Now when we talk about technologies changing the healthcare domain for the good, we often talk in terms of blockchain, AI, IoT, etc, but the one that acts as a backbone for all these next-gen technological innovations is cloud computing – one of the all-time technological trends of the healthcare domain.

Cloud computing in healthcare has brought a huge shift in the creation, consumption, storage, and sharing of the medical data. Right from a time where there used to be conventional storage to now through the complete digitalization of healthcare data, the industry has come a long way when it comes to optimizing the data management approaches.

In this article, we are going to look into the different facets of cloud computing in healthcare and how it is revolutionizing the domain. 

What is Cloud Computing in Healthcare?

Cloud computing for the healthcare industry describes the approach of implementing remote server access via the internet to store, manage, and process healthcare data. This process, which is stark opposite to the one where on-site data centers are established for hosting data on personal computers, provides a flexible solution for healthcare stakeholders to remotely access servers where the data is hosted.

According to a BCC report, the worldwide healthcare cloud computing market is poised to hit $35 billion by the year 2022, with an annual growth rate of 11.6%.

Shifting to the cloud comes with two-fold benefits for both patients and providers. On the business side, cloud computing has proved to be beneficial for lowering the operational spend while enabling healthcare providers to deliver high-quality and personalized care.

The patients, on the other hand, are getting accustomed with instant delivery of the healthcare services. Moreover, healthcare cloud computing increases patient engagement by giving them access to their healthcare data, which ultimately results in better patient outcomes.

The remote accessibility of healthcare added with the democratization of data free the providers and patients while breaking down the location barriers to healthcare access.

What are the Benefits of Cloud Computing in the Healthcare Industry?

Cloud in Healthcare answers to almost every point that a US adult looks at when engaging with a healthcare service provider – 

Lowered healthcare cost 

The primary premise of healthcare cloud services is real time availability of computer resources such as data storage and computing power. Both healthcare providers and hospitals get freed from the need to buy data storage hardware and software. Moreover, there are no upfront charges linked with the cloud for healthcare, they will only have to pay for the resource they actually use.

Applications of cloud computing in healthcare provides an optimum environment for scaling without burning a hole in the pocket. With the patient’s data flowing in from not only EMRs but also through healthcare apps and wearables, a cloud environment makes it possible to scale the storage while keeping the costs low.

Easy interoperability 

Interoperability focuses on establishing data integrations through the entire healthcare system, irrespective of the origin or where the data is stored. Interoperability powered by healthcare cloud solutions, makes patients’ data available for easy distribution and for getting insights to aid healthcare delivery. 

Healthcare cloud computing enables healthcare providers to gain access to patient data gathered from multiple sources, share it with key stakeholders and deliver timely protocols.

Ownership of data by patients

The combination of cloud computing and healthcare democratize data and give the patients control over their health. It grows patient participation in decisions related to their health, working as a tool to better patient engagement and education.

The importance of cloud computing in the industry can also be witnessed by the fact that the medical data can be archived and then retrieved easily when the data is stored on the cloud. With an increase in the system uptime, the data redundancy reduces by a huge extent, while the data recovery also becomes easier.

Improved collaboration   

The implementation of cloud for healthcare plays a major role in boosting collaboration. By saving the Electronic Medical Records in the cloud, patients are no more dependent on carrying their medical records to every doctor visit. The doctors can easily view the information, see the outcome of previous interactions, and even share information with one another in real-time. This, in turn, enables them to provide more accurate treatment.   

Enhanced patient experience

With the help of cloud for healthcare, doctors get the power to better patient engagement by giving them real-time access to medical data, test results, and even doctors’ notes. This gives the patients control over their health as they become more educated about their health.    

Moreover, cloud computing in healthcare provides a check for the patients from being overprescribed or dragged into unnecessary testing – the details of both of which can be found in the medical records. 

Now that we have looked into the benefits attached with the incorporation of cloud computing in healthcare, the next step would be to know the different types of cloud computing in healthcare. 

Types of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Cloud computing for the healthcare industry works in two models: Deployment and Distribution.

By deployment 

Private – Only one healthcare firm/ chain can use the cloud facility

Community – A group of healthcare bodies can access the cloud 

Public – The cloud is open for all the stakeholders to access

Hybrid – The model combines some elements of the above mentioned deployment models

By distribution

Software as a Service (SaaS) – The provider offers IT infrastructure where the client deploys their application.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) – The provider gives an IT infrastructure, operating system where the client deploys their applications.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) – The provider gives an IT infrastructure, an operating system, applications, and every other component in a ready-to-use platform.

YouCOMM – A Working Example of the Benefits of Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Being renowned cloud healthcare providers, at Appinventiv, we understand the ins and outs of the industry and the technological impact of cloud computing. 

We recently transitioned this knowledge into an application aimed at bettering in-hospital patient communication. The fully customizable patient messaging system enables patients to notify the staff of their needs through the mode of manual selection of options, voice commands, and the use of head gestures. Through the software, we aimed at breaking down the events of late responses in the in-hospital setup which leads to fatal consequences. 

The result? 5+ Hospital chain in the US run on YouCOMM solution today, while 60%

growth has been witnessed in nurses’ real-time response time. Moreover, 3+

hospitals received high CMS reimbursement. 

Now while we have been talking about the benefits of cloud healthcare solutions, in order to truly understand the role the technology plays in the industry, it is important to know the risks too.

Risks Associated With Cloud Computing in Healthcare

Limited specialists

In the healthcare software domain, it can be difficult to find skilled developers who carry the specialization to integrate new technologies in the industry. On the same note, it is difficult to find cloud specialists in the health domain. 

Limited ecosystem 

The adoption of cloud computing in healthcare alone cannot make the industry efficient. For health organizations to truly take advantage of the technology, they will have to connect it with the internet of things, artificial intelligence, and data management technologies. 

Difficulty in adoption

Switching from the legacy system to cloud systems requires changing the complete process of handling tasks. It is important that the healthcare organizations bring everyone up to speed with how it would translate into their everyday job. 

Security risks

Storing medical data in the cloud is at the center of the technology’s adoption. This, however, puts it at a risk of attack. It happens because in a typical cloud setup, one organization’s data shares the server with other healthcare organizations, and the isolation mechanisms that are put in place to separate them may fail. 

This situation is leading to a situation where organizations are on a fence about the technology’s adoption. 

At Appinventiv, we build solutions around the common risks associated with 80% of the healthcare cloud projects – compliance check, security, and chances of downtime. The fact that we merge the features and challenges of mHealth app development so seamlessly makes us the true healthcare solution partners for hospitals across the globe.

Also Read: mHealth app development guide 2021-22

The post The Role of Cloud Computing in Transforming the Healthcare Industry appeared first on Appinventiv.

 A report by the Anxiety and Depression Association of America shows that 40 million adults in the US suffer from anxiety disorders. And nearly 75% of people with mental disorders go untreated in developing countries.

All this considered, it’s no surprise that the demand for mental health apps is growing every year. Between 2014 and 2018, the demand for mental health apps in the UK increased 566%. According to a recent study by Acumen Research and Consulting, the global mental health app market is expected to reach $3.7 billion by 2027. 

Mental health apps have become a real lifesaver, both for patients and healthcare professionals. Apps like Calm and Headspace help users to cultivate positive thinking and relax and relieve stress. A few other mental health apps also add the element of gamification to attract users and divert them from self-destructive thoughts. 

As per the latest stats, there are up to 20,000 apps for mental health in the market, and many of the most popular apps have millions of users. Moreover, as per Statista, the leading mental wellness apps were installed 215 thousand times in the United States from November 3 to November 5, 2020.

The stats above prove that the demand for mental health apps is continuously rising because of the exceptional benefits and functionalities they offer. 

In this article, we are listing the different mental health app ideas you can take inspiration from for your startup. 

However, before we get to the interesting app ideas, let’s look into the major reasons for developing a mental health app. 

Reasons to build a mental health app

Mental healthcare apps provide benefits to both patients and healthcare professionals. While patients get timely care even in remote areas, doctors and therapists can reach more patients in less time. Moreover, mobile apps make it easier to obtain data, speed up decision making and allow doctors to reach more patients in less time. 

On that note, we have listed a few benefits of developing a mental health app.

1. Immediate access to mental healthcare: Gone are the days when one had to make physical visits to clinics or offices to meet a therapist or medical counselor. Mental healthcare apps have replaced physical visits with digital visits. Patients can now easily search for therapists and schedule video or audio calls at their convenience. Therapists can also accept or reschedule the appointments as per their schedule.

2. Reduce stress for employees: Mental health apps that target stress, anxiety, or depression are essential for working professionals. As per a report by Lyra Health, one-quarter of employees in the US say their mental health has deteriorated during Covid-19, and 40% are dealing with mental conditions like stress or anxiety.
To help reduce stress for employees, many companies are turning to mental health apps and contributing to the overall mental health well-being of their employees.

3. Help in treatment: Mental health apps are useful for data recording and monitoring. Sometimes even doctors and psychotherapists advise the patients to use such applications. Later, the medical personnel can analyze the data and take correct treatment measures.

4. Timely care at even remote locations: By scheduling video calls with a therapist, the majority of people at faraway locations get timely care without having to travel to clinics or hospitals. Moreover, users can get important tips and precautions related to mental health through push notifications.

5. Effective promotional tool: Mental health apps can be used as an effective promotional tool. By integrating the push-notification system, you can inform the patients about their appointments, reports, as well as share special offers, news, and promotions. This way, you can convert a one-time user into a loyal user. 

