In the last two decades, the use of telemedicine greatly increased. The COVID19 pandemic has provided an opportunity to expand upon this growth, as several countries have either commenced or are expanding their use of telemedicine technologies to incorporate remote consultations into their healthcare systems.
Currently, telephony and telehealth devices and methodologies are being used globally to provide patients experiencing chronic medical conditions with the ability to consult with their physicians remotely and overcome geographic barriers to access to care. Many telehealth vendors and providers are utilizing artificial intelligence technologies for diagnosis and remote monitoring of patients, which improves service and provides a better experience for patients as well as confirms the value of telehealth as a method of relieving pressure from hospitals.
Additionally, the global telehealth market has continued to grow rapidly, as a result of:
- There have been significant increases in the number of people diagnosed with chronic illnesses
- Rising healthcare costs
- Higher number of rural residents wishing to remotely access care as a result of recent statistics
- Advent of wearable health technology with artificial intelligence
- Growth of government sponsored digital health initiatives
The development of telemedicine applications is now viewed as an emerging opportunity for entrepreneurs, healthcare providers/hospitals and digital health startups in the digital health industry.
Major Trends Affecting Telehealth App Development
1) Artificial Intelligence (AI)Driven Medical Diagnosis & Automated Equipment Management
Healthcare providers are now using AI in telemedicine apps in place of some of the previous methods.
For instance, AI is used to:
- Determine symptoms to refer patients (i.e., nonemergency or other urgent care)
- Automatically set appointments
- Record patient care and provide documented records of care
- Provide individualized treatment (prescribing medications) based on patient symptoms and physician observations
With the help of AI powered telemedicine app development company solutions, healthcare practitioners have less time performing their jobs and much more time providing care for their customers (patients).
2) Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
Internet of Things (IoT) and wearable devices now enable healthcare providers to collect realtime data on patients via RPM to support the collection of:
- Blood pressure
- Blood glucose
- Heart rate
- Oxygen saturation
Additionally, for patients with chronic illness, or for older adults, the use of remote patient monitoring is especially beneficial.
3) Behavioral Telehealth and Mental Telehealth
The fastest growing area of telehealth is teletherapy with regards to mental health and other behavioral health related issues. Access to mental health services has been tremendously expanded with the availability of video therapy (quiet video chat) and secure messaging. Additionally, teletherapy services are now offered by a growing number of health systems for all individuals in need of services.
4) Focus on Safety and Security of Telehealth
There are many regulations in place to protect the privacy of patient and user data when using telehealth apps. Therefore, telehealth providers MUST comply with:
Healthcare Regulations
- HIPAA (e.g., United States)
- GDPR (e.g., Europe)
- Other Healthcare Regulations (e.g., Local and/or Regional)
Privacy of Patient and User Data
- Use of secure end-to-end data encryption for cloud server storage
- Use of appropriate, automated administrator/technical/physical security measures protecting patient and user data
How One Company Created a Telemedicine Strategy
A small to midsized $10 million company in healthcare developed a telemedicine system. The telemedicine platform also enables virtual consultations, with the intention of penetrating their urban and suburban market areas.
They created a telemedicine platform using the following components, as opposed to creating an application focused solely on connecting patients with healthcare providers through video conferencing:
- An AI driven symptom checker that generates alternative diagnoses and recommends appropriate treatment options (if available) based on the symptoms provided
- An electronic prescription pad that enables the provider to write and transmit prescriptions to either the patient (via email, text or other method) or directly to a pharmacy
- Ability to interface with devices worn by patients for the purpose of determining the patient’s health status (e.g., pulse oximeter, blood glucose monitor and/or heart rate monitor)
- Secure cloud based storage of the patient’s electronic medical records
One Year After Its Launch:
- Almost 50% more patients than projected
- Approximately 33% fewer missed appointments and noshows than previously created
- Substantially reduced operational costs vs. prior established levels
The close collaboration between an experienced software development team knowledgeable about all aspects of regulatory compliance and governance in the healthcare industry and other vendor partners was key to successfully developing the new telemedicine product.
Reasons for Investing in Telehealth Application Development
A telehealth application will accomplish:
- Delivering scalable healthcare systems
- Lower total costs to deliver wellness care systems
- Ability for a provider to connect with consumers globally
- Increased patient engagement and accountability to engage in their own health/wellness care plan
- Collecting data from health care systems enables better decision making regarding how to deliver health/wellness care and statistics
There is growing investment in digital health firms by venture capitalists because digital health solutions display long term growth patterns (or predictability) and recurring revenues from businesses (such as subscriptions, visits for consultations, or enterprise licenses).
Why Work with a Telehealth App Developer?
The reason to consider working with a telehealth app developer is to ensure that your application meets the unique compliance needs and architecture of the healthcare industry. In addition, many telehealth developers will have proven procedures to ensure that their applications:
- Comply with regulations
- Have a secure application infrastructure
- Have an integration or interoperability solution for using an existing HERMS
- Use AI in their application development process
- Provide a good consumer/userfriendly interface and a good provider/userfriendly interface
Your telehealth application development partner will help you build an application that is:
- Scalable
- Compliant with law and regulation
- Secure
- Designed to work on multiple devices
- Able to mitigate the risk of loss of revenue during the application development process
Additionally, telehealth application developers will provide continued support throughout your development cycle, which is invaluable in healthcare technology.
If you are entering the Gulf Coast and Global markets, a mobile app development company in Dubai with a good reputation will provide you with a competitive advantage over other technology developers who may not be able to access a large development labor pool in that region, understand regulatory compliance in multiple markets, and have been successful in some of the fastest growing healthcare market sectors.
Summary
Telemedicine app development is currently one of the fastest growing sectors in digital health and will continue to be so as we expand our use of artificial general intelligence, remote monitoring technologies, and other emerging technologies in addition to the expanding popularity of telemedicine as a means of delivering healthcare services.
If you are considering telemedicine from a business perspective, your initial consideration must be how you will ensure compliance with regulatory requirements, develop a scalable business model, and develop a consumer/easytouse application. Telemedicine has strong demand today; therefore, those developers who are successful in developing telemedicine applications in the present will be best prepared to affect the future of healthcare.
