One in five Americans controls their health with the help of fitness trackers or apps. During the first two quarters of 2020, there were over 1.2 billion downloads of health and fitness apps. These facts indicate that people are interested in platforms that will allow them to track vital signs, control nutrition, and remotely communicate with doctors. Before starting a healthcare software project, a medical facility should decide what type of medical platform its target audience needs. Let’s take a look at the most popular apps and options for their use.
According to a study by Statista, health apps are most frequently used in China (65%), India (63%), and Indonesia (57%). The Japanese (12%) and Europeans (22-40%) turn to mHealth less often.
People often use applications for a balanced diet. Platforms for monitoring heart rate, tracking vital signs, and meditation are also popular. The healthcare software market is not limited to this. There are at least 10 types of healthcare software that the medical industry can use.
Health monitoring apps
Healthcare providers are investing in remote monitoring apps. Insider Intelligence predicts that the global RPM systems market will be worth over $1.7 billion by 2027. Investing in such software is not only popular but also economically justified.
Applications and devices for remote patient monitoring collect, process, and transmit information about users’ state of health. Here are some examples of such platforms:
Hand hygiene monitoring software
Such applications have become especially relevant during the pandemic. Although hand hygiene is a common practice for healthcare professionals, there have been introduced systems that control proper and timely disinfection.
For example, Ecolab records every time medical workers wash their hands. It notifies users when the next disinfection is required. Thus, the system protects patients from possible infection. Ecolab includes three components:
- Patient directory — A user sees how often a nurse or a doctor washes hands.
- Disinfection statistics — The application records each hand washing and sends reminders to the medical staff.
- Reporting function — The chief physician collects information about employees to ensure they follow the WHO requirements and do not put patients at risk.
Application to Fight Depression
According to the WHO, about 280 million people in the world suffer from depression. The actual figure might be higher if the unreported cases are counted. Many people experience negative emotions and do not realize that they are seriously ill.
Therefore, Stanford scientists are trying to help people suffering from depression. They want to create an application to monitor the state of patients before and after the treatment. They plan to build a device that continuously measures physiological parameters (cortisol levels in sweat, changes in heart rate, and so on) to assess a patient’s state of mind. IoT sensors also make it possible to predict, prevent and treat mental illnesses.
Blood glucose monitoring platform
It is a glucometer connected to a smartphone and an application for collecting data. The application reminds patients when they need to take a test, assesses blood sugar levels, and gives recommendations on nutrition and physical activity. Such measures allow a patient to control diabetes and live comfortably, despite the restrictions. The application can be used by a doctor who monitors the sick person or relatives taking care of them.
Asthma monitoring system
Such a system includes the following components:
- IoT devices with sensors collect information about respiratory rate, pulse, cough, and rales.
- A mobile application that collects and visualizes data, transfers it to a specialist, and reminds the patient about a visit to the doctor.
- A web application for storing medical history and statistics.
Thanks to this device, the system predicts an approaching asthma attack. The patient manages to take medicine on time, and the doctor can evaluate the effectiveness of the prescribed drugs.
Surgery Software
Surgery actively uses software and robots to plan and carry out operations. In 2018, 5,000 robots helped doctors to perform more than a million procedures in orthopedics, surgery, neurology, otolaryngology, and other areas.
Specially designed equipment and software help surgeons manage instruments and perform more complex operations on limited areas of the body without the risk to patients.
Doctor Appointment Apps
When a patient makes an appointment with a doctor and doesn’t show up for the consultation, the medical institution loses money. Forbes states that due to such incidents American healthcare loses about $150 billion annually.
Doctor appointment apps help to partially solve this problem. The system helps to plan visits and reminds patients about appointments by email or via push notifications. The registration form is not confirmed until the patient fills in the required fields (full name, contact details, complaints).
The information helps administrators to determine how long the visit will last. Doctors don’t need to fill out the documentation from scratch, they use the patient data recorded in the system, adding the necessary details.
CRM for Healthcare
30% of patients are willing to change clinics due to poor service. It is important for people that medical workers understand their needs and provide personalized care.
One could manage this issue with the help of customer relationship management software. Such an app improves the clinic’s communication with patients and the work of the organization. It helps to store medical histories and visit statistics, inform about new medical services, and analyze the work of the staff.
If a clinic lacks such a tool, it is worth investing in healthcare software development and ordering such an application.