6. Immediate feedback from users: With the help of a mental health app, a patient can provide feedback digitally according to the rendered service. Once the feedback is received, healthcare providers can get started with what can be done to improve services and create a better user experience.

Types of mental health apps

The mental health app industry is quite diverse. There is a gamut of apps that target different people with various issues and disorders. In this section, we’ll cover the most widespread types of mental health apps. So, let’s begin! 

1. Anxiety, stress, and mood control apps: Anxiety, depression, and mood swings are some of the most common health issues of an individual. A report published by Single Care states 62 percent of people in the US suffer from anxiety. Another report by WHO says approximately 280 million people in the world have depression.

Mental health apps can help patients cope with such mental issues. These types of apps include self-assessment features like questionnaires and journaling. This helps users understand their mental state and take immediate measures. These apps also come with video and audio call features to connect patients and therapists. These apps sometimes also feature emergency lines for consultancy and ambulances.

For instance, Dare is a popular mental health app that helps deal with panic attacks and offers recovery challenges.

2. Mental disorder apps: These types of apps can help people deal with mental disorders like bipolar, OCD, schizophrenia, and others. While a few apps are built on the principle of exchanging messages or calls with doctors, others offer self-guided mood training programs and elements of gamification.

These apps generally offer 24*7 specialized support by healthcare professionals, thereby bringing maximum benefit to users. Such apps also provide a platform for people to connect and share feelings with those going through the same experience. 

3. Self-improvement apps: Self-improvement apps are created for users who want to monitor their mood swings, cultivate positive thinking, and break bad habits. Meditation is often the heart of such apps. For example, Calm uses meditation techniques as its core features since many people find them effective for eliminating negative thoughts and reducing stress.

A few apps also offer a list of psychologists and counselors for those who want to take professional help for self-improvement. 

Moving forward, we will see a few trending mental health app ideas for your startup.

Trending mental health app ideas for startups

Now that we have seen the types of mental health apps, it’s time to take a look at a few trending app ideas addressing mental health issues.

1. App for women’s well-being: If you’re concerned about women’s health and well-being, then this mental health startup idea is just perfect for your startup. You can develop an app to track mood swings and menstrual cycles of women. The app can also provide lists of therapists, doctors, and so on. You can also include text and video chat, where women can get consultations about any mental health issue. You can also offer guided meditation to help them relax and reduce mental stress.

2. Sleep app: These apps are perfect for people who have deep trouble having a good night’s sleep. Sleep apps help ease your stress and anxiety so that you can finally rest and wake up feeling refreshed. Users can select some relaxing music and audio to get a peaceful sleep.

For instance, Headspace offers guided meditation programs to help you drift off into a deep sleep.

3. Virtual therapy app: With the online therapy app, treatment is accessible to everyone. People suffering from anxiety, stress, or other mental health disorders can easily discuss their issues with a therapist from the comfort of their homes.

Such business ideas for mental health can also eliminate the patients’ hesitation to talk in person about their health matters. Patients can communicate with health experts using messaging or video call features. With the help of such apps, health professionals can also connect with other health experts and reach more customers. 

For instance, Talk Space is a popular virtual therapy app that connects you to a wide network of mental health professionals. Instead of going to an office and waiting around to be seen, Talk Space allows you to send texts, audio messages, or video calls at your convenience.

4. Emotional wellness apps: These apps can help users weather the ups and downs of feelings and thoughts and stress less. These apps can offer tools to users to manage anxiety and identify triggers so they won’t trip them up in the future. Emotional wellness apps can offer relaxing mindfulness exercises and music to keep users grounded, centered, and in touch with their emotional well-being.

5. Meditation and mindfulness apps: Meditation and mindfulness apps have gained huge popularity, especially after the outbreak of the pandemic. Millions of people had to stay at home and look for new ways to overcome stress and anxiety. During this time, meditation apps turned out to be the perfect solution. These apps help people meditate to reduce stress, get grounded, remove negativity, and understand their feelings better. So, taking into account the current pandemic situation, this is the perfect app idea for mental health tech startups.

6. Self-improvement apps: The self-improvement apps market is really diverse. There are apps for increasing patience, building self-confidence, overcoming fears, relieving mental stress, and more. Such apps can include mental health app features like live coaching sessions with mentors and therapists, pre-recorded courses with step-by-step video guides, and goal settings.

For instance, Happify offers science-based activities, guided meditations, and games that help reduce stress, overcome negative thoughts, and build greater resilience.  

7. Mood and symptoms tracking app: Such types of apps can help track the mood and symptoms of users. You can offer users to take assessment tests on a regular basis to understand their mood and current mental status. You can also include features like guided meditation so that users can better understand their initial feeling.

You can also allow people to jot down their thoughts or keep a detailed private journal. They can also log their activities from day to day and then track how these activities affect their mood over time. You can allow people to see their mood swings on a calendar or graph for easy tracking.

So, these were a few unique mental health startup ideas that you can choose for your next project. Now moving forward, let’s jump into how you can build a mental health app.

How to build a mental health app?

When planning to create a mental health mobile app, make sure to keep the interface user-friendly and don’t add unnecessary data and functionality. Below are the steps on how to start a mental health business. 

1. Choose the target audience and platform: The first step is to choose your target audience and mental health app platforms. You need to decide whether your app is for children, youth, senior citizens, and so on. Or you can target the general population. This will certainly help to know more about your potential users to design relevant experiences. Once you decide the target audience, choose the platform for your application. You can launch your app on Android, iOS, or even choose a cross-platform option. 

2. Conduct competitor and market research: When creating an app for mental health, it’s vital to study your competitors. Usually, it’s recommended to do in-depth research on the apps that are successful in your niche. However, you must also check out apps that failed, as they might offer valuable lessons. Competitor analysis will help define best and worst practices in your niche.

3. Hire a reliable app development company: Hire a reliable app development company with expertise in multiple domains. Choosing an app development company will ensure that the quality of service is not compromised.

A mobile app development company has a team of UI/UX designers, expert mental health app developers, and market specialists who offer competent suggestions and always take your vision into account. The company also provides access to the newest technologies and offers the latest industry expertise.

4. Build an MVP:  Minimum Viable Product or MVP is the first version of a product with minimal features. It helps determine whether the product has the potential to succeed. Moreover, MVP software development allows users to share their experience with your app, telling what functionality they would like you to add to your product. For a successful MVP development, hire a product development agency that can help bring your product to life.

5. Testing: Testing can’t be overlooked, especially when we are talking about apps for issues as sensitive as mental health. Test everything from user experience, user interface, to content. Proper testing will help identify bugs, shorten the development time and cost, and greatly improve your reputation as a service provider.

6. Release and keep updating: Once your application has been thoroughly tested, it’s ready to welcome users. Now it’s time to track its performance with the in-app analytics tools you implemented during development, address user concerns and requests, and introduce updates to keep users engaged.

Real-world examples of top Mental Health Apps

Let’s take a look at a few mental health apps that have impressed users with their innovative features and functionalities.

1. Calm: The app aims to reduce anxiety, improve sleep, and promote mindfulness. Calm provides meditation that focuses on relaxation and sleep. The app can be used by both beginners and those who already use meditation. The meditation sessions range from 3 minutes to over an hour.

2. Headspace: Headspace uses mindfulness and meditation to help people build relationships, reduce stress, and promote restful sleep. Headspace offers meditation for creativity, workplace, body positivity, and focus, among others.

3. MindDoc: MindDoc is a mood journal that asks users questions three times per day to track their emotional health. The app provides in-depth statistics on mood and symptom changes over time. MindDoc also offers meditation sessions, courses, and other resources that aim to improve a person’s emotional health.

4. Anxiety Relief Hypnosis: Anxiety Relief Hypnosis is an app that may help improve relaxation and reduce anxiety. The app allows people to loop relaxing background noises and sessions while they are sleeping.

5. Mindshift CBT: The MindShift CBT app was created to provide anxiety relief using CBT tools to adjust thinking and behaviors. The app claims to help tackle worry, panic, perfectionism, social anxiety, and phobias.

FAQs

Q1. How much does it cost to build a mental health app?

Ans. The cost of building a mental health app depends on several factors such as choice of mental health platforms, location of app developers, mental health app features, etc. However, the average cost can be somewhere between $40,000 to $80,000. 

Q2. How long does it take to build a mental healthcare app?

Ans. On average, the development of mental health apps can take anywhere between three months to one year, depending on the structure of your project and the complexity of the app.

Q3. How do you build a mental health app?

For starting a mental health business, you need to hire an experienced mobile app development company. Share your mental health business ideas with them. They can provide you with the right consultation in terms of the required technologies, features, and functionality for your app.

How can Appinventiv help in your app development journey?

As a reliable healthcare application development company, we have developed many apps for our users. We have a highly skilled team of mental health app developers who have mastered the technologies needed to develop innovative mental healthcare apps. 

So, in case you are starting a mental health business and have an amazing app idea in your mind, feel free to contact us. Our experts will offer the best healthcare mobile app development services and bring your idea to life. 

The post Top Mental Health App Ideas for Startups appeared first on Appinventiv.

While both Android and iOS are the most preferred platforms for healthcare app development, the latter has gained more popularity in recent years due to several benefits such as high revenue, enhanced security and less development time. If we talk about the latest stats, there were 53,979 iOS healthcare apps in the Apple App Store globally in the first quarter of 2021. Talking about Android apps,  there were 53,054 healthcare apps available in the first quarter of 2021.

