How Do Telemedicine Apps Get On Track In The Healthcare System
The healthcare companies in the market are constantly looking out for effective measures to reduce their costs and to provide more effective patient care. Telemedicine is a new concept that enters the market as an effective solution for healthcare companies. The e-healthcare platforms are developed with the aim to make the healthcare industry more flexible by connecting the patients with the right medical experts to avail proper services from the comfort of their homes.
This article covers the essentials of a telemedicine app and throws light on the need and advantages of the telemedicine platform. The functionalities and challenges faced in the telemedicine app development process will be deeply covered in this article to make sure it serves its purpose to shed some knowledge about the industry.
What the situation demands:
With the advent of telemedicine software development companies in the market, long gone are the days of standing in long queues, which probably will extend the waiting time for a medical appointment with a specialist. Even though there is no assurance that the medical condition will get solved in the first sitting or sometimes the doctor might suggest the patient to get consulted with another professional.
These are some of the reasons that led to the monetization of the healthcare platforms online. With the introduction of telemedicine platforms, the patients can directly get connected to specialists with the help of video or audio connection and also have high chances of improving their health. Some of the platforms also let medical professionals to monitor the health condition of the patient and to perform preventive examinations outside the medical facilities under control situations. Moreover, these remote monitoring tools are created to provide effective medical services for patients directly from the ideal medical professional without any borders.
Why should we go with telemedicine apps?
The advancement in technology has created a platform that is no longer an optional investment but a necessity in the market. Therefore, major healthcare companies have started to implement the telemedicine platforms into their organizations to harness their unused potential. The American Medical Association and Wellness Council say that nearly 75% of the patients do not require the doctor’s physical presence instead of that, an audio or video call will suffice. Thus, the introduction of telemedicine services will serve as an effective bridge between doctors and patients outside the traditional healthcare system.
Here are some of the specific advantages of having a telemedicine platform over the traditional medical system.
- Access to specialized medical care for people living in remote areas.
- Unforeseen situations such as natural disasters and urgent cases can be easily managed through the app.
- The communication barriers that existed between the health professionals and patients will be reduced.
- Patients can now travel less and avoid standing in long queues.
- The costs of treatment can be significantly reduced all over the world.
How will telemedicine apps help?
It offers chronic health management in which the patient’s health and activity can be monitored to update in their daily records. Apart from that pulse oximeters, glucometers, patient’s vital, heart patterns, blood pressure, and glucose level can also be monitored. Post hospitalization care can also be provided without any issues. It will be helpful for them as they don’t need to pay re-admission fees and also access an efficient medical service. Hyper specialty care offers easier access to experienced specialists as patients are directly connected with the right professionals.
They can also come handy while assisting elders living in facilities who need overnight and weekend consultations. One of the underrated advantages of telemedicine platforms is the capability to visit remote places and provide medical services to patients or serving in the disaster-stricken zone.
What are the functionalities of telemedicine in healthcare?
Photo-based consultation:
For dermatologists, photo-based services can be extremely useful to diagnose the condition by examining the visible symptoms of a patient with the photograph. The patient will have to answer some questions and share a photo of the affected area. Based on the patient’s input, the app will connect them to the particular specialist, and then responses for the questions will be shared with the assigned professional. The medical professional may ask details like laboratory results for further analysis of the condition.
Real-time consultation:
Getting connected to a doctor on the telemedicine apps is a piece of cake. The patients just need to enter their details and answer the question raised by the app. The patients can also book an appointment for a direct interaction with doctors if they are not satisfied with the service in the app. The patients can choose to have their sessions over a video/audio call or by direct interaction. If they choose direct interaction, they will be asked to enter their location details so that the medical professional can pay them a visit.
Medication advice:
The application also lets the patients to consult with the medical practitioner to clear their queries about the dosage and timings. They can also ask questions about side effects, or any other observations. The doctors may ask for the patient’s medical prescription in an image format for further analysis.
Prescription renewal:
Patients need not worry about maintaining a prescription or renewing a new one by visiting the doctor as the app lets the patients to schedule their visit when they run out of medications. Even more, they can also book medicines online via the application, and pharmacies also accept e-version of the prescriptions provided via the app.
What do numbers say about the need for telemedicine platforms:
- A survey conducted in the 15 major cities of the United States concluded that patients are forced to wait for 24 days to get an appointment with a physician. To avoid these delays, one out of three patients opt to go to the emergency department as they have the inconvenience of visiting their physicians.
- More than 82% of people agree that developing technology should make its way into medical services to make it available to everyone as taxi services or food delivery services.
- 77% of people prefer to contact their physicians via text messages.
- More than 69% of patients prefer to have virtual appointments on the telemedicine platforms with their doctors to avoid waiting in hospitals.
Cost of developing a telemedicine app:
Choosing to invest in the telemedicine app market is a wise decision as it will be one of the major sectors in the future. So if you need to know about the cost to create a Telemedicine app, you might need to consider these factors as the cost depends upon these factors.
- Number of features
- Size of the development team
- Third-party integrations
- Compliances & certifications required for the practice
Summing up:
Furthermore, if you are planning to develop a telemedicine app, one of the important factors to consider is designing it with wider platform support to diverse target audiences. With more and more companies getting into the competition, it is important to keep the end-users satisfied by offering them premium user experience and exclusive features. Make sure that your telemedicine app developers don’t make any compromises with the quality of the application.
