Do you work in the medical field and want to improve the quality and productivity of your services? Then, creating a doctor’s appointment app or a web platform should be on your to-do list.
Many patients now consider a doctor-on-demand app to be vital for any healthcare provider, whether they are receiving care at a hospital, clinic, or private practice. The global medical scheduling software market is expected to reach USD 612.5 million by the year 2026, at a CAGR of 12.7%.
Let’s talk more about the doctor appointment app: importance, key features, and how making your own doctor appointment app.
Doctor Appointment App Features That You Must Have
Any medical app must include core health app features that tackle the key consumers’ problems to be effective. Similarly, a medical appointment app needs to have some unique built-in functions to match users’ expectations.
Online and Offline Doctor Appointment Scheduling
Online and offline booking capabilities that are straightforward and always work the first time should be the foundation of any doctor appointment management app. You should have elements like appointment status and a fully functional calendar. 72% of patients and 60% of healthcare professionals say online appointment booking platforms encourage patients to keep appointments.
Admin Panel For Mobile App
An admin panel for managing doctor and patient profiles should be included in an online clinic appointment system. If any updates to anyone’s profile on the network are required, the system should have a notice module.
Doctor Profile
A doctor module dedicated to profile building and revision should be available. There should be information available about the doctor’s specialty, location, images of them, patient reviews, and how much an appointment costs under various insurance plans. 57% of consumers go online when searching for a new healthcare provider.
Doctor Listings with Search and Filters
It’s also critical that your app has extensive doctor listings, as well as search and filtering capabilities. If you need to discover an expert, you can tailor your search and narrow down the options in seconds.
Patient Profiles
Personal information should be included in patient profiles so that doctors can acquaint themselves with a case history before seeing the patient for the first time. The ability to upload and scan documents would be useful.
Map Integration
The Map API can be readily integrated into the app to make it easier for users to get to the hospital for doctor visits. Users can see it when selecting a doctor because the location is important to patients.
Reminders & Notifications
To ensure that no appointment is missed, your physician scheduling software should include fully functional appointment email, phone, or app reminders and push notifications.
E-Prescriptions Feature
In 2020, 84 percent of all prescriptions were e-prescriptions. A doctor should be able to prescribe a needed prescription and receive receipts straight in the doctor appointment scheduling software. The patient can then opt to have their medications filled at their local pharmacy or wherever they like.
Doctor Appointment App Tech Stack
Though the technologies utilized may vary, the following is the core tech stack:
- Front-end development: Angular, ReactJS
- Back-end development: Node.js, PHP, Phyton; Database – Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB
- Mobile development: Android – Java, iOS – Swift
- Multiple payment modes: Braintree, PayPal, Stripe
- Map integration and user location tracking: Google Maps API, MapKit, CoreLocation
- Push notifications: Push.io, Twilio
- In-app calling and messaging: Twilio
- Cloud environment: Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure.
Challenges Developing A Custom Doctor Appointment Application
Data security
To protect personal data, doctor appointment solutions, like any other medical app, must adhere to data security requirements such as GDPR, HIPAA, PHI, and European health laws and statutes.
We treat all health-related information as highly confidential. People expect medical apps to be no less secure than banking ones. They need to feel confident that their sensitive information is completely protected. Diagnostics, analyses, prescriptions, appointments, contacts, and insurance data, as well as any other information considered personal, must be protected.
Accessible Design
Doctor appointment apps must be simple to use and adapt to accomplish their objectives. Because the app will be used by people of various ages and with varying levels of technological knowledge, the learning curve should be kept as low as possible.
Integrations
The healthcare technology ecosystem could include a variety of equipment and solutions. Making your doctor appointment app as useful as possible may necessitate a trustworthy, secure integration of many internal systems (medical, financial, reporting, CRMs, etc.) and third-party systems (e.g., insurance).
Here Are The Benefits Of Doctor Appointment App For Patients & Doctors
Cost-Cutting Factor For Your Business With Doctor-on-Demand Platform
When clinics and hospitals have online scheduling software in place, they can save money by using a doctor booking app. This allows them to better manage consultations. They can keep track of cancellations so that doctors have a higher chance of seeing one of their other patients if someone cancels a last-minute appointment.
As a result, this type of medical app can help doctors manage their workload and eliminate unused time slots, which can save money.
The Time-Saving Factor For Patients and Doctors
Patients save time by using an app to handle logistics since they can arrange medical visits fast and effortlessly online. The doctor does not need to be involved in the online appointment scheduling procedure, and neither do their receptionists or other personnel.
The system syncs with everyone’s calendar automatically giving reminders for forthcoming appointments, and can even send a warning if a time slot is canceled so that other patients may book it right away.
The Ease of Finding a Specialist Within The App
The platform with doctors’ profiles detailing specific clinics or locations is frequently linked with a custom doctor appointment booking system. It means that patients can quickly locate a specialist if they require specialized knowledge or assistance with an issue. With simple filters and search functionality, the app’s doctor profile listings can connect patients with the correct doctor without the need for time-consuming phone conversations.
Expanded Medical Practices Offline & Online
Doctor appointment app development is common, which implies that medical practices have the time and resources to grow and thrive. This type of software can help doctors get more patients and experience by increasing their patient base.
What Is The Cost Of Doctor Appointment App Development?
The cost of doctor appointment booking app development may vary depending on the number of features, tech stack, team composition, deadlines, etc. Following are the key factors affecting the cost of doctor app development:
1) Application Platform or Operating System
The cost of developing a mobile app depends on the platform you choose. There is a big difference in development costs between different operating systems – whether you decide to launch it on Android, iPhones, iPads, or all – will have a direct impact on the cost of development.
2) Application Design
Just like all the other apps in the market, healthcare apps should essentially be user-friendly. The app design should help the end-user to easily and smoothly navigate across the app features. However, finer designs call for higher app development costs.
3) Application Size
Costs also vary depending on the application size. The app size is directly proportional to the total number of features added. Among these are articles, patient databases, doctor databases, continuous queries and reviews submitted by the patients, and suggestions provided by the doctors.
There can also be some features like app messenger, phone call, video call, etc, which are known as advanced features that can add extra cost to the application.
4) Addon Technologies
As mentioned earlier, the more features an app has, the more expensive it will be to develop. Doctor development applications can have add-ons like mobile wallets or car rides.
5) Application Developers
There is no fixed price for a doctor’s appointment application. The amount depends on the developer/vendor you choose. Thus, thorough market research and price analysis are recommended before you choose your app development agency/vendor.
Telehealth use has increased 38X from the pre-Covid-19 baseline. Therefore, it is all the more critical to build relevant applications that will enable the doctors and the patients to reach out and get assistance digitally/remotely.
If you are looking to build an appointment solution for your practice, then you’ve landed at the right place. 42Works will help in turning your dreams into reality. Write to us at: contact@42works.net.