These stats prove that iOS apps are more in demand and a preferred choice for healthcare professionals. 

Now moving further, let’s take a look at a few healthcare startups that have impressed users with their innovative app ideas.

1. Healthe People: Using this healthcare app, users can store and monitor all their healthcare apps and devices’ data. Healthe People also allows users to find medical caregivers for their friends.

2. Soniphi: Soniphi uses vocal information to provide you with a complete well-being analysis report on your personal health.

3. Teladoc: This healthcare app allows users to connect with doctors or surgeons at their convenience. Users can book appointments and even update their medical history.

4. K Health: It’s an AI-powered healthcare app for iOS that helps to chat with a doctor. The app also offers a symptom checker for free.

These were a few healthcare app use cases that are making big in the healthcare sector with their user-friendly and innovative features. These apps are helping to connect patients with doctors and speed up treatment procedures. 

Now let’s move on to the next part of this article where we will discuss the different types of healthcare apps. 

Types of healthcare apps

Healthcare apps are generally categorized on the basis of patients and healthcare institutions. Let’s take a quick look at the most common types of mobile healthcare applications that fall under both the categories. 

Apps for Healthcare Providers 

• Patient monitoring apps
• Reference and database apps 
• Appointment and clinical assistance apps
• EHR solutions 

Apps for Patients

• Education and self-diagnosis apps 
• Health monitoring apps 
• Mental wellness apps 
• Nutrition apps 
• Women health apps
• Reminder apps

Must-Have Features in iOS App for Healthcare

When developing an app for healthcare, it’s important to decide which features to include in your app. You must make sure to include such features that make the whole experience immersive and user-friendly for the users. Below are a few common features that you must include in your healthcare mobile app.

1. Sign up/log in: This feature allows users to sign up or log in easily via email, phone number, or social media accounts like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. The sign-up process should not be too complicated as it will frustrate your users, and they might end up leaving your app. So think carefully about what information you need from them and don’t add unnecessary fields.

2. Health tracking: It is one of the most crucial features to include in a healthcare app for iOS. This functionality enables the monitoring of a patient’s health conditions such as blood pressure, sugar levels, heart rate, calories intake, etc.

3. Appointment Booking: It is one of the most basic iOS healthcare app features to find and book appointments with doctors. This functionality will help patients to easily check the doctor’s visit timing, book an appointment, and even set a reminder. It will make the booking procedure stress-free for patients. For doctors, this feature will help them to quickly see their upcoming appointments and change their availability as necessary.

For instance, Zocdoc is a popular mobile app for iOS that allows patients to find a doctor in urgency and book appointments at their convenience.

4. Doctor and patient profiles: Healthcare apps must include Doctor and user profiles. The doctor’s profile can have details like their area of specialization, location of the clinic, visitation charges, etc. This will allow patients to find appropriate doctors in their area.

The user profile, on the other hand, can include the user’s name, age, gender, and basic health data like weight, height, blood group, etc. This will help doctors to get a quick overview of patients, their conditions, or medications.

5. Siri integration: If you’ve never integrated Siri into the application, now is the time to evaluate it. Siri’s functionality now offers a better voice experience, additional customization, and more. For example, your healthcare app can allow people to search for hospitals using voice or ask Siri to remind them to take medicines on time. Integrating Siri can add significant value to your user experience. 

6. Video calls: Integration of video calls allows real-time communication between patients and doctors. With this feature, people living in suburbs or far-flung areas can get timely care without having to travel to a hospital. 

For instance, Doctor On Demand allows you to video call a doctor or therapist at your convenience. After the consultation, your prescription will be uploaded to the app itself. 

In case you want to build an app like Doctor On Demand, read here.

7. Online chat: With this feature, you can give users an option to communicate with healthcare professionals who will be available to offer valuable consultations. The chat feature is a great solution for both patients and doctors. While patients can easily send their questions or files required for consultation, doctors can address their issues and upload prescriptions.

Nowadays there are several apps that are used within the hospital to connect patients with doctors or nurses. They help to provide quick care to patients and enable them to notify the staff of their needs through simple texts or voice commands. 

For instance, YouComm is a popular healthcare app for in-hospital patients developed by Appinventiv. It helps patients to send messages to nurses in case of an emergency. In this way, they receive timely care and attention. 

8. Geo-location-based search: Adding a geo-location search functionality enables patients to look for doctors and clinics in their areas. You can make use of Apple Map functionality to add the location-based search feature in your healthcare mobile application.

9. Doctor’s ratings and reviews: Doctor’s ratings and reviews will help users decide whether it’s worth contacting a particular doctor or not. For your healthcare app, you will have to ensure that you have a good lot of genuine ratings and reviews for your partnered doctors.

Patients only click on those doctors’ profiles who have a good set of ratings and reviews backing them. So, in case they find profiles with no ratings and reviews, chances are that they won’t interact with those doctors and ultimately with the app as a whole.

10. Payment gateway: Adding payment gateways to your app will allow users to easily pay for the doctor’s services and consultation. Offering payment gateways such as Stripe and Paypal make paying bills simple for users and collecting payments easy for healthcare professionals.

11. Reminders and notifications: You can add notification and reminder features to keep users up-to-date on their prescriptions and medicine intake. These notifications can be not only time-based but also location-based. 

12. Personal coaching: This feature helps you provide a personal coach for your app users to help them achieve their fitness goals. A personal coach can help you with your exercises and nutrition.

Next-gen features in iOS Health apps

Let’s now discuss a few additional features that can significantly upgrade user experiences and guarantee higher adoption rates among patients and doctors.

1. Artificial Intelligence: AI is becoming absolutely instrumental in various medical spheres. The global AI in the healthcare industry market is expected to reach USD 45.2 billion by 2026 from USD 4.9 billion in 2020. Integrating AI technology into your app can help with early disease diagnosing, identifying health trends, and analyzing massive sets of health data. If you want to learn more about how AI is transforming the healthcare sector, read here.

2. Blockchain: Blockchain presents a great way to create an innovative healthcare app for iOS. It can be used for managing EMR and EHR data, conducting research, medicine tracking, and bettering the insurance and hospital billing process.

3. AR and VR: Augmented reality and virtual reality can help patients get better through the mode of virtual simulations and practitioners bettering their procedures through a virtual environment. If you want to learn how AR/VR is transforming the healthcare industry, read here. 

For creating a healthcare app for iOS, you need to hire the best mobile app developers having a good track record of creating such kinds of applications with the latest features and functionalities.
Moving further, we will discuss the cost of developing an iOS app for the healthcare sector and the factors that contribute to the ultimate cost of developing a healthcare app. 

[Related blog: 10 Healthcare Trends That Will Redefine Industry in 2021]

How much does it cost to develop an iOS healthcare app?

The average cost of developing an iOS app for the healthcare sector might range from $40,000 to $50,000. If you are looking to add advanced features like AI, it can cost somewhere between $100,000 to $150,000. However, this is a very rough estimate. There are a number of factors such as the type of mobile app that you want to build, the location of healthcare iOS app developers, and features of your app that can increase or lower the final price. Make sure to consult reliable companies like Appinventiv that help in developing world-class iOS apps to create new milestones. 

Factors that determine the cost of iOS healthcare apps

Some of the factors that affect the cost of building a healthcare app for iOS are given below: 

1. Features and functionalities: The first important factor that decides the healthcare app development cost is features. The more features and functionalities your iOS application has, the more expense you need to bear for your app development.
So, it is advisable to concentrate only on the core features in the initial version of the app. It will help you offer a great customer experience at affordable costs. As the features advance, the cost entailed in the app development process also increases.

If you want more insights concerning features for your healthcare app, get in touch with an iOS app development company.

2. Categories of app:  There are endless types of iOS mobile apps, and the cost of each app depends on its category to a major extent. Each category comes with its own functionalities, demographics, security criteria, etc. For instance, if you are building a healthcare app, it must possess all the features to make healthcare services easily accessible to both doctors and patients.
It’s crucial for these apps to serve millions of users at once and have a robust security system. All these features add to the final estimated cost of the app and require more development time.

3. UI and UX: User interface (UI) and user experience (UI) are vital for the success of your healthcare application. It is tough to create a simple yet unique UI/UX app design and it will have certain additional costs. UI/UX components such as push notifications, icons, and customization need to be added to your application if you wish to make an impression on your users. A good design will make your users want to use your app more and not drift away from it in the long run.

4. Development hours: The total time taken by healthcare iOS app developers to build an iOS app also plays a huge role in deciding the cost to make the app. The time taken to develop an app is directly related to the number of developers. If your app is complex and you want less development hours, then your team needs more professionals to achieve the tasks quickly. And this means you need to shell out more money. 

On the other hand, if you want a basic team, you need to pay relatively less as compared to the above case. 

5. Choice of app development company: The cost of your healthcare app development will also depend on the app development company you choose. A reliable app development company has expertise in multiple domains and offers expert resources to deliver excellent services. While it will add to the development costs, the quality of service will not be compromised and it will definitely speed up the development process.

6. App maintenance: The work does not end with your app getting launched in the store. There are other additional elements that contribute to the increment in the cost of developing an iOS healthcare app, like app maintenance. Once the app is launched in the market, you need to constantly maintain and update it.

Enterprises need to revamp the app integrations and functionalities as per their users’ demands. You will also require regular technical assistance from professional developers to ensure the smooth functioning of your app. This, in turn, leads to an increase in the price of mobile app development.

