Apps and the Medical Industry: Part 2
In our last blog post, we started talking about how apps can streamline communication in the medical industry. Oftentimes, communication is inhibited by both staff and patients’ busy schedules. Apps provide the ability to take some of the stress and difficulty out of this process. In our last post, our app development company went over some of the ways that mobile apps help with communication. We’ll continue this thought today and also discuss how these apps need to be programmed in order for them to serve their purpose:
Doctor consulting
When people get sick, they have to grapple with if their illness is severe enough to warrant a visit to the doctor’s office. Without a professional’s opinion, it’s hard to tell what the disease is unless it’s something obvious like Rhinovirus. An app could allow patients to connect with either their doctor or a doctor from anywhere in the world without them having to leave their bedroom. Most devices today are equipped with cameras, and patients could speak with doctors and nurses via video chat to describe their symptoms. Then, the professional could recommend a treatment option and perhaps a prescription.
Healthcare information
Health insurance can be tricky, and it’s sometimes hard to find the medical facilities that are in-network. An app could help make this information easier to understand, For example, if you need a specialty doctor, you can pull up the app, which already has your insurance plan data integrated into it, search for the specialty doctor that you need, and it will return a list of doctors within your network. The list could give detailed information on each doctor as well as their ratings. It’s just up to you to choose one.
What we mentioned in the last two blogs are just a few of the many ways apps could be helpful in the medical industry. However, unless they’re programmed correctly, the apps aren’t going to be useful. Here’s what you need to keep in mind when designing a medical app:
Secure: Patient information needs to be secure. If you can’t make sure that it’s protected with multiple layers of encryption, then somebody could break into the app and steal information. This is very bad news for your company. The mobile app developers involved should be experienced in security.
- Usable: It’s not all millennials who will be using these apps, but older generations who weren’t raised with iPhones. Make the apps easy to navigate, read, and understand. Don’t worry about the style as much as usability for the interface.
- Informative: Give medical staff the ability to leave as much information as possible. Leaving an unintelligible description of a test result negates the purpose of the app!
Clever Coding is a mobile app development company in Lehi, Utah. We have a lot of experience with medical apps, and we’d be more than happy to assist you and your office with developing an app that’s user-friendly and secure. For more information, please give us a call. We can help make your app ideas a reality.