Must-Have Healthcare Software Features in Your Telemedicine App

What is Telemedicine?

Telemedicine offers a convenient way to access medical consultations and advice online. You may have a doctor’s appointment by video or phone. Instead of having a desktop with a webcam, you can view patient scheduling from your smartphone using a telehealth app. We’re living in unexpected times. Although telemedicine was a useful suggestion ten years ago, it is now incredibly crucial for hospitals and doctors. The transition to it has been seamless due to the availability of advanced technology. 

A person can use a telemedicine app to book appointments online and even have virtual consultations using their phone or computer. It eliminates the need for the doctor and patient to be in the same room or even in the same town together. Further in the blog, you will discover the must-have features of a telemedicine app for healthcare, and how these features streamline healthcare services.

Top Challenges in Telemedicine App

1. Data Security and User Safety

An efficient telemedicine software for providers should protect the personal health information of patients as best as possible. A robust security system should be implemented with the help of groundbreaking technologies, protocols, and algorithms. 

2. Poor User Experience

The user experience should always be taken into consideration when creating a new service or product as it influences how the patients interact with the service and how they perceive their overall experience. Poor user experience will discourage the patients from leveraging med-tech devices completely. 

3. Cost Factors

The cost of building a telemedicine platform for doctors from the ground up can be quite expensive. The technology being introduced in the market should also be meticulously tried and tested so that healthcare organizations don’t have to wait for too long to start utilizing it. Determining your budget will be the best course of action. 

4. HIPAA and GDPR Compliance

There are several hazards to data security and confidentiality when dealing with subjects like data sharing. To gain the trust of patients and protect their data, telemedicine apps should adhere to HIPAA regulations. It makes it easier for medical professionals to work in a secure setting.

Benefits of Telemedicine App

1. Efficient Patient Monitoring and Management

Through various features and options offered in the healthcare apps, healthcare providers can frequently check up on their patients as needed. Doctors and patients can also communicate effectively through the healthcare telemedicine application, and share reports and other data. Moreover, telemedicine service solutions also allow real-time monitoring of the patient’s health status.

2. More Operational Efficiency

The evolution of healthcare apps for physicians has resulted in enhancing medical services through technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. This has led to better training, research, and education in addition to the improved efficiency in professional services delivered by healthcare providers.  

3. Quick and Efficient Healthcare Services

Patients don’t need to visit the hospital for simple consultations that can take place from the comfort of their homes.  For follow-up consultations, using a telemedicine app system is sufficient to chat with the doctor. The app enables patients to instantly get in touch with their healthcare providers. 

4. Remote Access

With telemedicine platforms, doctors who are working from their clinics can virtually provide consultation services to patients anywhere in the world. This is one of the major advantages provided by healthcare mobile app development.  

5. Cost-Efficient

When a doctor starts using telemedicine app services, the cost of a receptionist is eliminated and so are the additional travel and commute expenses. Additionally, healthcare professionals use health monitoring apps to transition from pen and paper to computerized mode, saving paper expenditures.

Telemedicine App Use for Doctors

As the world is living in social distancing times, millions of people look forward to virtual doctor consultations. Telemedicine use has enhanced the management of treatment, the quality of life of patients, and lowered healthcare costs.

Doctors agree that telemedicine integration is an efficient way of tracking and treating chronic illnesses rather than a 10-15 minute face-to-face discussion. Today considering the locational gap, the healthcare app is transforming how doctors and patients communicate significantly.

The COVID pandemic has changed the demand of the healthcare industry. Telemedicine app development is becoming the primary goal of healthcare providers wishing to offer healthcare facilities to patients virtually and remotely. 

Telemedicine apps for providers come with several features that help emulate the actual medical practice experience. Telemedicine software providers can use telehealth software to manage appointments and create virtual waiting rooms. Subsequently, they can see each patient individually through virtual consultations and offer medical services.   Begun initially to maintain physical distancing during the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth solutions grew popular rapidly. People could access specialist care from the comfort and privacy of their homes, and doctors could offer their services without risking lives during the pandemic. This ensured medical care was available for everyone stuck at home and accessible to people living in distant rural locations.

Can Telehealth Software Alleviate the Mental Health Crisis? 

It will not be an exaggeration to say that the United States is dealing with a mental health crisis. Unlike the Covid-19 pandemic, this crisis has been steadily growing in the country since many years. More than 20% of adults in the country have admitted to struggling with at least one mental illness. The economic hardships caused by the pandemic and its aftermath have only made things worse. 

Public health researchers have called for urgent government action to deal with this crisis, as it keeps growing. The main catalysts for this problem are the dearth of mental healthcare experts and the stigma surrounding mental illness. While the latter is being addressed in the media by experts as well as popular celebrities, the former is becoming a major problem. This is where telehealth software can make a difference. A large percentage of Americans live in locations without a single mental health therapist. These people need to travel long distances for any type of counseling or therapy. 