7. App security: Many companies undermine app security even though it is essential. Your app must keep the data of users safe and confidential. If you compromise on security, your existing and current users will not trust your application. Thus, it is wise to invest in data security as a major security breach can break your business.

8. Location of app developers: Location plays a crucial role in deciding the iOS app development price. For e.g. the price of iOS app development for healthcare in California is different from iPhone app development companies in Texas. It is due to the fact that services around the world vary significantly in terms of quality as well as cost.

FAQs

Q. Why choose iOS app development for your health app?

iPhone app development is an ideal choice for your health app as it offers several benefits such as instant global exposure, higher ROI and revenue, robust security, and more. 

Q. What is the need for a healthcare app?

Healthcare apps have become the need of the hour because of the several benefits they offer such as enabling immediate access to care, streamlining the clinical processes, saving time, reducing diagnostic errors, and more. 

Q. What are the popular reasons for healthcare app failure?

Some of the reasons that lead to the failure of healthcare apps are:

• Lack of appeal in UI/UX design
• Lack of rigorous testing
• Choosing the wrong app development company
• Not following legacy and privacy rules

How Appinventiv can help

As a leading healthcare mobile app development company, we have developed many apps for our users. We have a highly skilled team of iOS app developers who have mastered the technologies that are needed to develop top-notch healthcare apps. 

So, in case, you also have some interesting app ideas on your mind, feel free to contact us. Our experts will offer the best healthcare mobile app development services and bring your idea to life.

The post iOS App Development for Healthcare – Advanced Features & Cost appeared first on Appinventiv.

You look anywhere, from foldable smartphones to e-cars to mobile photo printers, technology is making our wish come true.

Now we are making use of innovation and technological advancement in healthcare.

If we see the innovation in the healthcare industry today then there is a massive improvement in the system.

Today’s modern technology allows doctors to make a diagnosis without looking at the patient. Hospitals use robots to deliver food and medicine, and surgeons use robotic arms to serve patients from across the room.

This is the reason for the increasing healthcare app development agency in USA. 

New innovative technologies promise treatments that can be used near or at home, support ongoing self-care, and reduce the cost of transportation between supporting stakeholders.

Many healthcare software development services organizations focus on the integration of innovations in medicine and telehealth services and transformation of healthcare industry with existing physical ones through mobile apps.

In the future of medicine, smart technologies such as smartphone sensors, cloud storage, applications, and data analysis will play an important role in creating digital and innovative health services.

 Here are some statistics to notice the growing healthcare market.

• As per reports by Global Market Insights, the innovative technology of Surgical Robots Market size exceeded USD 4.6 billion in 2020 and is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of over 17.4% between 2021 and 2027.

1. The global IoT in healthcare market size is projected to reach USD 534.3 billion by 2025 expanding at a CAGR 19.9% over the forecast period, according to a new report by Grand View Research, Inc.
   
2. The global telemedicine market is projected to grow from USD 79.79 billion in 2020 to USD 396.76 billion in 2027 at a CAGR of 25.8% in the 2020-2027 time frame.
   
3. Another report by Global Market Insights states that the Growing adoption of surgical robots in gynecology procedures will offer significant market revenue opportunities. The gynecology segment is estimated to witness around a 17.5% growth rate through 2027 led by the increased usage of robotically assisted surgeries for gynecological procedures.

• A report by Markets and Markets states that the market for healthcare innovations for cloud computing is expected to grow from USD 28.1 billion in 2020 to USD 64.7 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 18.1% during the forecast period.

Innovations In Healthcare 2022

Blockchain in Healthcare

With Blockchain innovation in healthcare, the ultimate goal of blockchain is a decentralized accounting system that uses an EMR-independent blockchain that controls the data. This will only happen when an authorized command by the government or EMR opens the data store. 

Innovative technology and cutting-edge blockchain-powered ecosystem called CURES Token exists that is dodging a latent threat by decentralizing healthcare systems, helping patients, healthcare app developers, innovative healthcare innovation providers, and devices reduce costs and leverage innovative technologies to make the most of limited resources in their sector to create near-virtual competition. Get synergy and added value for all relevant interest groups.

5G Mobile Technology

High-speed communications and top healthcare innovations are not usually interchangeable, but as wireless technology advances, we are beginning to understand how mobile apps can dramatically improve the lives of patients. 

Qualcomm and Dr. David, Professor at Haas School of Business, U.C Berkley and Chairman and CEO of the Berkeley Research Group, worked together in an article entitled “5G Mobile Impact on Health Care Sector”. Qualcomm Technologies Inc. commissioned this report to assess the potential impact of 5G on the emerging innovative healthcare sector as the focus shifts from volumetric healthcare to value-based healthcare, where $650 billion savings will be generated by 2025, according to Goldman Sachs.

Hybrid Closed-Loop Insulin Delivery System

The most promising breakthrough in healthcare innovation technology will be a hybrid insulin delivery system commonly known as an artificial pancreas. This is the next step in developing a fully automated delivery system.

This innovation health system is designed for the treatment of type 1 diabetes. An automatic insulin delivery system that connects a constant glucose meter to an insulin pump, removing the necessity for diabetic people to self-test and monitor insulin levels. Studies have shown that this system stabilizes blood sugar levels and lowers A1C levels by an additional 0.5%.

One example is Medtronic, which joined the group in 2018 when it received FDA approval for its MiniMed 670G AI pancreas hybrid closed loop system. While this system is not a separate artificial pancreas that requires carbohydrate intake and a baseline blood sample, it is an important step in developing a fully functional closed-loop solution.

Nanomedicine

Nanomedicine is the innovation health medical application of nanotechnology, technology working at the atomic, molecular, or supramolecular level. This 2022 healthcare trend- Nanomedicine can be used for imaging, detection, diagnosis, and delivery using medical innovations devices.

Researchers are looking for new ways to target individual cells with nanomedicine, and research will begin in 2021. Cyt Immune Sciences, a leader in cancer nanomedicine, recently launched a Phase 1 study on the use of gold nanoparticles to target drug delivery to tumors. Biopharmaceutical company, BlueWillow Biologics has developed nanotechnology to fight viruses and bacteria.

A Lab On a Chip

The idea of bringing a lab to the samples was the thought of researchers at Stanford University who recently developed a so-called “lab on a chip” based on the CRISPR enzyme Cas12. It is about half the size of a credit card, containing a complex network of channels less than the width of a human hair, and can provide coronavirus test results in less than 30 minutes. 

The researchers say the test can also be used to check for other infections through the recalibration of the CRISPR enzyme for various genetic markers. 

As the COVID-19 pandemic has taught the world, testing is the first step in the fight against the epidemic. Lab-on-a-Chip makes these tests fast, safe, economical, and effective. 

Gene Therapy for Inherited Retinal Diseases

Gene therapy for hereditary retinal disease is expected to receive FDA approvals. There is currently no known cure for this rare condition, but the increasing innovation health and research on specific genetic causes may soon reverse vision loss in patients. 

As per Dr. Aleksandra Rachitskaya of the Cleveland Clinic’s Cole Eye Institute, gene therapy won’t cure blindness but will help in preserving the vision. But now there are retinal implants that can help treat blindness, and researchers are using stem cell therapy to combat retinal diseases. She also said that a new technique called optogenetics, which makes cells function like other cells, could offer new hope for curing diseases. 

Internet of Medical Things

Internet of Medical Things (IoMT) has brought about a revolution within the health industry. It is used to monitor a facility’s healthcare technology and provide performance alerts when an error occurs. IoMT applications can be used to locate employees, patients, devices, and other resources in critical environments. It is poised to become an integral part of healthcare infrastructure as large companies like Microsoft offer enterprise-grade IoT packages.

The below image shows the revolution in healthcare and medicine in hospitals as a practice. The image shows a patient with diabetes have an ID card that, when scanned, links to a secure cloud that stores their electronic health record vitals and lab results, medical and prescription histories. Storing makes physicians and nurses access this record easily on a tablet or a computer.

What’s The Future?

All tech giants, big and small are getting involved in the innovative healthcare sector. Amazon Alexa and Apple Siri are paving the way for innovation health revolution in 2022. A group of research kits that provided technologies in medicine and medical innovations and discoveries and its Personal Care Kit (CareKit) is proof that investors are investing heavily in the belief that the healthcare innovations sector will evolve.

The healthcare industry is at the forefront of change as mhealthcare and mobile internet penetration increases, the middle class grows, and the world’s population ages, technology innovation in healthcare is changing faster than ever. There is a huge demand for healthcare app developers and healthcare software development companies by the disruptors to bring a change in the market. If you want to know more about healthcare app development, then let us know, we are happy to help.

The post Innovations That Will Change Healthcare In 2022 appeared first on Appinventiv.

• According to Mercom Capital Group, the Global VC funding to digital health companies reached $10.3 billion in the first nine months of 2020.
• With a market value of $141.8 billion in 2020, the digital health market is expected to increase at a rate of around 17.4% between 2021 and 2027. Few individuals can deny that healthcare affects every part of life around the world, including work, schools, leisure, and entertainment. 

Companies that had focused solely on employee wellness during new employee orientation are now understanding how important it is to have a healthy workforce. Healthcare software development investors and innovators expect the number of deals and total invested cash to establish new benchmarks in an environment where launching healthcare technology solutions is growing easier.

