Improvements in the healthcare field are a vital aspect of the modern life progress. Scientists from different branches become one well-knit team delivering solutions for our soundness and healthy lifestyle. But no matter how great the scientific mind is, it needs a helping hand of the technical sphere — and that’s where mobile development gains strength.
There are plenty of healthcare app types, but our attention today is focused on only one of them — apps managing chronic illnesses. In this case, a mobile tool contains data about all symptoms, medications, and doctor appointments. Your business has a chance to become a really helpful solution for hundreds of users.
US Healthcare System: Problems Should Be Solved
The growing number of healthcare apps is not a fashion choice — that’s a necessity for the whole healthcare industry. Let’s review some data that has gradually led to the appearance of mobile apps for patients.
- First, we should look at the spending per capita for medical services. The number rises each year, and in the US, the stats are really impressive: in 2000, the national expense was $4 881, and it became $10 300 in 2017 (Statista). Less than 10 years have passed, but the index increased more than twice.
- Among all patients, around 47.7% of Americans suffer from chronic diseases. With time, this number is expected to grow gradually up to 49.2% in 2030 (Partnership to Fight Chronic Disease).
Number of People with Chronic Conditions
- Another long-term problem that the healthcare sphere faces is a lack of nursing specialists. According to the research provided by Sigma, at least 400 000 of professionals will be needed by 2020. The more time will pass the bigger problem it will become.
It is some basic information on the medical industry in general, but these three important factors give us a triangle depicting the biggest current problems. Turning to modern technologies seems to be the fastest and safest way to move forward. That is the reason why chronic condition health apps have appeared.
How to Manage Chronic Illnesses with a Mobile App
Generally speaking, special apps for managing chronic conditions help both patients and doctors. There are three big groups of chronic diseases that have a huge influence on the healthcare industry: diabetes, heart diseases, and lung diseases. You can imagine what a thorough work should be done to properly manage this problem.
But if patients regularly monitor their vitals and specific symptoms along with taking medications on time, less money would be spent on doctor appointments. So, we cope with two problems altogether. On the one hand, patients win because they save their budget, on the other hand, hospitals save some of their labor force in the tight conditions.
You’ve probably guessed that achieving these two goals is possible with portable devices. Nowadays, smartphones or tablets are not wonderment for a broad audience anymore. On the contrary, it is the shortest way to make people’s life much easier.
And we didn’t mention an important psychological aspect: people would more gladly communicate with their mobile phone than with a flesh-and-blood medical specialist. Why wait any longer? A new idea for a mobile solution is right in front of you.
Chronic Condition Health Apps: What People Prefer to Monitor
According to a report published by Springer, we now have data on those vitals which are the most important for patients managing their chronic illnesses. The biggest number of patients is focused on three factors:
- Blood pressure (28.5%)
- Blood glucose (28.1%)
- Weight (27.0%)
What People Monitor with Their Smartphones
By other factors, authors meant oxygen, temperature, asthma, respiration, etc. The thing is, mobile apps give patients an opportunity to gather this data quickly thanks to the flawless UX/UI design. Plus, all the data is stored in one place without a risk to lose it among other notes.
But in addition to the list of vitals, there are some other things a patient should keep in mind: taking medications on time, finding a good doctor, remembering insurance details, and so on. Let’s see the list of some great app examples that will inspire you.
5 Best Applications for Chronic Condition Management
Mobile apps have lots of options for the patients with a chronic condition. When building your own product, you can mix several mobile offers or focus on one specific advantage that will help hundreds of patients. Here is the list of the best chronic condition management apps you can find in the app stores.
MyID
This is a helpful app for every person — it is a database where each line of your medical card is stored. When you talk to your doctor or filling out a new medical form, all information you need will be already gathered in one place, i.e. in your mobile device. Imagine how useful MyID may be for patients with chronic illnesses who often have a long medical history.
Medisafe
The way of medical treatment can be sometimes exhausting and confusing for a patient. When you’ve got to take several pills every day, your memory is the main thing you rely on, except… Medisafe can be installed on Android, iOS smartphones, or smart watches, and then they remind you about each pill and dosage. Besides, you can collaborate with a Medifriend who will be also informed when you miss a medication. Such apps allow patients to always stay on track.
PainScale
PainScale is focused on tracking your pains and explaining it with more detail to your doctor: use drawings to express the pain’s location, build graphs to tell about the intensity of the pain, and describe its characteristics. Apart from that, patients can share their data with doctors and other app users, track other symptoms like fatigue or mood swings, and get the statistics on their condition. Users also have an access to reliable tips and articles from specialists.
Fooducate
That’s another one mobile solution helpful for all users — eating healthy is important for any of us. But the necessity of a diet increases by several times when it comes to managing chronic illnesses, and Fooducate will be by your side. With this app, users can both track their food intake and get more knowledge about products, diets, and weight loss. And in case a user is giving up, he gets support from the Fooducate community, which is already quite broad.
TeMed
And finally, it’s hard to manage any medical condition without the doctor’s mentoring. Guess what? Mobile apps can also help to find a specialist perfect for you. TeMed is a huge database of professionals from more than 50 medical specialties. With an advanced search feature, users may look for a doctor depending on the specific symptoms, and chronic conditions are among them. Next, you can make an appointment with a doctor and leave a review afterward to help other users choose.
How Much Does It Cost to Build a Chronic Condition Management App?
Now, here is the most interesting part. After a small market research, you’ve probably drawn an image of a perfect app, but what’s the price of its implementation? Let’s move step by step.
1. Elements of the medical workflow. This is the very foundation of the developer’s work because such workflows include tracking and managing medications along with marking symptoms and incidents.
2. Communications within the app. To connect doctors and patients, a development team should first take a thorough look at the graphic design and convenient user flow. This stage includes appointment scheduling and messaging.
3. The back-end side. Chronic condition health apps always imply some work with the server: creating a personal profile, messaging within the app, synchronization with the email, etc. So, it will be also included in the list of necessary tasks.
4. Integration with medical devices. Finally, you may have an idea to integrate your mobile product with certain hardware. We haven’t mentioned such type of solutions before, but they surely will do lots of help on the field of chronic illness management.
Regarding all the work that should be done, creating an app managing chronic conditions takes around 2–3 months. If we take into account hourly rates of the Ukrainian developer (around $30), we get the price of a new app of $25 000-$30 000. To know a more precise cost considering all of your requirements, contact team of professionals that will answer all of your questions.
Healthcare and Smartphones: A Perfect Union
Virgil said that health is the greatest wealth. The modern world has changed a lot, but we can’t argue with this statement — we only care more about the wealth we have. As more people are diagnosed with a chronic disease, new industries should be involved. That’s how apps managing chronic conditions appeared on the market.
Such tools help a lot those patients who have diabetes, asthma, problems with weight and blood pressure, etc. Moreover, people get a priceless support from the app’s community with similar problems. This way, mobile app development gives the highest level of support to thousands of people over the globe.