Hospital Management Software
While CRP optimizes communication with customers, hospital management software is responsible for the internal processes of a clinic. The system gathers information about the employees in an integrated interface to automate administrative operations not related to medical procedures. With the help of such a program, the organization performs the following tasks:
- It plans the medical equipment maintenance;
- Makes an inventory;
- Keeps track of deliveries;
- Manages hospital beds;
- Registers patients;
- Pays utility bills and performs other operations.
Such software served well when hospitals were overcrowded with patients and people lacked ventilators and oxygen masks. The program helped to track the equipment and uninterruptedly transfer it to hospital wards for critical patients.
Healthcare Analytics Platform
Between 2013 and 2020, the global healthcare data volume increased 15 times to 2,134 exabytes. Healthcare is a leader in Big Data generation. Medical software, laboratories, human resources, and CRM produce loads of information. It must be skillfully analyzed to be used for the benefit of a medical institution, employees, and patients.
Medical analytics systems process incoming information and single out valuable data which is used to:
- Set accurate diagnoses;
- Predict the treatment results;
- To manage the inventory and equipment;
- To monitor the state of equipment and for other purposes.
The healthcare analytics market is predicted to reach $40 billion by 2025.
Billing System
It takes a week or a month for an average organization to manually process an invoice. For the healthcare sector, such delays are undesirable. The billing system automates the issuance and payment of electronic invoices. It takes less time and money, and fewer medical workers to carry out this procedure.
This system complies with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) and easily integrates with accounting software. Some applications offer online payments, self-service, prepayment, and consulting. If a clinic has a poor bill payment system, it is worth starting healthcare software development with a project of a new efficient billing system.
Software for Training and Retraining Medical Personnel
Physicians need to constantly learn and improve their skills, and keep track of the latest advances in medicine, technological inventions, and novelties. Therefore, applications providing new knowledge enter the market:
Software for e-learning. These are applications that collect the latest news from the healthcare industry and interactive libraries with a new knowledge base. The most popular are Medscape Mobile, Human Anatomy Atlas, and Brainscape.
Software for practice. Such platforms contain VR/AR elements that help doctors to hone their skills in practice. For example, they can train for complex surgeries or practice invasive procedures. The hospital team can remotely improve their skills.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
An EMR is a program that digitally stores information about a patient. It includes a medical history, prescribed medications, a list of vaccinations, information about chronic diseases, and so on.
Patients entrust their health data to the clinic, and doctors remotely monitor their health status. A doctor makes accurate and clear medical records, so their colleagues, pharmacists, and other employees do not have to read illegible handwriting. The fewer misunderstandings an EMR causes, the fewer medical errors occur.
Advanced EMRs integrate with IoT sensors and medical applications so that doctors can remotely monitor patients.
Telemedicine Apps
Telemedicine is a rapidly developing healthcare sector. It gained immense popularity when the pandemic provoked a leap in the remote treatment of patients. In the US, online appointments constituted 41% in 2020. The telemedicine market will grow from $49.9 billion in 2019 to $459.8 billion in 2030. A remote care application is a great idea for a healthcare software development project.
Telemedicine applications connect patients and doctors via chats, instant messengers, and video calls. A patient can consult a physician using their home computer, tablet, or smartphone. They can get an electronic prescription or a referral for lab tests.
Why Clinics Should Invest in Healthcare Software Development
The demand for healthcare apps is growing as they increase the competitive edge of hospitals and clinics. They provide:
- Instant and twenty-four-hour access to patient information.
- Access to medical records from any device, from any corner of the world.
- Easier exchange of medical data between hospitals, laboratories, and insurance companies.
- Personalized patient care.
- Optimization of internal operations. Doctors see more patients because they do not need to manually perform certain tasks.
- Simplified appointment making and remote consultations.
- Better coordination of clinic workflows, because the necessary information is stored in one place, and tasks are automated.
Thanks to healthcare software, organizations save time, money, avoid medical errors and satisfy customers with the quality of services. Every modern healthcare institution strives to achieve such a result.
Conclusion
The medical applications mentioned above solve different problems, have different architecture and functions. But they serve a common goal which is to improve and modernize the healthcare industry. Thus, it will carry out its mission even better.
When planning healthcare software development, you should define the purpose of the project and select the appropriate application type. Focus on those operations that need to be improved first. If the development process is set up correctly, the result will be rewarding for your healthcare facility.