The Ultimate Business Guide to Healthcare Application Development

Tim Cook, Apple CEO, said rightly: “We must use technology to bridge the gap between healthcare and accessibility.”

In an era where digital transformation reshapes industries, healthcare is at the forefront of this revolution. From AI-powered diagnostics to real-time patient monitoring, mobile health (mHealth) apps are making healthcare more accessible, efficient, and personalized than ever before.

The global digital health market is projected to exceed $800 billion by 2030, driven by the rising adoption of telemedicine, wearable technology, and AI-driven healthcare solutions (Source: Grand View Research). Hospitals, startups, and medical institutions are racing to develop apps that enhance patient care, streamline operations, and improve health outcomes.

However, while the opportunities are vast, 53% of healthcare apps fail due to poor user experience, security vulnerabilities, and lack of a clear value proposition. (Source: NLM database). So, what does it take to build a successful healthcare app that truly makes an impact?

To help you in your healthcare application development journey, here is a comprehensive guide that will give you a good insight into mobile health app development best practices, processes, types, benefits, costs, and so on.

So, without further ado, let’s jump right in this healthcare app development guide and uncover the essential details revolving around medical application development. 

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Distinguishing Healthcare App Development from Medical App Development

Mobile app development for healthcare focuses on creating applications that help users track their health, access medical information, and manage healthcare services easily. These apps enable users to monitor wellness, schedule appointments, and communicate with providers, covering areas like chronic disease management, fitness tracking, and telemedicine.

While healthcare apps handle systems like Electronic Health Records (EHR), medical service management, and digitized insurance claims, they differ from medical app development. The two serve different goals, have distinct regulatory requirements, target audiences, and handle varying types of data. Understanding these differences is essential before beginning your mHealth app development journey. Let’s break down the key distinctions.

Why is Healthcare App Development Essential for Businesses?

Medical app development serves different purposes. It can help streamline hundreds of administrative and healthcare management functions, such as allowing individuals to efficiently track and follow their health issues, easily access healthcare information, maintain health records, and so on.

In simple terms, healthcare mobile app development serves the following purposes:

• For doctors and medical professionals – Mobile app for healthcare helps in patient monitoring, early disease detection, staff management, appointment scheduling, etc. Furthermore, it helps medical professionals consult patients via video and audio conferencing, make diagnoses, and prescribe medicines.
• For users – It helps track wellbeing, seek medical recommendations, get at-home delivery of medical services, track their fitness level, measure heart health, and book appointments.

Mobile healthcare apps allow users to access a wide array of medical facilities with a few taps on their smartphones.

Benefits of Healthcare Mobile App Development for Medical Professionals and Patients

One of the primary reasons iOS and Android healthcare app development solutions have become so popular for businesses is that they offer countless benefits to general users and medical professionals while facilitating the healthcare industry’s progress. If you create a healthcare app, you will gain limitless benefits that will help automate operational processes and improve the financial performance of medical institutions. Let’s learn how.

Benefits for Medical Professionals

Digital health app development is often a time-consuming and expensive process. However, it provides its investors and stakeholders with extensive value in:

Built-in Diagnostic Systems

These systems enable the collection and processing of data from embedded and IoT devices integrated with EHR platforms. The doctors can easily analyze and diagnose the condition of remote patients, track progress, and determine treatment.

This seamless integration enhances real-time decision-making, allowing for proactive interventions. Additionally, it improves patient engagement by providing continuous monitoring and personalized care plans.

Accurate Diagnosis

Medical apps facilitate healthcare professionals with early and accurate diagnosis of diseases. With precise and built-in diagnostic systems come better treatment plans, timely healthcare delivery, and effective outcomes.

These apps also help reduce diagnostic errors and improve clinical decision-making. Moreover, AI-powered diagnostic tools enhance efficiency by analyzing vast datasets and identifying patterns that human practitioners might overlook.

Electronic Health Record (EHR)

With the integration of EHR solutions, healthcare apps can easily track, store, and collect all information related to a patient on a single platform. This saves time, eliminates errors, and allows the exchange of patient data between different healthcare institutions.

For example, Uber incorporates an EHR System to ease medical transportation. This on-demand ride-sharing firm introduced Uber Health, which allows medical experts to book and track rides on behalf of their patients.

Telehealth and Telemedicine

Telehealth has emerged as one of the fastest-growing sectors in the healthcare industry. As per a report by Grand View Research, global telehealth market is expected to reach $455.27 billion by 2030 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 24.3% from 2023 to 2030.

