The Appinop Blog

In the healthcare sector, the telemedicine app market is rising exponentially. And with currently prevailing COVID-19 pandemics, on-demand doctor app development solutions are the talk of the town.

 

More and more medical centers, clinics, and healthcare enterprises are seeking multiple ways to lower operational costs and offer better patient care. Telemedicine, a subset of telehealth, leverages a wide array of latest technologies and expertizes in offering remote medical services with the help of software and communication tools.

 

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the US established a $200 million COVID-19 Telehealth Program that focuses to allow healthcare providers to purchase telecom, broadband connectivity, and devices necessary for providing telehealth services.

 

As per Global Market Insights, the telemedicine market was valued at $29.6 billion in 2017. It’s expected that the value would touch $64.1 billion by 2025.

 

Take a quick look at the usages of implementing telemedicine app solution

 

1. Virtual visits and remote follow-ups

 

2. Medical Tests result in online discussion

 

3. Real-time consulting with doctors via video conferencing

 

4. Online appointments scheduling for providing medication

 

5. Prescription refill requests

 

But to develop a healthcare mobile app including telemedicine app involves some big challenges. Here’s we have listed the challenges that you must address while investing in telemedicine app development.

 

#1. Safeguard patient privacy and combat cybercrime

Health-related information is too sensitive. Telemedicine apps fetch and store information for future use by medical practitioners and other medical staff. But this comes to the mind of patients that if these health data are stored in a safe place or not.

 

Solution

To safeguard patient’s health data, your app development partner should implement multiple-factor authentication, several biometric identifications such as face and fingerprint ID, and data encryption. These practices will help in providing better security of your app and safeguard health data of patients from data breaches.

 

#2. Win the trust of patients

Another major challenge is related to the educational qualifications and practice history of medical practitioners. Before using your telemedicine app by patients, they want to make sure that the doctors they’re communicating and receiving consultations are qualified enough and carries a rich experience in the medical field.

 

Solution

To overcome this imperative concern, you need to win the trust of your new patients by providing genuine testimonials from past and existing patients. So to make it possible, you need to develop a rating and review feature in your telemedicine app solution. A transparent feedback system can convince your patients.

 

Another solution is that make use of online social media platforms. Doctors can put links to their social media profiles so that patients can look for the same and know their doctors before consulting them.

 

#3. Compliance with healthcare acts and laws

One of the major challenges while developing a telemedicine app for your healthcare organization is building the app that is compliant with laws as per different nations. Different countries have their own acts and laws that regulate the storing, processing, storage, and sharing of personal health information.

 

In the USA, it’s HIPAA. In Canada, it’s PIPEDA. European Union countries have the Data Protection Directive 1995/46/EC and the e-Privacy Directive 2002/58/EC.

 

Solution

You need to make sure that your telemedicine app complies with the laws and acts in the nation where it will work. Look for an app development company that has wealth of experience in building HIPAA or PIPEDA compliant telemedicine app so that your healthcare app won’t face any legal issues in the future.

 

#4. Robust Backend infrastructure

The backend system is responsible for an app’s business logic and for storing and retrieving data. In this data-driven world, everyday medical apps generate a vast amount of data related to patients and other healthcare operations from multiple digital systems. To fetch, store, and process these data is really a cumbersome process.

 

Solution

If you planning to create a robust and scalable telemedicine mobile app, then you must have a fully secure & scalable backend system that collects, stores, and processes tons of data spread across multiple medical systems.

 

While developing a healthcare app including telemedicine app development, you need to opt for the best-fit backend system.

 

The core of a backend system includes:

• Application server

• Webserver

• Database

 

Apart from these, the system also consists of a load balancer and some service integrations such as email notifications, push notifications, queuing services, and lots more.

 

To choose a server, you can either opt for a dedicated server or a cloud server or a mix of two that is a hybrid one.

 

As the name says a dedicated server is dedicated to a particular client. It is a single physical server in which its server resources are not shared with others. Whereas a cloud server is a virtual server that operates on a virtualization approach where server resources are shared.

 

Both the servers have some pros and cons. You need to make a smart decision based on your business requirements. Make sure you choose the one that suits your business.

 

Here are the most popular options for cloud servers:

• DigitalOcean

• Amazon Web Services

• Linode

• Microsoft Azure

• Google Cloud

 

To process server requests, I advise this webserver software:

• Apache HTTP Server

• Nginx

• Google Web Server (GWS)

 

Final Thoughts

 

The key takeaways from this blog include:

 

1. You should have a safe and secure telemedicine app solution by integrating multiple-layer authentications.

2. You should implement a transparent rating and review system and make use of social platforms to win the trust of patients.

3. Your app should compliant with healthcare acts and laws.

4. While developing a telemedicine app, you must have a secure and scalable backend system for the efficient working of the app.

 

If you are planning to step into the telemedicine niche, and want to create your own telemedicine app, then reach out to us. We are a leading doctor on-demand app development company and have rich experience in the healthcare sector. Our subject matter experts are ready to take up your queries such as telemedicine app development service, cost of developing the app, development timelines, hiring dedicated app developers, etc. and help you in providing a digital solution to your healthcare organization.