Talking about telemedicine, then it has a lot of advantages. There are now gadgets that can monitor a patient’s vital signs in real-time, including such as RFID solutions, pulse and ECG. This information can also be saved and analyzed, improving patient safety and security at home. One of the most notable advantages of this new technology is the ability to provide a proper solution based on real-time information available on platforms. 

Let’s know about the global market size.

As per the below figure and Mckinsey reports, the digital health value pools are expected to grow annually around 8% through 2024.

In this article we try to sum up the vital reasons that lead to the dramatic increase and attention towards healthcare tech companies.

Table Of Content

1. Impact of COVID In The Health Sector
2. Driving Forces- Payment Policy
3. Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions

Impact of COVID In The Health Sector

Many people had their first virtual visit during a time when patients couldn’t see doctors face to face because of the infectious nature of COVID-19. Pre-pandemic, telemedicine visits accounted for only 1-2 percent of all ambulatory care visits; now, they account for 30% of all visits. 

According to technological trends in healthcare, 66 percent of consumers want to adopt telemedicine, while up to 40% of primary care appointments might be conducted virtually. Between 2019 and 2020, investment in digital health solutions soared, from $1.1 billion to $3.1 billion.

The year 2020 will be remembered as a watershed moment for digital healthcare company. Funding increased by 72 percent from a record high, totaling $14 billion invested over 440 agreements, because of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

With $4.3 billion in big tech investment in healthcare, telemedicine alone set new milestones. The total amount of money spent on digital health has reached an all-time high of $26.5 billion.

As per Deloitte, the venture funding for health tech innovators crossed a record US$14 billion in 2020.

Due to necessity and safety, tens of millions of people were obliged to try out this new digital approach to healthcare, and they liked it. Disruptors benefit from this because they don’t have to spend money on marketing to get patients into the market or risk being left behind, health systems and plans must aggressively invest in technology.

Wearables and digital health technology tools will play an increasingly essential role in monitoring patients, offering support, tracking behaviors, and transforming the healthcare industry—all from the comfort of one’s own home. The rise of digital indicators has the ability to facilitate remote diagnostics and broaden the scope of remote patient monitoring (RPM) applications.

Looking ahead, industry experts predict that the next hurdle will be figuring out how to provide fully blended care, which will include seamless assessment and referrals between remote and in-person treatment to assist improve the overall care journey. 

Indu Subaiya, MD, is a senior advisor to HIMSS and the co-founder and president of Catalyst at Health 2.0. He believes that learning more about the many modalities of telemedicine—and moving further than just isolated video sessions by integrating telemedicine into an electronic operating system that matches treatment to specific needs and optimizes access to care—represents the biggest possibility.

Driving Forces

Changes in payment policy from both government and commercial payers are driving investments in telemedicine, in addition to greater utilization. It was rapidly apparent that telehealth might increase efficiency and lower costs while also allowing for more access to care and a reduction in patient demand on institutions. 

By engaging patients more frequently and at a lower cost, preventative care can help reduce preventable readmissions to the emergency department.

Global venture capital funding for digital health investments and healthcare startup funding has risen dramatically to $15 billion in the first half of 2021, propelled in large part by telehealth investment.

According to Mercom Capital Group, a global communications and research organization, fundraising activity surged by 138 percent in the first half of 2021, compared to $6.3 billion raised in the first half of 2020. It’s a wonderful time for the healthcare industry to consider investing in digital health applications as the adoption of healthcare technology rises.

As per the below figure and Deloitte reports, data and platform innovators received US$6.1 billion funding last year.

Remote Patient Monitoring Solutions

In 2020, total funding for RPM solutions will have increased by more than double, from $417 million to $941 million. Changes in reimbursement mechanisms, like telemedicine, aided this expansion. RPM solutions for chronic care management are expected to grow in popularity in 2021, according to the investors in healthcare startups. These digital health solutions help physicians gain access to patient data and enable preventative care paradigms as value-based care gains traction.  

It’s been a year in the healthcare technology industry that will undoubtedly have long-term consequences. With telehealth’s rapid development and increased applications well beyond anything, we’ve seen before. The digital health technology market in the U.S. is estimated at US$80.2 Billion in the year 2021. While this transformation is not unavoidable, it will necessitate improved information interchange as well as increased access to and integration of technology.

As later-stage firms complete Series D and E rounds, the quantity of fundings is increasing, as is the amount. For instance, Ro, a direct-to-consumer virtual care provider, obtained $500 million in funding to extend its drug distribution network, improve its EHR system, bring remote monitoring, and add other features, according to the company.

Concluding Thoughts

Industry trends are capable of both fueling long-term innovation and creating hype that implodes. If coupled with conditions such as unjustifiably high valuations, a flood of new entrants, and a poor exit market, a growing market and rush of interest might signify over-enthusiasm.

Healthcare IT investment market research and fund strategy are in full swing now that the heat dies down, most of it should be centered on understanding and leveraging a healthcare app development services market that is both evolutionary and revolutionary.

Are you prepared for this change? If you think you are ready to imbibe the changes in your app or ideas then you can refer to appinventiv, a trustworthy and reliable company dealing with healthcare mobile app development company. A company that would help you expand your health tech journey.

The post What Is Fueling Investor Excitement In Healthtech? appeared first on Appinventiv.

And this merely scratches the surface!

The next time you walk past an elderly person at the hospital, don’t be surprised to see an RFID tag wrapped around their ankle or wrist. Also, most newborns experience their first interaction with technology through an RFID tag. And the reason behind it is as exciting as it can get.

There are many trends ruling the healthcare market like telemedicine shaping the future of healthcare, AI in healthcare, and whatnot. But the latest technology making the mark is RFID (Radio-frequency identification).

According to Grandview Research, the global RFID in healthcare market size was valued at USD 2.58 billion in 2018 and is anticipated to expand at a CAGR of 22.4% by 2025.

Another research study by Precedence Research highlights that the global RFID in healthcare market size will reach around US$ 12 billion by 2027 and the market will grow at a CAGR of 21% during forecast period 2020 to 2027.

Reading the above data we now know how RFID use is increasing day by day paving the way for healthcare software development services and healthcare app development company.

How does RFID work?

Leading healthcare providers have been using RFID-based wireless communication systems for the past couple of years to make sure their patients are always on their watch, especially newborns who may be abducted or exchanged while they are kept in the NICU.

This is achieved through a simple mechanism. A small, lightweight yet highly capable RFID tag is attached to the baby’s ankle. 

Each RFID system carries a unique ID, and signals are transmitted over a secure network to the monitoring end for real-time location tracking. If the RFID moves beyond the defined perimeter or is being tampered with, an alarm will go off to alert the hospital staff or security personnel. RFID can literally save a life.

For example, mothers after immediately following childbirth, get a similar RFID tag which pairs with their newborns to avoid mix-ups.

On the other hand, another example is of elderly patients with cognitive issues. They are a huge concern for hospitals and aged care facilities, as they tend to wander off-site. Long-term patients with high elopement risk makes it more difficult for hospitals to confine them in the safe zone. 

However, on one side with mobile apps transforming the healthcare market, RFID tags on the other hand are offering a huge respite for health workers who have a lot more to deal with than to babysit senior patients.

With the increase in RFID in healthcare, the demand for RFID systems has also grown in the market.

Let’s have a look at the various RFID applications in healthcare.

RFID Applications in Healthcare

RFID Asset Management

Besides tracking patients, RFID location tracking finds applications in medicare asset management. Considering the high cost of medical equipment, it is crucial to prevent theft and tampering. And this is where RFID offers the easiest and probably the most value-for-money solution for healthcare asset tracking by providing real-time location of the equipment. 

In this era of digitization, hospitals can also benefit from RFID technology by being able to locate a specific piece of equipment right away rather than having to search for it in different rooms across departments. 

By tagging their medical equipment and single-use items such as latex gloves, syringes, etc., which may be placed in a warehouse at a distant location, hospitals can manage their inventory with ease. Needless to say, RFID medical devices make challenging healthcare jobs a bit easier.

Besides asset management, hospitals and pharmacies use RFID for authentication as well. Due to the high cost and limited availability of certain life-saving medications, counterfeiting has become a common practice. However, using an encrypted RFID tag on or within the packaging can allow hospitals to ensure authenticity.

The benefits of RFID in healthcare don’t end here. Hospitals can also place RFID tags on surgery tools, linens and textiles to make sure they are washed and sterilized between patients.

A new market study published by Global Industry Analysts Inc.(GIA) in its report RFID in Healthcare – Global Market Trajectory & Analytics, presents fresh perspectives on opportunities and challenges in a significantly transformed post COVID-19 marketplace (which you can see below).

Infant Safety

Although infant abductions are rare, it doesn’t mean it can’t happen. There have been several cases of infant abductions from hospitals, most of which aren’t even reported. 

As a revolutionary step, TidalHealth hospital (earlier known as PRMC) deployed an advanced security system in 2018 using RFID, with a sole purpose to give new parents an assurance that their newborns are in safe hands.

The infant protection system that they chose would track infants around the birthing unit and throughout the hospital through the hospital’s secure Wi-Fi network. And the concerned security personnel can track each baby’s location on a computer screen. This infant protection system based on RFID tracking system found success with TidalHealth, thanks to its easy integration and sign-on capabilities.

Improving Efficiency in Patient Care

RFID seems to have solved the biggest challenge faced by large-capacity hospitals with limited staff. 

Adventis Health in Los Angeles deployed cloud-based software and RFID technology in hospitals to improve turnaround time by approximately 25 minutes, which is huge in critical situations where every minute can mean the difference between life and death.