This surge is largely driven by the increasing demand for telemedicine and telehealth software solutions, including Software as a Medical Device (SaMD). These technologies empower healthcare professionals to deliver remote services, facilitate online communication, and provide high-quality medical care more efficiently. As a result, telehealth has become an integral component of modern healthcare delivery, offering patients greater access to care and enabling providers to reach a broader patient base.

For instance, Doctor-on-demand is one such application that allows healthcare professionals to offer consultations via video or audio calls. It also helps patients to book appointments at their convenience.

E-Prescribing

E-prescribing apps allow doctors to prescribe medications for patients accurately, adjust dosages to avoid potential side effects, and revoke prescriptions at any time as needed. These platforms play a crucial role in minimizing pharmacy errors and optimizing doctor and patient time. An e-prescribing app allows doctors to upload prescriptions in the app itself according to the patient’s requirements.

Also Read: The GoodRx App Development Cost: Insights and Analysis

Improved Communication

Various telehealth applications help doctors connect with patients remotely for significant consultations and discussions. With automated features and streamlined workflows, healthcare providers can focus more on patient care and less on administrative tasks. This reduction in manual work and improved operational efficiency directly contributes to lower stress levels and minimizes burnout among healthcare workers, fostering a more sustainable working environment.

Less Stress and Burnout

Healthcare mobile app development liberates professionals from repetitive tasks by increasing the reliability of medical systems and processes. For instance, a custom healthcare app tracks all active on-premise ventilators. Healthcare facilities can better allocate resources and ensure timely maintenance by offering real-time alerts and performance metrics. This proactive approach to equipment management improves uptime, reduces the risk of malfunction, and enhances the overall quality of patient care.

Better Service and Equipment Management

Mobile health application development allows users to monitor medical equipment in real-time and optimize its use accordingly. This real-time tracking ensures that medical devices are always in optimal working condition, reducing downtime and improving overall patient care.

For instance, a custom healthcare app tracks all active on-premise ventilators, enabling healthcare providers to quickly assess equipment status, schedule maintenance, and prevent unnecessary delays in treatment.

Benefits for General Users

Healthcare apps have a wide range of use cases that benefit medical professionals and patients. These apps leverage the convenience and accessibility of mobile phones to improve the delivery of medical services and enhance the overall healthcare experience for patients. Here are some remarkable benefits of hospital mobile apps for patients:

High-Quality Patient Care

With advanced healthcare apps for fitness, nutrition, etc., patients can track their disease symptoms, chronic conditions, sleep patterns, heart rate, and overall health using IoT-connected wearable devices or smartphone sensors. The continuous monitoring allows for early detection of health issues and timely intervention, thus improving overall patient care.

Accessible Healthcare Data

A mobile app platform makes healthcare information and medical data easily accessible for better patient monitoring. Now, patients can access healthcare information and news at home or even on the go and share their health data and symptom reports with their healthcare providers.

At Appinventiv, we developed Health-e-People, a dynamic healthcare platform designed to improve patient care and streamline medical record management. Utilizing advanced, user-centric technologies, it overcomes the limitations of traditional systems, ensuring seamless access to critical health information.

As a leading patient-focused solution, Health-e-People empowers both patients and caregivers with intuitive tools for improved engagement, streamlined care coordination, and informed decision-making.

On-Demand Accessible Care

Mobile app development for healthcare makes on-demand medical services accessible to every common user. Medicine delivery apps ensure quick delivery of medical care services at patients’ doorstep, including drug delivery, medicines delivery, sample collection, prescriptions, etc.

These apps also provide real-time order tracking, automated prescription refills, and integration with telemedicine platforms for seamless consultations. Additionally, AI-powered recommendations help users manage their medications effectively, reducing the risk of missed doses and improving adherence to treatment plans.

Better Communication

Medical apps empower patients with real-time connectivity to caregivers, enabling timely consultations and support. Features like instant messaging, video calls, and secure data sharing enhance accessibility and responsiveness. Patients can easily discuss symptoms, receive guidance, and track their health progress without delays.

This continuous interaction drives better engagement, improves care coordination, and ensures more personalized treatment. By bridging communication gaps, medical apps contribute to more efficient and effective healthcare delivery.

Looking at the above benefits, if you have decided to work on a mobile health app development idea, you should consider different types of healthcare app solutions available in the industry.

Types of Healthcare Mobile App Development

mHealth app development brings along various types of applications, contributing to improved healthcare management and enhanced overall well-being. Depending on their purpose of use, healthcare apps can be divided into two categories: apps for medical professionals and apps for general users. Let’s discuss each category and its branches in detail.

