How To Develop A Completely Healthy Doctor Booking App?
Mobile phones and mobile applications have revolutionized almost every sphere of our lives, but it might not be considered a technological marvel unless and until it addresses the needs of almost every human being. If we take into consideration that aspect, healthcare on-demand applications are surely one of the best manifestations of mobile applications.
There are a lot of utilities that can be provided when it comes to health care. For most of them, healthcare is associated with memories of discomfort and even nauseating stenches. Although for some of them, it is associated with professionalism, workmanship, service, and selflessness because they are in the medical field working as doctors and nurses.
The value of health… Literally!
The number of healthcare apps has exponentially grown in recent years. It has been estimated that the global IT healthcare market will be valued at $280 billion by the year 2021. It might not seem like a great number but if we take into consideration that this number will be achieved at a staggering growth rate of 16% year-on-year, it does seem impressive! This is a quantum leap from the year 2017 where the market was valued at $26 billion.
Ever since 2017, about 1.7 billion smartphones have started to install healthcare-related applications. The applications are not only related to medical appointments and consultations but even healthy lifestyles. Interestingly, more than 80% of physicians have accepted that they use healthcare applications regularly.
Given these parameters, the time looks ripe for aspiring entrepreneurs to create their own mobile apps in the healthcare sector
Read More: Providing instant medical care in this COVID-19 outbreak season with an on-demand doctor’s app.
The different revenue models
Before embarking on any business idea, it is important to understand the revenue generation model. The healthcare app development is not an exception to this golden rule. There are different revenue models that you can consider and incorporate in your doctor appointment app development process. We have listed a few below:
Commission-based model
The name is quite self-explanatory and it is one of the most common models for doctor booking applications. The app, with its popularity, facilitates a lot of exposure for the doctor and patient visits as well. The doctor pays a commission from the revenue earned through bookings and consultations from the app.
It is quite evident that the magnitude of revenue depends on the number of doctors partnering with the app and the number of users who use the app. This is one of the most simple and straightforward methods for earning revenue from an app like Practo. However, it should be remembered that a huge chunk of money has to be spent in popularising the app through aggressive advertising, marketing, and networking.
Sponsored listings
Sponsored listings are quite similar to paid search ads in the context of the medical app. Some doctors, in an endeavor to gain more popularity and the clientele, pay the app administrator to have their name listed in priority for searches relevant to the services or specialization that they have and provide. Since the paid listings appear on the top, these doctors are likely to receive calls and inquiries from prospective patients, which results in better revenue for them, and passively, for the app as well.
Advertisements
Just like any other app, even medical apps can make revenue by showing ads as a part of their interface. The ads can either be facilitated by third-party ad providers like Google or other native ad providers. All these advertisements can ensure a steady stream of revenue either for clicks or impressions or conversions.
Essential features
There are few features that you cannot compromise on when you build an on-demand doctor appointment app. These features have to be meticulously taken care of during the doctor’s appointment app development process.
The creation of profiles should be made as easy and as simple as possible. This statement holds true both for doctors and patients. They will need to fill important details to complete the respective profiles but at the same time, it should not be needlessly cumbersome. The doctor needs to let the patient know of the location, the area of competence, and their photos. There should be an authentication procedure for doctors, so no quacks get listed on your app. It is to be remembered that this act might cost the app its reputation and trust. Similarly, the patients need to establish details of their first name, last name, phone number, age, sex, and other vital medical information.
Searching for the right doctor should be made comprehensive. The doctors should be searchable using their specialization, their area, their price range, their time of availability, and their experience.
The booking of appointments should be made simple and intuitive. The patient should be able to access a calendar on which they can choose a date and time slot for them to visit a doctor. Additionally, the patient can also be provided with a live chat option, so they can discuss additional issues and get their queries clarified. The doctor should be able to confirm the appointment and the same should be notified to the patient.
The app should be able to accommodate multiple payment options, and for this purpose, it is important for the app to be integrated with a flexible and versatile payment gateway. Payment gateway should be able to accommodate multiple payment methods including but not limited to credit cards, debit cards, wallets, and internet banking.
The payment should be the final stage of the booking process. This means that the flow of the process should be extremely smooth and intuitive. It should be as minimal as possible and should make the patient reach the desired screen in the quickest possible time.
Parallel to this, the doctors should also be able to quickly transfer their revenue to the bank account. The quicker the doctors are able to get their revenue to their accounts, the greater the magnitude of trust they will have on the app.
The payment system should also generate automatic invoices for both the patient and the doctor. These little details can come in handy for hospitals when it comes to generating payslips.
When it comes to emergency healthcare, it is important to have an SOS system in place. It should be understood that when in times of medical distress, it might not be possible for the patient or the people close to them to fill out details on a painfully lengthy form. They should be able to quickly complete the process by just calling the ambulance in the click of a button. The app should also have GPS and mapping systems in place, so the patient can track the movement of the ambulance in real-time.
The current internet speeds mean that two or three users can easily video conference without any hiccups or difficulties period the same technology and convenience should be made available for patients and doctors for like video conferencing for consultations. The video conference can either be designed to complete the entire consultation over a video call or as a precursor for the personal appointment.
The patient should be able to quickly share important documents with the doctor such as prescriptions and medical records. The information on these documents can possibly be digitized for more efficient data storage and retrieval.
Conclusion
The availability of clone apps for medical and healthcare applications makes the development process far less cumbersome and complicated than developing the app from scratch using your own team of developers. This also means that you might not have to face bugs that tamper with the basic functionalities expected out of the application.
All that you need to do is get in touch with an app development company that specializes in medical and healthcare apps and let them know of your requirements. They will take care to customize the medical app for you, so it bears your brand name and language. You are all set to launch your healthcare app and be a part of the almost-$300 billion market it is going to be!