A telemedicine app will enable people to connect with psychologists and psychiatrists remotely using nothing more than their devices and an internet connection. This convenience will encourage more people to seek help and open up about their struggles to professionals. As they wouldn’t need to travel far, people struggling to cope can receive the care they need from the comfort and privacy of their homes. A suitable telemedicine app will enable users to search for therapists online and book appointments with a few clicks. Subsequently, they can have virtual therapy sessions where they can talk about their troubles. 
The dearth of mental health care experts has exasperated a medical problem into a major crisis which has yet to be fully recognized. The aftermath of the pandemic is said to usher in fresh economic problems which will in turn worsen people’s lives, pouring fuel on an already blazing inferno. The adoption of telehealth solutions into clinical practices, especially mental healthcare will go a long way in reducing the severity of mental illness in the population. It will keep this crisis from worsening any further.

Telemedicine App Market Value

In 2019 the telemedicine market exceeded 45 billion USD. This year, we have witnessed a tremendous spike in telehealth app downloads as many people have self-isolated themselves. 

In 15 major cities, a U.S. report called the Merritt Hawkins Survey found that a fresh patient has to wait for about two-three weeks to get an appointment with a doctor. Around 70 percent of those surveyed would prefer an online visit over a simulated consultation. 

More than 75 percent would like to get a choice to text their doctors. Here are some of the benefits of telemedicine from the point of view of healthcare professionals.

• Reduction in healthcare cost 
• React more efficiently to emergencies
• Minimize time lost due to traffic congestion or other difficulties
• Develop better control of the daily schedule
• Patient Satisfaction
• Prevent patient’s data from loosing
• Maintaining the overall work-life experience among physicians
• Additional revenue system for doctors 
• Availability of many specialists

Telemedicine app development companies are putting tremendous effort into developing the best telemedicine apps for doctors and patients.

Features of Telemedicine Apps

1. Easy Patient Registration 

Patient registration is the first step; patients find it easy and reliable when minimum details with a secure authentication process. Patients find it easy to use when the information required for registration is minimum with added features to upload the picture of additional documents. 

After easy and fast registration, patients can select the doctor as per their need and book an appointment. The patients can upload medical records, insurance verification information, and previous prescriptions instead of typing. 

 2. Patient’s Dashboard

The patient’s dashboard is a beneficial feature for the physician to make an immediate treatment plan. It shows an outline of the patient’s medical and personal information making diagnosis easier for the doctor. This feature highlights the basics and details and filters patients according to their medical issues. The patient dashboard provides up-to-date information on the patient’s condition, the room assigned and undergoing prescription, and the chief complaints of the patient. Additionally, insurance information, history of visits, patient management, and remote patient monitoring systems highlights are also a part of this feature. 

 3. Doctors Catalog

Doctor’s catalog is a time savior for both patients and healthcare professionals. It further increases the accuracy of the match-making process between the doctor and the patient.

Like a patient’s profile, telehealth apps should also have doctors’ profile features, and the catalog must contain the necessary details about the doctor such as address, qualifications, area of specialization, experience, patient health record, and availability schedule, among others. 

4. Appointment Management

Calendar integration is enabled with a reminder notification so patients can be reminded of all upcoming medical appointments via phone only. This appointment scheduling feature keeps doctors up-to-date with their appointment status. Doctors can view appointment requests and patient profiles before patient communication. This app integration features show the patient queue and filter patient profiling. Also, it enables the doctor to cancel appointments anytime in case of an emergency. 

5. Video/Audio/Text Consultation 

Approximately 30% of respondents to the McKinsey & Company research said they’d be interested in telehealth solutions offering features to get enrolled in online/video counseling sessions and in-app chat with a doctor. The cloud-based medical record-keeping of telemedicine data with HIPAA compliance of patient information and recorded video consultation often ensures app data security. The convenient exchange of patient information with any clinician specialized in the care of a particular patient’s condition, even with a caregiver of the patient who wants the information for insurance reasons.

6. EHR 

EHR integration enhances the feasibility of telemedicine apps. EMR systems keep a record of the treatment history whereas, EHR digitally stores all the data of your blood work, laboratory tests, radiological images, prescriptions, and all the precious treating doctors. It saves time for both patients, and the doctors to monitor the health progress and inspect when needed. The telehealth app, integrated with EHR, ensures streamlined patient record processing and consolidation in one area. Further, it prevents duplication of data from virtual visits. Telemedicine apps with an integrated EHR feature facilitate seamless telehealth billing services and many more such as app data security/ telemedicine HIPAA compliance, early diagnosis, streamlined patient care, and improved patient data collection. They also ensure proper data processing of telemedicine visits, streamlined telemedicine billing, cost-effective telehealth reimbursement, and integrated payment systems.