Healthcare Apps for Hospitals and Medical Professionals

These healthcare apps are supposed to bring value to medical staff, facilities, doctors and physicians, which is why they are developed in a more complex way with advanced and reliable features. Some common healthcare mobile apps for professionals are:

Telehealth Apps

Mobile app development for healthcare allows doctors to schedule appointments and provide medical consultations using in-app messaging and video calls. Telehealth applications are convenient to both doctors and patients since they help avoid physical contact and provide care in the comfort of the home. Some popular examples of telehealth apps are TelaDoc and GoodRx Care.

Also Read: How much telemedicine app development costs

Medical Networking Apps

Although medical professionals are quite busy with hospital management and patient services, they must communicate with other medical experts and share expertise to improve communication. This communication is done through medical networking apps. Some popular examples of medical apps for networking are Doximity, Sermo, and WeMedUp.

Medical Prescription Apps

Prescription healthcare apps help professionals pick the right drug for their patients, pack it in a list, and manage usage and time. Some of the medical apps even allow printing prescriptions for patients to show in the nearby pharmacy.

Medical Record Apps

Medical record health applications help simplify collecting and updating patients’ medical data. The data records consist of blood pressure, body temperature, medical examinations and diagnoses, prescriptions, appointments, and various criteria to track medical health. 

Healthcare CRM Apps

Healthcare CRM apps streamline patient management by organizing appointments, medical history, and communication between patients and providers. They improve hospital workflows, enhance patient engagement, and ensure seamless care coordination. These apps also facilitate billing, insurance claims processing, and automated follow-ups to improve patient retention.

Healthcare Apps for Patients and General Users

Healthcare applications for patients are designed to assist general users in making their lives easier. With basic medical assistance, these healthcare apps are simple yet valuable in a wide range of wellness aspects. Different types of mobile healthcare application development for patients are:

Mental Health Apps

Mental health apps target making therapy more accessible, flexible, and efficient for general users. These apps usually assist in fighting anxiety, depression, and insomnia with the help of various pre-recorded sessions, gaming elements, breathing exercises, etc. Some popular mental health app examples are MoodKit, Headspace, and Mindshift.

Health Monitoring Apps

Health monitoring apps help track and manage chronic conditions such as diabetes, blood pressure, and so on. Few well-known health monitoring apps are WebMD, Ada, and The Diary. Soniphi, the first resonant frequency-based personal wellness healthcare app developed by Appinventiv, is another considerable example of a health monitoring app. This wellness system accesses vocal information to create a detailed well-being analysis report.

Medical Education Apps

The primary objective of medical education apps is to maintain a reliable database with up-to-date medical information for doctors, students, and medical users. Clinical Sense, MedScape, Prognosis, and Epocrates are good examples of medical education apps.

Health Lifestyle Apps

This healthcare mobile app development category for patients brings together different applications such as fitness and nutrition apps, self-improvement apps, weight loss apps, mind training apps, pregnancy tracking apps, and many others that help achieve a healthy lifestyle. Some popular health lifestyle apps are HealthPal, MyFitnessPal, Remente, and MoodPath.

Appinventiv created DiabeticU, an innovative AI-driven diabetes management app that enhances patient support. It provides real-time responses to user queries, connects individuals with diabetes experts, and builds a strong, supportive community.

By empowering users to take charge of their health, DiabeticU promotes a healthier lifestyle and highlights the transformative role of AI in modern healthcare.

Medication Reminder Apps

These apps send automated reminders to help patients take medications on time, reducing missed doses. They offer dosage tracking, refill alerts, and medication interaction warnings to enhance treatment adherence. Some apps include smart pill dispensers and caregiver notifications to ensure better patient compliance.

Mitigating Risks While Reaping the Rewards of Healthcare Apps

Before diving into healthcare app development, it’s important to recognize these ventures’ high-risk, high-reward nature. The risks are substantial, with 71% of healthcare apps containing serious vulnerabilities that could compromise sensitive medical data.

While these apps offer massive potential in improving patient care, streamlining operations, and driving innovation, they also expose development companies to legal, ethical, and financial challenges. Navigating this landscape requires a balance between creating cutting-edge solutions and ensuring robust security and compliance to protect both users and developers from potential pitfalls.

Some of the common pitfalls to remain aware of while developing a healthcare app includes:

• Regulatory Non-Compliance
• Data Security Risks
• Interoperability Issues
• Scalability and Performance Challenges
• Neglecting AI and Automation Bias
• Insufficient Testing and QA
• Ignoring Accessibility Standards
• Weak Monetization and Business Strategy
• Poor User Experience (UX)
• Lack of Clinical Validation

How to Develop a Healthcare App? A Step-By-Step Process

The healthcare mobile app development process involves several steps, best practices, and a definite plan to ensure a successful and user-friendly application that can drive the right results for patients and healthcare providers. Therefore, before you embark on your app development journey, you must clearly understand your app’s goal, what kind of app you want, what features it will have, who your target audience will be, what purposes it will target, and how.