Just like the uses of AI in healthcare, RFID not only boosts efficiency around operating rooms but also makes blood sampling and medication administration quicker, allowing health workers to attend to more patients within the stipulated time.

RFID streamlines the process right from the patient registration through pre-op assessment and surgery to post-op recovery. Each patient that walks in through the door receives an RFID-based wristband that syncs with the workflow software through Wi-Fi. 

The strategically placed sensors across the waiting area then tracks the patient’s location in real-time. If a patient waits longer than they should, the system informs the staff about it so that they can arrange alternatives to avoid extended waiting times.

These RFID-enabled systems can also be configured to send direct alerts to smartphones to provide patient workflow information, following which, the concerned person makes suitable arrangements beforehand to avoid a lapse. 

For example, the system alerts the staff regarding the recovery room that is about to fill up or an operating room that requires cleaning and sanitation.

Temperature and Humidity Monitoring with RFID

Food, vaccine and medication storage needs to be at a certain temperature to preserve the integrity or efficacy of the product. Therefore, it becomes crucial to monitor temperature and humidity inside storage units at all times. 

Using a combination of RFID and Wi-Fi, Covenant Health deployed an advanced system across their seven hospitals to monitor humidity and temperature in refrigerators, storage units and even operating rooms.

It eliminates the need to monitor temperatures manually, which may not be the best utilisation of their time. By automating temperature tracking, it’s easier to meet compliance and protect perishable assets.

The RFID-enabled tag transmits the temperature readings to the cloud-based software in real time. If the temperatures go above or below the recommended range, the hospital staff will be notified via text or email alerts.

Apart from these applications, RFIDs can also be deployed to measure the performance of doctors and nurses. For instance, how long does a doctor take to perform a surgery or how many patients have been administered medication by the nurse or to measure their overall responsiveness to emergency events.

Closing Words

RFIDs can be used in various combinations with existing systems to improve the way healthcare facilities improve, saving the time and effort of health workers while ensuring proper care for the patient. 

The possibilities are endless, and at any rate, we are hoping to witness more technological wonders in the field of healthcare software development services. 

With increased patient safety, healthcare compliances, decreased turnaround time, and efficient administration, are only some of the benefits that are listed here. The scope for improvement and new inventions are vast, which the RFID healthcare solutions are coming up with. 

So, if you have any doubts or questions, or want to add something here, plz contact us. 

You can also contact our healthcare app development agency in USA in case you are wanting to know more about healthcare related services and apps.

The post What are the Benefits of RFID Solutions in the Healthcare Sector appeared first on Appinventiv.

New-age healthcare space or digital health ecosystem, as it’s usually called, is engineered to keep patients on a pedestal. The transformation of healthcare has created an ecosystem where every medical industry stakeholder and process has been operating to keep patients at the center stage. 

While this patient-first system is coming organically to the caregivers, insurers – the third key stakeholder of the healthcare sector – are finding the transition a bit challenging. In this article, we are going to look into the capabilities that payers need to inhibit to survive the growing competitiveness in the digital health insurance world. 

The insurance industry is staring at a cultural shift that will put people’s well-being at a primary stage. The shift has forced the sector to move from paying financial compensation to injury, illness, or loss towards the end goal of mitigating or preventing them. 

A key role in bringing this shift to health insurance digital transformation has been brought along by technology adoption by every custom healthcare software development company. 

In this article, we will dive into the technologies insurance companies can adopt in the digital health services landscape. But first, let us look into the benefits that would make the domain an active participant in the changing landscape of digital transformation in healthcare. 

The Benefits of a Digitalized Insurance Sector 

1.  Digital solutions help people make healthy decisions

Digital healthcare solutions powered by wearables and insurance-inclined apps help people: prevent diseases, better diagnostic, manage a chronic condition, limit lifestyle risks. A number of modern users expect their health and care providers, insurers to provide them digital wellness solutions. 

New-gen insurers, by offering consumer-centric programs like health quantification, etc. can meet this consumer expectation.

2.  Digital platforms help insurers connect with the users

Digital tools and digital health platforms provide insurers the ability to give their clients a welcoming, interactive platform using which the insurers can create an ‘I care’ strategy. The platforms do not just act as a mode to have positive interactions with the customer but also gather data that can help make processes and values efficient. 

3.  Insurance digitalization help lower risk and cost

Digital healthcare services help make a detailed picture of users’ overall health. Upon the data, the insurers can create an approach that can be used for personalizing premiums through dynamic pricing. The data-driven approach also enables risk assessment that enables accelerated underwriting. 

According to a Capgemini report, the use of data-driven assessment helps insurers adopt a more value-driven care model where the digital tools provide a transparent picture of the dynamic pricing model. 

4.  Digitalization in the insurance space optimize customer experience 

Digital space helps healthcare insurance service providers optimize the customers’ experience by increasing the number of touchpoints and providing new services. Here are some of the use cases of how it happens:

• Digital health insurance plans for managing personal health 
• Virtual healthcare delivery 
• Connected vehicle and smart-home solutions 
• Voice technology for advising customers. 

5.   Digital tools can secure data dominance

The insurance sector is producing more data than ever before. They have been building and scaling big data ecosystems to create visualized data sets that can suggest benefits plans according to the success factors. 

Providers and healthcare app developers that are best able to use big data are delivering personalized customer experience, bettering retention, and are creating more accurate quotes – all at a lot faster speed compared to traditional approaches. 

These and a plethora of other benefits are a guarantee that is dependent on the adoption of a new-gen technology set. Technology in health insurance has become a driving force that can take the domain towards end-to-end digitalization. 

Let us take a closer look at some of the technologies we suggest our insurance sector partners, in our capacity as a healthcare app development company USA and India, to integrate into their solutions. 

3 Technologies Aiding Insurance Digitalization

Machine learning 

Insurers, as they process claims, gather a large amount of data from multiple sources. Incorporation of machine learning in the process and healthcare mobility solutions can help build customer relationship management systems that offer targeted service and eliminate churn.  

The industry is also exploring ways to use the technology for helping doctors deliver proactive, timely, and cost-effective care to patients. 

Internet of Things 

With over 1 billion wearable devices active in the market, the healthcare industry is no more unsure about the technology’s capabilities. The biosensors present inside the wearables are getting more sophisticated to become links in the digitalized healthcare system which lays emphasis on home-based treatments. 

Through the data collected by the sensors, insurance companies can help wary customers of problem signs before they develop into diseases. 

Distributed ledgers

When a patient interacts with a healthcare system, they talk to a number of parties: doctors, pharmacists, insurance companies, etc. A distributed ledger can enable all the stakeholders to be on the same platform, making the interactions and following transmissions, transactions transparent and real-time. 

An example of this can be seen in how the patients no more have to wait for the insurance companies to release payment since the latter is updated of the stage where they are at in the healthcare system.

One of the key resources in the healthcare economy is data – a resource that places insurers in the central of the provider side of the digitalization landscape. A number of insurance companies are making use of data to become active participants in healthcare transformation, while there are still a number of providers who are waiting for the digitalization lighting to strike. 

Whatever the case may be on the insurer end, the other side of the reality is that members are appreciating insurers’ digitalization efforts by increasing the usage of value-added services. For an insurance company, it means that now is the golden time to enter the space. We can help you. 

Our team can help you make an infrastructure that can bring you on a shared transparent, value-plus platform as your customers. Contact our team of insurance industry digitalization experts.

The post Digitalized Insurance: Benefits & Technology for Modern Insurers appeared first on Appinventiv.

Now that we have entered the digital era, we have become more attached to our smart devices. Our smartphones have become such an integral part of our lives that we continue to rely on them in order to manage our schedules, organize our work and business processes, stay informed and connected through social networks, and booking doctor appointments and healthcare check-ups, and what not? Innovation in healthcare has led app development to become both a necessity as well as a luxury.

The Healthcare industry has witnessed enormous transformation due to technological advancement and interference. In the past few years, we can clearly see the role mobile app development has played in the transformation of the healthcare sector. The COVID-19 pandemic is not over yet and the healthcare mobile apps have paved their way towards tremendous growth during such crisis, changing the perception of the health industry amongst people globally.

Let’s catch you up with some digital healthcare facts, shall we?

• In 2019, the global digital healthcare market was worth 106 billion U.S. dollars. It is expected to grow at a CAGR of 28.5 percent from 2020 to 2026, further increasing the size of the market by six-fold! By 2026, the digital health market will amount to nearly 640 billion U.S. dollars.

• According to a report, the Medical app downloads grew 50 percent year-over-year — spurred by demand for COVID-tracing and telehealth apps. Downloads surpassed 3.2  billion across mobile healthcare apps.
• The below graph shows how in 2020 the funding by investors in the digital health industry totalled 21.6 billion U.S. dollars – which is the largest amount so far. 

• According to Accenture, the adoption rate of digital healthcare tools is increasing as we speak and 74% of patients were satisfied with the digital health services. 

Now that we have established the fact that mobile health apps are in-vogue but we are yet to find out how they benefit the patients and the healthcare professionals, let’s find out!

How Can Healthcare Mobile Apps Help Patients?

One thing that Covid crisis has brought with itself amongst destruction and distress is the digitization approach for different industries. With digitization the healthcare industry has improved its patient-centered approach and is maintaining patient’s health while providing a smooth user experience through mobile app solutions. Whether it is shopping for medical products, looking up a healthy lifestyle, or finding qualified doctors these apps have it all! The development of healthcare apps has played an integral role in empowering patients with quick information.

