On demand doctor app development is on the rise. In the post-pandemic world, the need to visit hospitals for checkups and diagnosis has increased. Simultaneously, what has increased is the fear of contracting the disease when waiting at doctors’ clinics and hospitals. There has been a dynamic rift in the way we all think currently. We are more cautious and conscious when it comes to stepping out, specifically to hospitals.
That’s why people around the world are increasingly resorting to a doctor appointment mobile app to schedule their appointments in advance, reach clinics on time for checkups and come back with no contact whatsoever.
From the management perspective as well, hospitals and diagnostic centres have tons of appointments and schedules to manage on a daily basis. The larger the organization, the more the appointments and more difficulty in managing. Oftentimes, not all appointments show up for their meeting as well. There are no shows, late arrivals, early visitors, people with emergencies and more.
With obsolete methods, the frontdesk associates in healthcare centres find it tough to manage and track appointments and ensure both doctors and patients have a smooth time in clinics. That’s exactly where on demand doctor app development comes in.
It lets clinics and healthcare centres effectively manage appointments and seamlessly resolve supply-demand concerns. For the uninitiated, the mhealth or the mobile health sector is a fast-growing market segment that is anticipated to reach a market value of $280.25bn by the end of 2021.
People are gradually shifting to mhealth devices and entities like a mobile app for doctor appointment. Statistics reveal that close to 52% of the users who have a smartphone access health-specific information on their devices. Not just that, close to 80% of the doctors and physicians out there use a medical app.
More specifically, close to 40% of the doctors feel that mhealth services like a doctor appointment mobile app can significantly reduce personal doctor visits.
So, if you’re someone looking to build an effective mobile app for doctor appointment, this guide is what you need. We will extensively explore the benefits of opting for on demand doctor app development, the essential features you need to incorporate and more.
Let’s get started.
Why A Doctor Appointment Mobile App Makes Complete Sense
There are several reasons why automating doctors’ appointments in clinics is effective. Let’s look at some of the more compelling reasons:
- A doctor appointment mobile app streamlines the entire process of scheduling appointments and managing them.
- It helps the management team develop more effective duty rosters for nurses, doctors and the staff. Special requests on leave could be accommodated by knowing in advance the influx of patients on a specific day.
- No shows could be eliminated from the chain by sending a confirmation text to scheduled visitors an hour or 30 minutes before their arrival. Failure to respond would automatically result in cancellation and the moving up the appointments of patients who follow.
- The entire organization can go paperless and remove the hurdles involved in maintaining journals, entries and registers.
- All or any manual error can be eliminated. From misspelt names to concerns and scheduled date and time, all instances of errors can be avoided through a mobile app for doctor appointment.
- Doctors can dedicate quality time to the diagnosis and treatment of individual patients when they have a fixed visual of how their day would be like.
- Apart from helping schedule appointments, doctor mobile app development also helps patients access their health records, medical history, details on their vitals, allergies and more perpetually.
- Through integrated payment gateways, patients can also make online payments for their appointments in advance and further confirm their scheduled visits.
- Last-minute changes to appointments can also be accommodated through a seamless dashboard.
The Fundamentals of On Demand Doctor App Development
Developing a healthcare app is complex. There are tons of intricate layers involved and utmost care should be taken during the development process. The ecosystem involves chunks of confidential information about patients such as their problems, medications, diagnostic reports and more. An app should secure them and make it airtight.
There are also several modules that are inevitable in an mhealth app. So, if you’re looking to get a doctor appointment mobile app developed for your hospital or healthcare centre, these are the features you shouldn’t overlook.
A Doctor Search Engine
One of the first things patients do when they open a mobile healthcare app is look for specific doctors. Depending on the problems or health concerns they face, they immediately search for relevant specialists like orthopedics, dentists, physiotherapists and more. Your app should make the search process seamless and instantly deliver relevant results for them to look up and fix appointments.
The results should display the following information:
- A doctor’s speciality
- Reviews and ratings
- Location
- Consultation charges
- Qualification details
- Availability
- And experience
These insights will help patients make informed decisions
Profiles Of Doctors
Once they start looking at results, they would want to click on a doctor’s profile and get more details about them. That’s when this module becomes critical. Your app should allow doctors to sign up and have their own personal profiles built and maintained.
Doctors should be able to upload their details such as qualifications, experience, charges, languages known, certifications and more. A brief bio or a description should also be made compulsory for patients to have a clear idea.
At the backend, your team should verify the details and have a bluetick assigned to them for more legitimacy. This will make the search process easier for patients considering most people access the module at the onset of an emergency.
Modules To Manage Appointments
This is a mobile app for doctor appointment and it should let users do that seamlessly through limited navigation and clicks. A doctor’s availability should be clearly made visible to see if patients can go ahead and book an appointment with them. Once made, the appointment should automatically sync with the patient’s calendar. Besides, this module should also feature an option to let patients cancel or modify their appointments whenever they want to.
Alerts And Reminders
One of the reasons why calendar synchronization is essential is because operating systems like Google and iOS automatically send alerts and reminders about upcoming appointments and events. Apart from this, your doctor appointment mobile app should also send push notifications as reminders for scheduled visits. Three notifications are ideal to engage with patients.
Payment Systems
Patients who intend to leave directly after an appointment without contact with others and those who want to confirm their appointments can make use of the integrated payment systems. These will also ensure invoicing and billing are automated from a management perspective.
Here, your mobile app for doctor appointment ambition should consider incorporating multiple payment systems such as debit and credit cards, online banking facilities, digital wallets, vouchers and more. Payment systems also allow you to consolidate multiple bills into one and simplify payment collection and processing. For instance, when your patients get a CT scan done from your in-house diagnostic centre after their consultation.
Virtual Consultations
Patients and people who cannot make in-person appointments should also have the option to get virtual consultations from doctors and specialists. This is an add-on feature that ensures your app’s retention. Elederly people and those with severe ailments cannot afford to personally visit doctors everytime. In such cases, online consultations help them get the details they require and the medications they need.
On Demand Medication And Tracker
If your AI ML Healthcare applications idea also has the incorporation of an on-demand medication and tracker module, there’s nothing like it. Through online prescriptions, you can process medication orders and deliver them at patients’ doorsteps. Reminders to take pills and medications can also be sent through push notifications.
Patient Engagement Modules
One of the most ideal ways to stand out from other healthcare centres and their apps is to integrate a patient engagement module. Post-consultation engagement is what lacks in the current healthcare ecosystem. If you could send resourceful articles, videos and insights on the health issue your patients are facing, personalize them and offer them suggestions on how to take ownership of their health, recover better and more, you would become a market player in no time.
Wrapping Up
We are sure that you have a better understanding of a doctor appointment mobile app and what the essentials of a doctor mobile app development are. As far as the expenses involved in the development are concerned, it depends on the scale of your ambition and requirements.
You could build and launch a basic and functional mobile app without most of the features discussed here. They will cost you comparatively less. However, if you’re eyeing to disrupt the healthcare segment and offer unique solutions to your customers, you need to go for custom on demand doctor app development.
You can discuss your ideas with us and we will suggest the best way forward. We will also offer you insights on compliances, GDPR, data privacy regulations, data de-identification and more.
Like we said, intricacies are aplenty. All you need is an expert app development company like ours to help you get what you deserve.
Get in touch with us today.