We will discover each step of the healthcare mobile app development process by evaluating these vital considerations.

Define Your App’s Idea and Goal

Understanding your end-users ‘ needs is an important part of the medical or healthcare application development process. Evaluate the problems they are facing and how your application can solve them. At this stage, you should also consider the app type. For example, your application can be about diabetes or anxiety-tracking.

Conduct Market and Regulatory Research

After understanding your target audience’s needs and pain points; you need to conduct market research to analyze your competitors and identify gaps in the market that your app can fill. It will help you define your app’s features and functionalities, further aiding you in meeting your end goal.

While conducting market research, you must understand the regulatory compliances applicable in the healthcare industry. The healthcare industry deals with a vast volume of protected health information (PHI), making it essential for you to comply with HIPAA regulations (more details later).

Hire Healthcare App Developers

Hiring a reliable tech agency with a team of experienced healthcare app developers ensures that your app is developed using all the essential technologies and trending features required to make your app successful in the healthcare market. A reputed healthcare tech agency has a skilled team of UI/UX designers, developers, testers, project managers, and market specialists who work relentlessly to bring your healthcare startup app idea to life.

Choose the Right Platform

After defining your app’s goal, it is time to choose the platforms your application will be deployed on – Android, iOS, or the web. You can also think of adding a home assistant device integration to ensure that your application is only a voice command away. A key thing to note here is that elderly patients generally tend to prefer visiting a website, while their young counterparts are more likely to use apps and voice devices.

Decide the Location for the App Launch

Entrepreneurs, business leaders, and tech heads most commonly launch a new app by building it for their nationals. If you or your board members wish to take an alternate route and launch your application internationally, consider the nation-specific guidelines and user personas, highlighting medical app creation and deployment.

Select a Monetization Strategy

The basic intent behind all types of mobile app development across domains is to earn money. When we talk about how to earn money from an app, the healthcare domain works around two types – a subscription-based model and a freemium model with paid access to premium services. Furthermore, healthcare providers can also opt for in-app advertisements, third-party partnerships, and other monetization models to earn through the medical apps.

Pay Attention to UI/UX Design

UI/UX design plays a crucial role in healthcare mobile application development, determining the success of your medical apps. Generally, older people like simple navigation and bigger fonts, while a younger audience prefers a colorful UI with better functionalities. The design will also depend on whether your audience is healthcare professionals or the general public. In addition to the visual component, it’s important to take care of how the app will look on different-sized screens. So, invest time, money, and resources accordingly to get it right.

Also Read: 7 UX Design Mistakes That Can Deter Your App Success

Develop an MVP

A key element of success can be creating an MVP instead of a full-fledged application. MVP development is the best approach to ensure that the solution is well-tested and validated before it enters the market. If you present your MVP to investors with your future plan, they can see the demand for your app in the market and get interested in it.

Test Your App

Testing is one of the most integral steps when creating healthcare solutions. Test and iterate everything from user experience and user interface to content. Proper testing will help shorten app development for healthcare costs and time, identify bugs, and greatly improve your reputation as a service provider. While doing in-depth testing of your healthcare app, pay attention to –

• Security for PHI, PII, and several other regulations.
• Functional working of your app, specifically healthcare workflows.
• If your app requires geolocation to function properly, check that the Application Program Interface (API) you are using to enable it is safe.
• If the app interprets the data from multiple inputs, information from different networks, devices, and locations.
• Test in poor connectivity condition.
• Do an in-depth usability testing of your app and so on.

Know The Mobile App Testing Strategies that Appinventiv Follows.

Launch and Update

After the final testing and iteration, it is time to launch your app for the end users and track its performance over time. Remember, app development for healthcare is a one-time process, but upgrades and maintenance are an ongoing journey. Therefore, to keep your app competitive in the healthcare industry, keep tracking its performance to ensure timely updates. Remember, constant app maintenance also contributes to healthcare mobile app development costs.

Healthcare App Development Best Practices

Healthcare Application development is a challenging and complex process that involves hundreds of sub-processes. You don’t want to begin and hang up in between, which is just going to take more time and expense. To ensure a smooth healthcare app development process, here are a few factors to keep in mind before starting with the development.

