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Planning to invest your hard-earned money in Telehealth app development?
Well, it’s a great decision as the healthcare industry today is facing its hardest time due to the pandemic COVID-19 outbreak and the virtual healthcare applications are the only alternative with the people to keep themselves healthier and safer.
The urgency of the time and the need for social distancing have surged the use of virtual healthcare apps among the citizens of Canada increasing its development rate from 0 to 60. The reports also state an increment of about 10 times in the call for demos and information on the applications than the usual inquiries.
Looking at the above data, the future of the Telemedicine apps seems to be very bright as people are developing the habit of getting themselves treated virtually through the application bringing a change in the traditional healthcare service processes.
So now when we are clear about the application trend and the possible chances of it getting success, below are some challenges or probably the things that you should consider before jumping into the development process. So keep reading as by the end of the article you will get prepared to get your app-based telemedicine platform launched in the market.
Telemedicine app development challenges or things to keep in mind before you launch your first application
● Problem deciding the technology to develop your application
The first challenge to face before you start your app development process is understanding the technologies that you can use to create the application of your vision. Be very clear about exactly what service you want to give to your customer as this is what would help you define attributes for your application.
If you want to embed chatbots or use natural language processing to process your user’s query, artificial intelligence is what you need to opt for. AI is the most used and widely adopted technology for telemedicine application development.
As there is a huge amount of data generated by saving the health records of the patients and also the information related to all diseases in the application to help the users, Big data is the next technology option that helps you process this data and analyze them in a way that can help you improve your healthcare treatments. It also benefits the doctors to get more accurate diagnoses from the reports that it generates.
The next in the technology list is Blockchain and IoT, on one side where Blockchain helps make the healthcare facility paperless and allows a secure exchange of patients private data, IoT with its special combination of medical hardware and software make the digital cameras and smartwatch app facility available for the Telemedicine app development, thus helping developers to create wearable telemedicine application for the people.
Choose what suits you best and cross your first hurdle of Telemedicine app development.
● Identification of app development cost and resources
The next thing that follows in the list is the money that would be needed to be invested in the app development process and the number of people and the kind of developers required to spend their hours to work on the plan.
From the app ideation process to the blueprint and testing to deployment, each and every phase would be costing you some money that is to be predetermined. With the hourly rate of $40, the app development process can cost you up to $50,000 – $80,000 to get the finished product to launch.
Along with that you also need to keep in mind the cost of app promotion and distribution that would add on after launching it into its respective app stores and play stores. So be wise to plan your money and if needed start looking for the funding as currently, the investment in the healthcare app is in the trend due to the coronavirus outbreak.
There are thousands of apps available in the market, the chances of your application getting the right attention only depends upon what new you are providing to your customers.
Ask yourself, Why would one choose your app over other well famed existing apps? What value are you adding to the lives of your user through the application? Are you making it just for money or your focus is also to bring innovation in the healthcare industry.
Once you get answers to all of your above questions, the next thing that calls for your attention is how flexible is your app for a not-so tech-friendly person to use your service. Well while you are making any application, its user-friendliness and layouts decides the amount of time the user would like to spend or use your service. The way you help you user navigate through different features and the look and feel is what you have to keep a continuous track on even after the application is launched.
Because, if the patients using your healthcare application are finding it complex to operate, they would not prefer using it more often.
● Compliance with PHIPA
Getting your healthcare app approved through the PHIPA guidelines is the most challenging part for anyone who is aspiring to launch his own healthcare app.
Personal Health Information Protection Act aka PHIPA is the set of rules that every healthcare app needs to comply with to get itself approved to be launched for the use of Canadian citizens. The guidelines mentioned in this rule book helps any app to meet the regulatory standards which emphasize on collection and use of the user data that are stored in the application in the form of electronic records.
Any healthcare application that violates or offence the PHIPA rules is liable to pay the penalty of $100,000. So before you make your mind to develop a healthcare app, make sure you study the legislation of the country you are planning to launch it.
● Privacy and security issues
The basic need of any virtual healthcare app is his user’s data, as it is the only way a doctor can treat the patient. In the process of treating the patients through an app, there is a huge and detailed information of each user that gets stored in the application which demands a high level of security walls in the app to roll it out in the market.
As there is a vast amount of personal data stored in the app, ensuring no miss-use of the data becomes a must. In order to deal with these security challenges in the application, make sure you use multi-factor authentication in your app while emphasizing more on biometric identification to access the data. With the high-tech data encryption technology available in the industry, the risk of a data breach or decipher reduces to a great extent thus making the data exchange process safer between the user and the caregivers.
Summing Up
The telemedicine app market is still submerged in many areas, the increasing need for the development of such apps due to COVID-19 opens some new opportunities of it getting into trend and becoming one of the unicorns niche in the app market.
As every app development process has their own challenges, telehealthcare app development also has to pass through the above struggles. As it’s a booming niche to try a hand on, understanding basic healthcare rules and needs can help one make an outstanding product for humanity.
The right use of technology, maintained security levels and a deep understanding of the market can give a great healthcare solution to the patients in lockdown and the caregivers working in the hospitals keeping their lives at risk from this coronavirus outbreak.
Author Bio
Parth Patel is a serial entrepreneur and CEO of SyS Creations – top IT Management and Consulting firm. He has been serving in Canadian healthcare industry for more than 7 years. Along with his team, Parth Patel has earned expertise to brilliantly develop a telehealth app in Ontario and even developed a virtual healthcare solution for long-term care homes.