With the help of mhealth, you can find a doctor, book an appointment and view all your medical test reports from the comfort of your home. Due to the ongoing global pandemic, people were also able to video call their doctors and nutritionists to discuss health issues online. People also feel at ease by using healthy lifestyle apps and health monitoring apps to keep themselves in check regularly. There is no denying the fact that healthcare mobile apps for patients are a blessing. 

Mobile applications not only help patients but also allow doctors to gather and store personal health data in a hassle-free manner. Patients can directly submit their insurance cards and other information to mobile apps and it helps healthcare professionals to reduce errors in their paperwork. Let’s discuss how mobile apps help healthcare professionals in detail.

How Can Mobile Apps Help Doctors And Healthcare Professionals?

It is safe to say that mobile apps in the healthcare industry have made the lives of medical professionals easier. Be it emergency response, health surveillance and administration, maintaining health records, clinical documentation, treatment monitoring, or ensuring direct touch-points with patients on a regular basis; every aspect is covered with AI for the healthcare providers to transform the industry.

For example, Healthcare facilities that use mobile app services can handle emergency cases much more efficiently. Upon using the app, it notifies the doctors about the emergency and all the crucial data will be sent to the doctor’s device. This saves a lot of time and the doctor can prepare for such a situation in advance. Also, mobile apps help healthcare providers to speed up the documentation and treatment procedure which can be a lifesaver in crucial situations. 

To understand how health apps help in maintaining balance, let’s know some facts. Do you know that according to some study it has been said that almost 93% of the doctors believe in healthcare applications for bringing a change in a patient’s health. The same study also revealed that 80% of the physicians are using mobile technology to deliver patient care?

Types Of Mobile Applications For Healthcare

• Patient medical health tracking apps
• Doctor appointment & clinical assistance apps
• Telehealth mobile apps (doctor-on-demand apps)
• Reminder apps – include medical tracking or health habit tracking apps
• Medical reference or database apps
• Monitoring apps for chronic conditions
• Diagnosis apps for preventive purposes
• Women’s health apps
• Healthy lifestyle apps
• Mental health apps
• Dieting apps

How Are Mobile Apps Changing the Healthcare Space for the Better?

1. Monitoring patient’s health from a distance

In the digital healthcare era, we have fitness bands that are connected to our smartphones via a health app in order to keep track of one’s activities like the number of steps taken while walking or running, sleep timings, and meals taken (diet check), and so on. Moreover, the wearable technology has revolutionized healthcare by supporting patients and doctors in their critical activities like providing real-time access to their electronic health records, providing patient history, and so on. Also, many devices are present that are used to indicate any body condition like measuring blood pressure level, monitoring heart rate and glucose level, amongst others.

2. Immediate access to healthcare

Gone are the days when one had to make physical visits in order to book an appointment with the doctor. Healthcare mobile app services in the medical sector have replaced physical visits with digital visits. In such an era of healthcare digitization and the use of mobile apps, patients can easily find doctors within their reach and book an appointment at the spot. There are also interactive mobile apps that allow patients to ask general health questions from doctors who are available 24/7 without the need of booking appointments.

3.  Easy payments

Easy and efficient payments of the bills have to be one of the key advantages of mHealthcare applications. Traditionally people had to wait in a long queue for hours to make the payment. Mobile technology for healthcare has highly secured payment methods that allow us to make instant payments for ourselves and for our loved ones. 

4.  Home healthcare is easily accessible

Technology has been the centerstage to revolutionize home healthcare services. Not just the IT industry but medical equipments, medicines, and other healthcare requirements in the industry are determined with the help of real-time technology. 

With the help of healthcare mobile apps, patients can choose for home healthcare. Not only elderly people can benefit from this but also people with different conditions like individuals who have special needs or a disability, someone who is aging and needs help to live independently, people recovering from a medical setback, or suffering from chronic diseases, etc.

5.  Increased accurate reports

Doctors are human too and can make a wrong judgment but the consequences are much lethal. Thanks to machine-learning and blockchain-based mHealthcare apps such cases of the wrong diagnosis have reduced. With the help of machine accuracy and efficiency, correct reports can be provided to the patient. 

6.  Easy access to medical reports

It is due to medical apps that the patient and the doctor can access the medical reports anytime, anywhere. In situations when a patient hops from one healthcare professional to another, this data can be accessed to make quick medical decisions.

7.  Choose your doctor

Thanks to mobile apps, patients have the access to all the information they need in order to finalize a doctor for their treatment. From ratings, cost, expertise to other patient’s reviews and experiences; you can look up everything and make a well-informed decision for yourself. 

Wrapping Up

The evolution and trends of the healthcare industry have been on a rise for a long time and healthcare app developers are only elevating it further. We are well aware that healthcare mobility solutions are going to be beneficial for the entire world as well as the healthcare industry. If you are thinking of contacting a healthcare mobile app development company, now is the time!

The post How Mobile Apps Are Transforming the Healthcare Industry? appeared first on Appinventiv.

The speed at which the healthcare sector is transforming is remarkable. The time when people had to wait for days to get doctor’s appointments for even routine checkups has been replaced by real-time video chats. 

While there’s a considerable amount of positive changes on the patients’ side of the story, the doctors’ and hospital admin side has a similar view to share about healthcare digitalization. Everything from hospital waiting time management to EHR optimization becomes efficient with digital healthcare solutions. 

There are a number of factors that have contributed to bringing healthcare systems from their traditional structure to their current digitalized scenario. But if we had to list down the most impactful ones they’d be – healthcare app development features and the challenges which are making the sector accessible. 

In this article, we will be looking into both factors in detail. 

Before we dive into the many healthcare mobile app features that make the sector better and the challenges in mhealth application development that make it robust, it is important to understand the healthcare ecosystem through the view of the types of healthcare apps.

Types of Healthcare Apps

Healthcare apps are generally categorized on the basis of patients and healthcare institutions’ stakeholders – care providers, doctors, and healthcare institutions. 

Let us look into the healthcare app ideas that fall under both categories. 

Apps for Healthcare Providers 

• Patient monitoring apps
• Reference and database apps 
• Appointment and clinical assistance apps
• EHR solutions 

Apps for Patients

• Education and self-diagnosis apps 
• Health monitoring apps 
• Mental wellness apps 
• Nutrition apps 
• Women health apps
• Reminder apps 

What is exciting about the present healthcare landscape is that this list will not remain the same after a few years, in fact noting the speed at which things are moving, it won’t be the same after a few months. 

But sitting at today, these are more or less the apps that are the most popular ones. 

Now what makes them popular is the feature-set they come powered with. Although no two healthcare apps have the same set of features, there are some functionalities that are the same across a range of different mHealth apps, making them the must-have features. 

Healthcare App Development Features

1.  Health Tracking 

It is one of the most crucial features for a patient and doctor-facing app. The functionality enables monitoring of patients’ vital signs and health conditions like blood pressure, pulse rate, calorie intake, blood sugar level, calories intake, etc. 

2.  Appointments 

The functionality is a must-have element for healthcare apps for patients. It allows them to request an appointment with their doctors while giving doctors a holistic view of the appointments they have to attend in a day. One of the key benefits of mobile health apps in this category is that they eliminate the waiting room scheduling chaos. There are apps like Zocdoc which work solely around this feature set. 

3.  Scheduling and Reminders 

The feature helps patients schedule medicine intake, track sleep, drink water, or simply be reminded of their daily calorie intake, etc. It makes it easy for patients to keep a better track of their health goals. 

4.  Patient Information Database 

This healthcare app feature is majorly used by doctors and healthcare organizations. Under this functionality, the caregiver side of stakeholders gets real-time access to the patients’ medical history, reports, prescriptions, etc. 

5.  Geolocation 

This feature is more on the emergency side of the healthcare system. Patients can use the app’s in-built map integration to find out doctors and hospitals near them when they are not near their primary location. 

6.  Real-time Chats 

This functionality is the most recent one to become a must-have healthcare app feature. In the COVID-19 era, the criticality of remote medical assistance came to the surface. People raised the need to connect with their doctors when they were limited to their homes. The need led to making real-time text, voice, and video chats a necessity. 

7.  Payment Gateway 

Integration of mobile payments with hottest payment features like net banking, wallets, and debit/credit cards enables patients to conveniently pay for insurance and treatment. The integration also supports bill copies and documentation access. 

8.  Ratings and Reviews 

At a time where there are a number of doctors and hospitals operating across every city, it becomes very difficult for patients to judge the efficiency and whom to trust their health with. To solve this issue, the healthcare app development system generally adds ratings and reviews to the list of features. 

9.  Cloud Integration 

Cloud integration is more than a feature for the healthcare domain. It’s a necessity. It is extremely important for healthcare providers to keep the patient data in a secure cloud infrastructure. The essentiality of keeping data secure is also a big reason behind the healthcare sector exploring blockchain technology and its decentralization capabilities. 

10. Reporting and Analytics 

The last in our list of must-have healthcare app features is analytics and reporting. Every healthcare mobile app development company aims for creating a dashboard for the stakeholders wherein they can track their health, patient count, finances, and other crucial sector and health impacting factors. 

These features have emerged as a result of the healthcare mobile apps trends and the many mHealth app challenges that the sector faces. But even after reaching new heights in the digitalization landscape, there are some challenges that remain in the sector. 