Following all the Compliance Rules

The healthcare industry is very strict regarding compliance with security and legal protocols. There are several legal compliances that you have to adhere to when developing an mHealth application. Some of the most common compliances are – HIPAA, HIMSS, FDC, etc. Before creating your healthcare app, make sure it complies with:

• HIPAA—All US healthcare entities must comply with HIPAA guidelines to ensure protected health information (PHI) security and privacy.
• CCPA – This is the law for the foundation of confidentiality in the US, which involves informing the client about what data is being collected and managing the client data report.
• GDPR – It is a personal data protection rule introduced in Europe in 2018. All healthcare apps that collect and store personal data in the European Union must comply with GDPR strictly.
• NIST – This is another collection of standard protocols, tools, and technologies created to protect user data from medical applications in the US.
• HiTech – These protocols focus more on EHR systems data security, quite valid for healthcare and medical apps.
• PIPEDA – If your mHealth app is developed for the Canadian market, it must comply with PIPEDA.

Single-Focused Purpose

Even if there are a number of healthcare app categories, such as fitness tracking, post-operative care apps, appointment booking apps, etc., operating in the industry, businesses should focus on single-handedly one app category. When companies focus on a single expertise area and do not run behind by giving multiple offerings within one application, they can offer in-depth value to the stakeholders and address their exact pain points in utmost detail.

Interoperability

Passing information from one device to another is the essence of healthcare mobile apps. Therefore, developing a clear line of interoperability that is real-time and 100% secure is one of the most integral hospital app development best practices.

Selection of Feature Set

The success of a health solution rides heavily on the healthcare mobile app features. While the selection of features varies significantly depending on app’s type, some elements are commonly present in nearly all types of applications. These elements include but are not limited to:

• Monitoring health
• Scheduling appointments
• In-app payments
• Integration with wearables
• Reporting functionality
• Social integration (if a fitness app)

Hack-Proof Cybersecurity

Health applications have to be absolutely hack-proof, which means they should strictly follow all cybersecurity measures to prevent data breaches and cyber theft. During the development of healthcare mobile applications, it is vital to follow legal compliances such as HIPAA or HIMSS. This ensures complete adherence to the security level, ensuring that your app is 100% safe from cybercriminals’ malicious attempts. Furthermore, you can also add a biometric screen lock to enhance your app’s security and prevent data breaches.

Hardware Choice

The app that you are planning to launch does not necessarily have to function on a smartphone. It can be a wearable app or a desktop version. Either way, it is important to know that there can be multiple hardware choices where you can push your application. Likewise, there can be instances where it would be needed to make two or multiple devices interact with each other. In such a situation, you should choose hardware devices that can co-work.

Choice of APIs and Integrations

With so many APIs functioning in the market, it can be difficult to shortlist and go with the one that would make your processes real-time and hack-proof. But once you make the right API and integration choice, your healthcare app can offer the intended service to its complete perfection.

Presence of Medical Practitioners in the Core Team

One of the most intricate issues that can cause your mHealth to fail is mistrust, which originates from incomplete or wrong information in the healthcare app. This single problem can easily become a deal-breaker for your mobile app in terms of its legality and success in the market. You can easily resolve this issue by having a medical practitioner in the team who ensures the accuracy and relevancy of the health content.

These are the eight best practices for healthcare mobile app development that would ensure the growth and success of your application.

Healthcare App Development Features

While there are countless features you can add to your hospital or medical app, adding unnecessary features not only adds to the app development duration and cost but also makes it more intricate for common users. The successful healthcare apps have some essential features in common, which enhance customer experience and redefine the healthcare sector. Let’s shed light on some must-have hospital app features.

Telemedicine or Telehealth

According to healthcare experts, 75% of hospital visits are very basic and can be easily managed via a phone call or video conference. This is where Telemedicine app development comes in. This must-have feature allows patients to connect with their respective doctors in the comfort of their home.

Telehealth trends have already reshaped the healthcare industry to a huge extent by covering the gap between patients and their doctors/caregivers, and its adoption seems to reach greater heights in coming years, making it a crucial technology impacting home healthcare.

EHR

Modern healthcare applications must have an electronic health record (EHR) feature, helping doctors update the patient’s record in the hospital’s internal system.

Notifications

Push notifications are an essential hospital app feature, which works as a reminder for doctor’s visits, measuring heart rate, going to sleep, taking medicines, drinking water, etc.

User Dashboard

Having a visually appealing and easy-to-use dashboard provides a great user experience. Therefore, make sure to build your hospital app with an intriguing dashboard that streamlines the essential information that patients and doctors can get at a glance.

