Andrew Douglas

According to a Ricoh Research study, 79% of patients prefer clinics with user-friendly websites and applications – they inspire confidence and help reduce the time to make appointments with doctors and fill out documents. The Russian market for medical IT solutions is just beginning to grow, so a proprietary mobile application will help you differentiate yourself from competitors and increase patient loyalty.

Why does the medical center need an application

Loyalty. A person will more willingly return to places where there is an opportunity to sign up in one click, avoid bureaucracy, chat with a doctor and receive individual discounts.

Analytics. You can upload information for each patient and get statistics on user activity, behavior and service ratings. This will allow you to timely adjust the promotion strategy and service.

Communication with patients. The service interface allows you to collect all information about the hospital in one place, provide a round-the-clock online chat for communication and PUSH messages with reminders, news and special offers.

Automation. The chatbot can collect health complaints, medical history and documents, recommend tests and specialists for diagnosis. During the appointment, the doctor will already have all the information about the person, which will shorten the duration of the consultation and make it more useful.

Marketing. You can implement activities to increase sales: hold sweepstakes, organize promotions, give promotional codes and discounts.

Features of medical mobile applications

Registration

It is important to maintain a balance between expertise, legal aspects and usability. Choose a laconic color scheme in soothing colors, replace complex terms with accessible ones, simplify the user path from filling out a questionnaire to purchasing, and support the person at every stage. The functionality should be simple, even for people 40+ years old.

Remember that the main task is not to replace a professional and scare with complex terms, but to build trusting communication and loyalty.

Privacy and security

When working with personal data, you must take into account the laws and regulations for the storage of information. In Russia, this is the Order of the Ministry of Health on the procedure for depersonalizing information – it is mandatory from a legal point of view. Without observing them, you cannot publish in the Google Play Store and Apple Store.

To make people trust you, tell us about the security of personal documents before filling out your personal account and add the ability to hide your data from staff.

Application types

In the service industry, services are often created for two parties: customers and performers.

Healthcare facilities may have separate areas for doctors and patients.

Specialists can see the patient’s medical history and medical record, keep the work schedule, fill out the cards online, chat and follow the medication prescriptions.
Patients – choose specialists, sign up for consultations and procedures, receive reminders, ask questions to the chat bot and earn bonuses for payment.

What functions can be in the application

The main

  • Personal Area. Fill out a profile, upload a photo, medical card and test results.
  • Family account. Add profiles of the child and close relatives.
  • Appointment… Choose a doctor, date and branch, reschedule or cancel the consultation.
  • Home call. Set a date and address, describe the symptoms of the disease.
  • Payment for services. Top up an account, arrange an installment plan, pay by credit card.
  • Ratings and reviews… Leave a comment after visiting the hospital.

Additional

  • Chat bot. Sending appointment reminders, answering common questions, technical support.
  • Maintaining a healthy lifestyle. Diary of nutrition and physical well-being, a list of prescribed medications and advice for the prevention and treatment of diseases.
  • Integration with electronic medical records. The doctor can edit the records online.
  • Chat and video calls with a doctor. Remotely consult with about the results of the examination and current treatment.
  • Scanning drug barcodes. Tracking the treatment process and adjusting doses.
  • Bonus system. Accumulate bonuses and receive discounts for a regular customer.

Development stages

Analytics

Before creating an interface, gather as much information as possible about the company, market, and competitors. Define business goals, create a portrait of a potential user, define an approximate user path and a list of available services.

AppCraft conducts interviews with the customer, his target audience, organizes focus groups and expert assessment in order to obtain as much information as possible in a short time. This will help us develop an understandable and convenient mobile product that will simplify communication between doctors and patients.

Technical task

Determine the composition of the team and requirements for the developers, set goals, deadlines and budget. The more detailed the plan is, the faster it will be possible to get started and bring the first version (MVP) to the market.