7. Geolocation 

Present U.S. medical laws require a telemedicine app to link patients to doctors geographically based in the same state. Finding a patient’s location enables the app to locate pharmacies near the patient, provide directions, and predict the estimated time to reach the hospital in emergency cases. When hospital maps and images are available, it becomes easy for the patient to locate the right department. 

8. E-prescription 

It is an essential feature as e-prescription benefits pharmacies, patients, and prescribing doctors by bringing healthcare service faster. Telemedicine mobile apps with this feature enabled are already compliant with telemedicine regulations such as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), EPA (Electronic Prior Authorization), Food and Drug Administration (FDA), U.S. Department of Health & Human Services (HHS), HITECH Meaningful Use Stage 1 (MU-1) and Meaningful Use Stage 2 (MU-2).  Doctors can produce and send prescriptions with no errors with an e-prescription software feature. It will help to save time, along with communication enhancements and patient satisfaction. It also allows physicians to access records on the medical insurance form, providing all information in electronically linked pharmacies.

9. Payment Gateway  

The opportunity to pay medical bills from your smartphone should be a must-have feature in every telemedicine app. Integrated payment systems are needed in all types of telemedicine specialties as they include benefits like automated invoices for every patient, automated appointment adherence, and multiple payment methods. This feature also helps in developing pay slips for hospital staff, maintaining a record of payments, ensuring secure payment compliance, and safe payment processing. For more convenience, the payment gateway feature also offers a user-friendly interface at a low rate. 

10. App Scalability

The patient’s freedom to rank and evaluate their physicians is an essential function of any telemedicine app. Feedback from patients is seen as a crucial component of quality improvement and professional advancement. Moreover, it will help many new patients find the specialist doctor best suited to their preferences. The scaling features’ design should be so that only the patient who receives the treatment can rate the doctor to benefit the healthcare system.

11. Quality Video Streaming  

This is a central necessity for just about every kind of telemedicine platform. Since patients would be having video consultations remotely, the video quality must be good. Telemedicine mobile apps and even computer software that can’t provide good video streaming will ruin the patient experience and could also disrupt the diagnosis process. What is important is that the video quality needs to be good irrespective of the device. Applications that require expensive or the latest electronic devices would not be well-received by users. 

12. Interoperability 

This is one of the most important features of any telehealth software. When telemedicine and remote medical services are rapidly gaining popularity, these platforms must be interoperable with other systems. In other words, they must be able to exchange data seamlessly with other healthcare software and use the same for their respective functions.   

A telemedicine app can be incorporated into broader integrated healthcare systems if it is interoperable. This means it can communicate with and exchange data with other healthcare providers’ solutions like electronic health records, practice management, etc. As a result, a provider at a small practice can offer virtual consultations, access patients’ medical histories while doing so, and manage payment processing. To sum it up, interoperability is a must-have for medical organizations of all sizes.

13. Low-Hardware Requirements  

One of the most attractive uses of any telemedicine app has to be the ability to connect with providers remotely. This can be through video calls for virtual consultations or secure messaging between doctors and patients. Needless to say, such types of telehealth software need to be compatible with most of the existing commercial hardware. In other words, they cannot have high system requirements to function.

Cost of Building a Telemedicine App

• The cost of building a telemedicine app ranges from $40,000 to $300,000 or even more, depending on certain factors such as the scope of the app, features integrated into the app, and what the health organization needs the app for. 
• Technical, regulatory, and operational factors are involved in developing telemedicine solutions, which influence the total budget of the app development. 
• Telemedicine platform development also has a direct impact on the app development cost. For instance, cross-platform development may cost less as compared to Android app development. Both approaches come with their pros and cons. 
• The expertise of the development team and post-development support services also determine the overall budget and should be carefully considered and analyzed before the app development process. 

Conclusion

Telemedicine applications for healthcare enhance the quality of healthcare service for both patients and physicians. Telemedicine apps may expedite the treatment of several medical conditions. When a person receives treatment from a competent doctor who gives accurate information on their symptoms, it is most effective. 

Thanks to these intrinsic benefits of telemedicine, telehealth apps are increasingly adopted by both clinicians and patients. Medical researchers as well as public health experts have recognized the role that telemedicine can play in the United States. It has the potential to address many challenges plaguing the healthcare industry and make medical care more equitable. If you are looking for an efficient telehealth solution, partner with our well-versed team of experts at OSP for comprehensive expertise in telemedicine app development.

References:

https://spdload.com/blog/telemedicine-app-development/#scroll-nav__3

https://stfalcon.com/en/blog/post/telemedicine_app_development

https://www.cabotsolutions.com/essential-features-of-a-telemedicine-app-to-combat-the-covid-19-pandemic

https://www.simform.com/healthcare-app-development-features-types/

https://light-it.net/blog/things-you-should-know-before-you-create-telemedicine-app/

https://mlsdev.com/blog/telemedicine-app-development