Payment Integration

One of the most important aspects of healthcare mobile application development is to decide on the hospital app features like integration of payment gateway. This ensures that the users have an easy and safe way to pay for their medical services. Integrate various payment modes like debit or credit cards, Paypal,  UPI, etc., to make payment collection easy for healthcare professionals. To ensure the top-notch safety of financial data, you can also consider building a payment gateway from scratch.

Search Bar

No hospital app development can be successful without adding a search feature. A search bar enables users to navigate the app easily and quickly to get the information they need.

Wearable Devices Connection

With remarkable technological development, IoMT (Internet of Medical Things), a concept of connecting medical devices, applications, and wearables with the Internet, is increasingly becoming a part of our daily lives. From sport-specific FitBits to smartwatches, wearable devices have risen in popularity over the past few years. This growing popularity of wearable devices opens up an array of opportunities for medical professionals to develop a healthcare app with integrations from other devices.

Also Read: Wearable App Development: Applications, Features, Development Process and More

Next-Gen Advanced Features Every Healthcare App Must Have

Incorporating advanced features in a healthcare app enhances patient care, streamlines medical processes, and improves accessibility. Let’s look at some of the top advanced features for healthcare application.

Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)

With the help of IoT-enabled devices and wearables, doctors can track patients’ vitals such as heart rate, blood pressure, and glucose levels in real time. This feature enables early detection of health issues and reduces the need for frequent hospital visits, improving patient care.

Prescription Management

Digital prescription management allows doctors to prescribe medications electronically, eliminating errors and improving efficiency. Patients can track their prescription history, receive refill reminders, and even link to nearby pharmacies for hassle-free medicine procurement.

Appointment Scheduling

A seamless appointment scheduling system allows patients to book, reschedule, or cancel doctor visits at their convenience. Automated reminders help reduce no-shows, while integration with doctors’ calendars optimizes hospital workflow and reduces administrative burden.

AI-Powered Chatbots

AI-driven healthcare chatbots provide instant responses to users’ medical queries, guide them through appointment bookings, and offer symptom-based recommendations.

Available 24/7, these chatbots enhance user experience and reduce the need for direct human assistance in basic healthcare inquiries.

Multi-Language Support

To ensure accessibility for a diverse patient base, multi-language support allows users to navigate the app in their preferred language. This feature enhances communication between doctors and non-native speakers, ensuring an accurate understanding of medical instructions.

Health Data Analytics

By analyzing patient data, AI-powered health analytics provide valuable insights into wellness trends, medication adherence, and treatment effectiveness. These insights help both doctors and patients make informed decisions for better health outcomes.

Also Read: 10 Uses Cases of Predictive Analytics in Healthcare

Symptom Checker

An AI-powered symptom checker helps users assess their health conditions by analyzing their responses against medical databases. Based on symptoms entered, the feature provides preliminary guidance on whether they should seek medical attention or try at-home care.

Key Trends and Emerging Technologies Used for Healthcare Application Development

Healthcare businesses are now increasingly leveraging emerging technologies for healthcare application development. Integrating these technologies helps enhance processes, improve patient care, automate administrative tasks, and drive efficiency. Here is a list of some essential technologies that enhance overall healthcare experiences.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence in healthcare tops the list with its remarkable use cases and capabilities to analyze patient data and automate rule-based processes. It also helps discover drugs, diagnose diseases, design personalized treatment plans, and predict health outcomes. By integrating AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants in healthcare app development, medical professionals can immediately respond to patient queries, schedule appointments, and perform a variety of other tasks.

Cloud Computing

Cloud computing in healthcare apps brings along certain benefits, such as health data analytics, data security, etc., while allowing users to access information anywhere, anytime. Cloud computing features in healthcare apps make record-sharing easier, streamlining the backend operations and decreasing expenses.

AR and VR

The impact of AR/VR in the healthcare is rapidly expanding across various domains, revolutionizing patient care and medical training. One example is the FitXR BoxVR sports application, which leverages VR for immersive fitness experiences. These technologies are also transforming surgical education by enabling professionals to practice intricate procedures in a risk-free virtual environment.

Also Read: How AR/VR Apps are Gamifying Exercise and Workout?

Blockchain

Blockchain in healthcare is a significant mobile app development trend. It is helpful in managing EMR and EHR data, conducting research, and improving the insurance and hospital billing process. This is why a growing number of hospitals are building apps with Blockchain technology to manage patients’ records and perform secure transactions.