The terms of reference may include:

  • Business goals.
  • The project team.
  • Portrait of potential users.
  • The visualized user experience.
  • Mandatory and optional features and services
  • Monetization methods
  • Technical requirements for interface, performance and security.
  • UX / UI design concept.
  • Stages and terms.
  • Budget.

The description of the terms of reference helps to understand what exactly the other party wants and how to implement it. The more detailed the technical assignment, the higher the chance of getting what you really need and avoiding lengthy improvements

At AppCraft studio, we check the technical specification for compliance with the platforms and develop it from scratch.

Marketing strategy

Consider a promotion plan at the beginning to integrate monetization elements organically.

You can tell about the project using targeted advertising, native materials in the media and blogs, affiliate programs and viral techniques. Describe your audience, explore ways to promote your competitors, make your own plan and change it depending on the circumstances.

Team organization

It includes product managers, analysts, marketers, UX / UI designers, developers and testers. The number of people is determined by the scale, complexity of implementation, timing and budget.

At AppCraft we do not involve external specialists – we have a time-tested team and well-tuned communication. Each employee knows his tasks, is focused on the end result and is interested in doing his job with high quality.

Design and prototype

The UX / UI designer works out the appearance: selects corporate colors, fonts, draws push notifications, buttons and pages. After that, he builds the logic of interaction between the pages of the registration and authorization screens, filling out information, profile, shopping cart, schedule of entries and payment.

When the design is agreed upon, a prototype is created – a layout in the form of master page screens. This is not yet a finished product, but it allows you to see features in action, evaluate and fix bugs before launch.

Development of

This is writing code, working out the architecture and logic, client service. Mobile developers need to know the idea, target audience and be involved in each stage in order to assess the viability of ideas and implement all the functionality.

Front-end programmers develop the client interface and platform logic.

There are two methods:

Native. A separate application is developed for each platform. This is the most expensive but reliable way: you will receive full support from marketplaces, and the service will work quickly and seamlessly on every iOS and Android device.

Cross-platform. A universal code is used for all platforms, but the system will run it as native. The best option in terms of “price-quality”.

Backend developers create a server for storing and exchanging data, choosing a programming language, hosting for the server and API, and building a management system.

Testing

After development, the prototype is handed over to testers – they check every button, push, page and form, find bugs and shortcomings. Testing is necessary at every stage.

Testing can take a long time, but it is better to double-check each page and fix the errors found than to get a wave of negativity after the release.

Important: such specialists should not participate in other processes – their view should be fresh and objective.

Publication

Prepare screenshots of the service pages, a promotion plan and a description. If you comply with all Google Play Store and Apple App Store rules, the service will be available on marketplaces in a few days.

At AppCraft, managers help you pass the test the first time and resolve issues related to account registration and site requirements.

Refinement and technical support

In the early days of launch, keep your finger on the pulse: follow reviews, study the number of visits and targeted actions, the most popular features and user experience. At this time, technical support must quickly respond to feedback and fix problems, remove unnecessary functions, optimize and refine.

Appcraft provides 12 months warranty support. We completely transfer the rights to you, but we continue to collect analytics and promptly troubleshoot problems.

The creation process may seem like a complicated and endless process, but in the hands of an experienced team, everything is created quickly without loss of quality and is tested on real users at every stage.

The AppCraft team deals with all stages of development: from analytics to release, provides prompt code improvement and technical support.

In this article, we described the features and steps of developing applications in the field of medicine. We discuss this issue with everyone separately, so that the process is understandable and suitable for the specifics of the business.

Over 10 years of work, we have created several of our own projects and more than 200 mobile applications – messengers, corporate solutions, systems for banks, e-commerce and social networks. If you want to create a simple and popular mobile application for a clinic, dentistry or medical center, we are ready to turn your idea into a product.

The cost of creating an application for the medical sector will depend on the terms of reference, scope of work and functionality. Contact us to discuss the details and find out the exact price.