wondering how much it costs to develop a telemedicine app like MDLIVE? It’s important to know that the actual cost is dependent on several factors including:
- Technology stack as discussed above
- Number and complexity of features you are seeking to involve
- App Design and its complexity
- Hourly rate of the development team you are hiring
- The third-party services you’ll use in your app (e.g. Google Maps)
After hiring a Telemedicine app developer team, the development process they follow typically consists of these steps:
- Business analysis – creating a technical specification and wireframes according to your business needs
- Design
- Development and quality assurance
- Security check – through various tests
- Deployment – releasing the app to the app stores
- Maintenance and support – includes bug fixes, updates, and tweaking the existing features
After considering the above essential requirements in mind, a full-fledged telemedicine app will take around 1000-1200 hours of development time provided an hourly rate of $50-$80/hour.
In a nutshell, the overall MDLIVE app development cost will fall somewhere between $50,000 and $100,000. However, the price is approximate; you can further contact a reliable Healthcare app development company for exact estimation of the cost.
Build On-Demand Doctor Like MDLIVE APP from Experts
Selecting a reliable company to develop a Telemedicine app for your healthcare facility is a daunting task and should not be done in haste. Telemedicine App Development requires a lot of attention to detail- from the features to be included to the technologies added.
Get customized telehealth & telemedicine software development services from expert healthcare IT providers! Till now, we have delivered numerous telemedicine app projects equipped with processes like data encryption, HD video conferencing, automated workflows, digital prescriptions, digital health data, medical consultancy, and integration with remote healthcare monitoring systems with connected devices for patients & doctors offering primary care to urgent care.
Our team of proficient healthcare app developers assures you offer functionalities like:
- UX friendly interface
- Pure video and audio connection quality
- Precise filters for the search system;
- Secure & easy payment system;
- Safe storage for patients’ EHRs;
- Transparent rating & reviewing system
- The app that strictly complaints with HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) guidelines & GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)
More questions? Let’s connect over a call for a quick free consultation over your telemedicine project!
About Author:
Rashmi Kanti is a passionate content writer & a blogger having written numerous blogs for IT domain. Being into the Blogging world for the past 4 years, she is presently contributing technology loaded articles & blogs regularly to QSS Technosoft. Rashmi has a proficient knowledge of the latest market trends in the mobile & web applications and expresses herself a big technology geek.