IoT and Wearable Technology

Healthcare IoT app development, along with connected devices and wearables, enables real-time monitoring of vital signs, medication adherence, and overall health status. These technologies provide patients and healthcare providers with continuous health insights, allowing for timely interventions and improved decision-making. By facilitating remote patient monitoring, they enhance chronic disease management, promote proactive care, and help reduce emergency visits.

The seamless data exchange between wearables and healthcare systems improves personalized care. Ultimately, IoT in healthcare enhances preventive care and promotes better health outcomes.

5G Connectivity

5G technology revolutionizes healthcare by providing ultra-fast, low-latency connectivity for seamless communication and data transfer. It enhances telemedicine by enabling high-resolution video consultations and real-time remote diagnosis.

The integration of 5G with IoT improves remote surgeries, wearable device performance, and emergency response systems. Healthcare providers can process large medical datasets quickly, improving efficiency and decision-making. With better connectivity, 5G expands healthcare access, especially in remote and underserved areas.

These are some of the most essential features that will enhance your healthcare app’s functionality and bring maximum engagement.

Also Read: Innovative Technology Changing Healthcare Sector

Custom Healthcare App Development Cost and Time

Healthcare application development duration and cost vary depending on various factors such as healthcare mobile app features and functionalities, UI/UX design, app security level, app’s platform, location of the app development company, and so on. These are a few of the considerable factors you must evaluate before setting a budget for hospital mobile app development.

On average, the total cost and time to build a healthcare app can range between $50,000-$300,000 and 3-18 months, respectively, depending on the app’s functionalities and other vital factors listed above.

While various factors contribute to custom healthcare app development costs and duration, features, and functionalities are the most significant elements contributing to overall development costs. Therefore, to help you make an informed decision, here is a time and cost breakdown based on essential features.

How to Generate Revenue from Your Healthcare App

Choosing the right monetization strategy is crucial for long-term success if you’re building a healthcare app. You need a model that generates revenue and provides real value to users while staying compliant with industry regulations. Here are some of the most effective ways to make money from a healthcare app:

Pay-Per-Consultation

This model works well for telemedicine apps, where users pay per session to consult with doctors, therapists, or fitness experts. It’s ideal for those who prefer one-time services rather than a recurring subscription.

Secure payment options, easy scheduling, and high-quality video consultations make this model effective. Users appreciate the flexibility of paying only when needed, whether it’s a quick virtual doctor visit or a mental health counseling session.

Subscription Plans for Premium Features

A subscription model lets users pay a recurring fee, monthly or yearly—to unlock premium features like expert consultations, personalized health insights, or advanced analytics. This approach ensures steady income and keeps users engaged for the long run.

Many successful apps offer multiple pricing tiers so users can choose a plan that fits their needs. For instance, Calm provides guided meditation and mental health support under a paid subscription model.

Also Read: Cost to Develop a Meditation App Like Calm

Licensing and B2B Partnerships

Many healthcare apps also generate revenue by licensing their technology or partnering with healthcare providers, insurance companies, or corporate wellness programs. In this model, the app is integrated into enterprise solutions, allowing businesses to provide healthcare services to employees, patients, or customers.

This approach works well for mental health apps, chronic disease management platforms, and fitness applications. Insurance companies may also offer discounts to users who regularly engage with the app, driving both adoption and profitability.

In-App Advertising

Ads can be a great source of revenue if done right. Healthcare apps can partner with relevant brands, such as pharmaceutical companies or wellness brands, to display ads that align with user interests.

The key is to keep them non-intrusive so they don’t disrupt the user experience. Personalized ad placements, like recommending a vitamin brand to someone tracking their nutrition, make this model effective while keeping users engaged.

Commission from Marketplace Transactions

If your app connects users with healthcare providers, diagnostic centers, or pharmacies, you can earn money by taking a commission from each transaction. This works well for apps that offer appointment scheduling, prescription refills, or lab test bookings. By acting as a middleman, your platform can simplify the process for users while generating steady revenue.

Challenges in Medical App Development & How to Overcome Them

Despite the growing market size of healthcare applications, many medical professionals think multiple times before starting their healthcare application development journey. Why? Many challenges are causing mobile healthcare solutions to fail. Understanding these challenges and their solutions will provide valuable insights into why healthcare apps struggle to succeed. By addressing these obstacles, you can develop an innovative, market-ready solution that stands out and drives real impact.

Let us discover the reasons why healthcare applications fail to make a lasting impact in the lives of doctors and patients.

Lack of Detailed Focus in One Domain

When a doctor or patient installs a health app, they often look for the redressal of one issue, not multiple. So, instead of having an application that solves numerous problems on the surface level, a healthcare app that addresses one point in its utmost depth has a higher success rate.