Challenges Prevalent In the mHealth Sector

1.  Compliance & regulations issues

One of the biggest mHealth app challenges is following compliances. Every major nation comes with its own set of regulations that a mhealth app should follow. 

The USA – If you are launching an app for the US region, you will have to comply with the HIPAA and PHI regulations. In addition to these, you should also concentrate on the CCPA, NIST, and GDPR rules. 

Canada – mHealth apps made for the Canadian region have to follow PIPEDA guidelines. 

The United Kingdom – The healthcare app developers of the region should follow the guidelines mentioned in the NSCS website to the t. 

European Union – For healthcare apps working in the EU location, it is important that the GDPR rules are met. 

For an entrepreneur or healthcare organization looking to make a global launch of their mHealth app, it becomes a challenge to follow all the different compliances and rules. This is where a healthcare software development company like us comes into the picture. We have developed and deployed over 70+ health apps to give a fair idea of how to design apps that can get live on a mass scale. 

2.  Presence of multiple devices 

With a number of new channels and devices entering the healthcare space – Smart TVs, Smartphones, Voice-powered devices, etc. interoperability continues to be a big problem for the sector. Noting the growth in the number of active devices that patients and doctors interact with it has become very difficult and yet crucial to ensure complete security across platforms.

Reasons like these back entrepreneurs’ unsurity in terms of whether to enter the space. 

3.  Lack of security 

There are millions of horror stories around patients’ data getting hacked or getting misplaced because of un-secure storage infrastructure. Although in books, security is one of the first things that every healthcare organization should consider, in reality, there are only a few apps that take the task seriously. 

The compliance that we talked about in the first point solves the issue to some extent but it all boils down to the individual steps that a brand takes to have a security-first model. 

These healthcare app development challenges together have been keeping the sector from reaching the state of complete digitalization. However, industry stakeholders are taking a number of measures to solve the issues. 

Now that you have looked into both the factors that contribute to defining the healthcare landscape and the healthcare app market size, the next plan of action should be to partner with a healthcare app development agency that can help you build next-gen healthcare app development services. Services that would act as an example for the industry as to how to solve the crippling issues of the sector.

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Electronic Health Record (EHR) is an electronically stored collection of patient-related information. Progress in the proliferation of screening tests, medical imaging, and diagnostics have produced a plethora of data on patient health. 

There are ways to share information across numerous healthcare networks, for instance, providing the ability to offer a greater level of healthcare based on the ease of information availability and collection, to medical professionals. 

Electronic health record systems are a perfect solution for better patient care. These days as more patient data is getting digital and an increasing number of consumers are aspiring to have mobile access to health records, the role of EHR is improving and digitizing in healthcare. 

One can state from the fact that in 2014, almost 75% of doctors responding to the National Physician Survey were found to be using EHR. In 2017, the figure increased by 5.3 percent, i.e 80.5% of hospitals began EHR selection.

In general, the EHR features and framework has constantly been perceived as a surefire method of improving medical care frameworks.

In this article we will talk about the EHR implementation challenges over the years, benefits of electronic health records, and how technology is helping to overcome the issue for the year 2021.

Based on expert opinions, here’s what the future holds for electronic medical record systems and trends in 2021 and beyond:

• A report by medical economics stated that 87% of physicians are  known to be using an EMR system or EHR system.
• According to the dashboard of HealthIT.gov, nearly 83% of physicians were using EHRs in the United States by December 31, 2014.
• Another survey stated that people spend $117,672 every year on EHRs, that if compared, is nearly $31,710 more than their limit.

With the facts and statistics stated above, it’s evident that EHRs are expected to improve even more in 2021 for both providers and patients. But there are still some limitations that are being faced in the current situation.

Current Challenges of Electronic Health Records 

With the healthcare sector moving towards technology in a fast-paced movement, it also needs to be aware of the risks associated with it. History is a witness for incidences where these types of technologies became prone to hackers because of being exposed to the internet without any security mechanism. Despite all the potential benefits that it provides, physicians still have a hard time adopting EHRs. 

Physician Burnout

The most prevalent issue in the current healthcare sector is physical burnout. According to research, an estimated 50-60% of physicians have experienced burnout that resulted in lower patient satisfaction, reduced patient safety, and higher malpractice claims.

EHRs contribute to the burnout of physicians because of their hard-to-understand user interface. There’s a significant amount of time required to feed the data in EHR systems. Due to this, physicians don’t get enough time to work on communication with patients. 

As a result, the quality of patient care is decreased and physicians also experience more stress and lower job satisfaction. Moreover, in multiple instances, EHRs are also said to be a financial burden on both the providers and practitioners.

Interoperability

Interoperability is described as the capability of EHR softwares to provide data and information to other devices so that multiple users can make use of it.

There are a number of issues standing in front of the complete adoption of interoperability in the healthcare sector – 

The issues ripple down to the EHR systems as well where challenges implementing electronic health records becomes a big problem because of a lack of interoperability between disparate systems. To get a complete picture of a patient’s medical history, it is imperative for the systems to communicate efficiently with each other.

Communication of data in an EHR often gets delayed because of insufficient interoperability inside segments of a similar EHR or from the EHR to a different system. There can be cases such as where clinicians couldn’t get to labs for an emergency or a hospital patient from records held in a different part of the hospital. 

It remains an immense test for healthcare app development company providers to build an interoperable framework that enables the exchange of data among multiple providers.

Technology As a Boon for Improvement of EHR System

There are many factors that are affecting the adoption and EHR usability in hospitals and medical care practices.

Apart from technical issues like interoperability, the main concern comes from the issue of privacy and confidentiality and a lack of health information data standards. Technology is changing the face and future of  (EHR) electronic health records domain through automation and data storage and usage.

Let’s see the numerous ways in which the effects of EHR are expected to improve in 2021

1. Combining EHR With Artificial Intelligence and Voice Recognition

Voice recognition technology is a great asset for EHR systems as it helps clinicians to enter information and patient data hands free. It reduces inaccuracy and errors by dictating records in EHR which further speeds up the information recording process.

There’s a track record of Artificial Intelligence transforming the healthcare sector by helping doctors in recognizing historical trends about the condition of a patient and making diagnoses. That’s why several companies are trying to incorporate AI into EHR with the help of voice recognition technology. 

For instance, a physician would be able to ask the EHR system about the last recorded iron levels from a blood test of a patient by using voice-enabled technology. After giving the commands, the system will notify the doctors about the health status of the patient. A working example of this is how  Northwell Health and Allscripts have already partnered to start developing AI-based, Voice-Enabled EHRs. It will be a very helpful system for providers with a very hectic schedule.

2. Making More Informed Care Decisions with Predictive Analysis

The healthcare industry is also influenced highly by the predictive analytics application. From impacting cancer treatments to optimizing emergency staffing, predictive analytics technology is being used in a wide range of applications and will soon be adopted even more. 

Specific healthcare app development services use AI-powered analytic methods such as statistics, data mining, and modeling in compliance with AI to provide clinical outcome predictions based on real-time device data and EHR to enhance the patient experience and care delivery. 

The NorthShore University Health System has already developed a Predictive Engine for Clinical Analytics that works with the EHR system to provide more actionable information to clinicians about the patients in 2018. Known popularly as CAPE, the project uses critical information such as admission histories, lab results, and vital signs to generate a risk score for patients that helps in determining their likelihood of suffering from cardiac arrest.

3. Preparing Extensively for the 5G Network

It’s a no-brainer that the 5G network will capture the major share of the healthcare market in the future. There are several infrastructural updates going on in many residential areas to check the performance of the network. 

While the majority of industry verticals are already prepared for 5G, a lot of people believe that the healthcare sector is not ready yet. The major reason for this incapability is likely to be the lack of compatibility between the 5G network and EHR optimization strategies. In case the shortcoming never resolves, there’s no use of the benefits and speed offered by the 5G network in the medical field. 

However, not all the preparations are dependent on EHR optimizations. For example, there’s a 5G network tower installed in the Rush University Medical Centre of Chicago just because it didn’t want to manage the outdated wiring.

The scope for 5G in the healthcare sector is immense with offerings like real-time data monitoring, telemedicines and so forth. That is why people are looking out for the best healthcare app developers to enable better healthcare delivery.

The preparations for the arrival of the 5G network are expected to pace up very shortly. As it happens, the authorities also need to determine in what way it will affect EHR and several other aspects of patient care.

4. Moving to the Mobile and Cloud

As you may already know that the major benefit of having an EHR system in place is the ease of accessibility of patient data, it completely makes sense that the data will become more complex as the population rises. 

This calls for the need for mobile-computing and cloud-based infrastructure to store and access the data in a safe manner. This will allow healthcare professionals to access the data with a tablet or a smartphone and helps them be more productive in their clinical environment and provide mobility solutions for long term success. 

Moreover, as the privacy and security challenges start solving, a major portion of electronic health records will be stored in the cloud. With that said, the mhealthcare sector will also use gadgets such as smartwatches to upload and track patient information automatically and allow remote monitoring of the patients.

The Future of EHR 

It’s evident that EHRs have already come a long way in the industry. However, there’s still a lot more to achieve and the future holds numerous benefits for electronic health record systems.

Healthcare mobile app developers will be soon seen using the model of value-based health care to answer How to Prepare for EHR Optimization. Do you have an idea around betterment of EHR process and making it future-proof? Share it with our business consultants.

The post Ways Electronic Health Records Will Continue to Improve in 2021 appeared first on Appinventiv.