Solution:

A successful healthcare app should focus on precisely solving a single, well-defined problem. Conduct thorough market research to identify critical pain points and develop specialized solutions, such as chronic disease management, telemedicine, or medication adherence tracking.

Non-Compliance with the Law

Multiple compliance bodies are responsible for handling how the mobile health domain behaves. While being compliant with industry-specific regulations is intimidating, its absence can be one of the biggest reasons why healthcare stakeholders don’t believe in the application. The lack of approval by the FDA or a HIPAA-compliant badge in the application’s home screen or the screenshots used in the App Store and Play Store keeps the stakeholders at bay.

Solution:

Ensure compliance with industry-specific regulations by integrating secure data storage, encryption, and access control measures. Highlight certifications like HIPAA or GDPR compliance within your app and marketing materials to build trust.

Lack of Security

Although security is one of the first things every healthcare organization should consider, only a few apps take the task seriously. Millions of stories about patients’ data getting hacked or misplaced because of insecure storage infrastructure. The compliance mentioned above solves the issue somewhat, but a mobile app development experts should implement all the security measures while developing an application.

Solution:

Prioritize security by implementing end-to-end encryption, multi-factor authentication, and secure cloud storage. Regular security audits, penetration testing, and compliance with cybersecurity standards like NIST and HITRUST help reinforce app security and prevent vulnerabilities.

Presence of Multiple Channels and Devices

With several devices entering the market – smartphones, personal assistants, smart TVs, wearables, etc., interoperability has become a key challenge for healthcare application development. It makes it intimidating to ensure that the private medical data flowing in the cloud cannot be hacked.

Solution:

Leverage healthcare interoperability standards like FHIR (Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources) and HL7 to facilitate secure data exchange between devices. Conduct cross-platform testing to ensure compatibility across different operating systems and devices while maintaining security and performance.

To overcome these challenges, businesses should partner with experienced development service providers. 

How Can Appinventiv Help You with Healthcare App Development?

In the dynamic healthcare landscape, we can’t evade the importance of healthcare mobile application development. It has become a revolutionary way to streamline operations, manage data, enhance patient care, gain competitive advantages, and redefine the industry. Partnering with Appinventiv can be a strategic choice regarding healthcare mobile app development.

We are a leading healthcare app development company; when it comes to building a health app, from clinical management to efficient patient treatment and diagnosis, we provide best-in-class healthcare app solutions to boost healthcare industry elements.

Our suite of services includes

• Telehealth app development
• EHRs
• mPrescription
• Medical insurance apps
• Laboratory management
• Process management
• Lifestyle tracking
• Software integration and much more

To get an insight into our expertise in developing cutting-edge mobile apps and medical IT solutions for various domains, including healthcare mobile app development, dig deep into our portfolio and make a confident decision.

Talk to us to digitize your healthcare business now.

FAQs

Q. How much does it cost to build a healthcare app?

A. The cost to build a healthcare app would range somewhere between $50,000 to $300,000 or more. The healthcare mobile app development cost can vary depending on the platforms, technology stack, number of features to be integrated into your app, and other considerable factors. If you want to know the complete steps on how to develop a medical app and the cost to build one, connect with our experts today.

Q. How long does it take to develop a healthcare app?

A. The average time it takes to create a healthcare app can range anywhere from 3-18 months. However, there are various factors that significantly increase or decrease the hospital app development duration.

Q. Which technology is best for healthcare mobile app development?

A. When you build a healthcare app, the most common technologies used are Python, JAVA, Flutter, Swift, Kotlin, R Programming, etc. However, it’s recommended to seek your development team’s advice while choosing a technology stack. Your healthcare app developers will choose technology based on your app and budget requirements.

Q. Why do healthcare apps fail?

A. Most healthcare apps fail due to misleading information on health diagnosis, lack of techniques in clinical settings, inability to adapt to user behavior, inefficient app security, etc. However, you can overcome such challenges in the initial stages with the help of your development team.

Q. What makes a healthcare app successful?

A. According to healthcare experts, detailed and actionable information on the healthcare app can make it successful. Typically, patients download healthcare apps to track and monitor their wellbeing. Therefore, providing the right information and solutions to the users can make your app a big hit in the market.

Q. Why do healthcare apps need to be HIPAA compliant?

A. If your healthcare app collects, manages, and transfers any protected healthcare information, it is advisable to develop it with HIPAA compliance. This ensures that the medical information is encrypted and will only be accessed for the patient’s diagnosis and research.

THE AUTHOR

Dileep Gupta

DIRECTOR & CO-FOUNDER