How to Build a Telemedicine Platform (App) in 2023

The era of telemedicine software solutions has officially started. Patients that have enjoyed remote care during COVID are reluctant to return to offline medical facilities. They prefer hospitals that can provide help virtually unless something acute happens. Users also willingly adopt new apps for personal health monitoring.

Both patients and practitioners want to use telehealth solutions which fuel the demand for telehealth app development. The global telemedicine market is growing at a CAGR of 25.9% and will reach $431,823.81 million by 2023 . Telehealth software development is an excellent investment as a large part of the healthcare industry moves online.

This article explains how to create a telemedicine platform with steps and tips from Binariks. After completing multiple telehealth projects , we are happy to share our expertise and assist with development.

↑ 38% growth in telemedicine software demand

The 38X growth in telehealth usage since the end of 2020 reflects the critical role of custom telemedicine software in the industry. Apps like Teladoc, AmWell, Doctor on Demand, MDLive, and Healthily revolutionize healthcare services by moving them online.

Apart from the patients' willingness to use telehealth apps, telemedicine software adoption is also driven by the government. Recent regulatory changes have created more favorable conditions for those who build and implement telehealth.

These global trends have resulted in the rapid growth of telemedicine development, adoption, and popularity:

• The telehealth software market demand will rise at 15.4% CAGR in 2022-2030 compared to the 13.8% CAGR registered during 2015-2021 (Allied Market Research).
• The global telehealth software market will record an increase in revenue from ~$6,010 million in 2022 to ~$ 14,200 million by 2030 (Allied Market Research).
• 90% of organizations have already started or implemented telemedicine programs (Allied Market Research).
• While 65% of physicians didn't use telehealth apps before the pandemic, only 7% don't utilize them today. The exclusive, heavy, and moderate use percentage has also considerably increased. Even though now it's lower than during the peak pandemic, the rates remain high (Statista).

Distribution of telehealth use among physicians before and after the pandemic

• As of March 2021, over 61% of Americans reported using a telehealth appointment, a significant increase from March 2020, when less than 20% had telehealth visits (Statista).
• Around 68% of surveyed Americans tried telemedicine because their physician moved in-person appointments online. Meanwhile, 28% mentioned that telehealth was a convenient choice for immediate care (Statista).
• Above 93% of physicians expect to use telehealth solutions in the future (Forbes).

As you can see from the statistics, the impact of telemedicine mobile app development has increased drastically. Even the approaching end of the pandemic cannot stop telemedicine expansion. The virtual care trend will persist for decades, changing how we provide healthcare services.

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Major types of telemedicine in healthcare

Telehealth platform development is an umbrella term covering many types of telemedicine apps. They all have one thing in common. These apps connect patients and doctors through virtual channels, moving care online. Other than that, custom telehealth software apps considerably differ.

Here are the main types of telemedicine solutions in healthcare to consider as a model when developing your app.

• Interactive telemedicine. Interactive apps are the basic option for telemedicine app development. They offer phone and video consulting for situations when no close contact between patients and clinicians is needed. The primary use cases are follow-up consultations after hospital discharge, mental health therapy, pharmaceutical and nursing consulting, or care for people in remote locations.
• IoT-based telemedicine. These smart devices gather, process, and record patients’ health details. The information is automatically added to EHR or displayed in a connected app. It may be anything from a cardiac health sensor attached to your chest to a fitness tracker band.
• Store-and-forward telemedicine. These apps forward images or short messages and don't support video conferencing. They are mainly effective in dermatology and other fields where clinicians can evaluate the health condition with minimum information.

Our company focuses on interactive and IoT-based solutions since they are the most popular among users. These apps ensure a higher automation level and more advanced features for patients and health teams. If you have doubts about what type of telemedicine app to choose for your business idea, contact us for consulting.

Must-have features to add to telemedicine software

When you research how to make a telemedicine app, telemedicine app features are the first thing to consider. You must know what the application will do based on the services you aim to provide to the target audience. Below are the primary functions the best telemedicine app must have.

Sign-in and registration

Since medical applications gather sensitive information protected by data security regulations, you must limit access to it. Two-factor authentication is fundamental to ensure only eligible users can navigate the app. Besides the sign-in functionality, you also need to add the registration page. Here new users will create accounts, enter login credentials, contact details, and payment information.

Patient dashboard

Add a dashboard where patients can view their personal information, treatment history, prescriptions, reports, and other details. If it's a health tracking app, the dashboard should also indicate detailed statistics on tracked indicators.

Doctor panel

Build the panel in a doctor’s app where medical teams can check comprehensive information on a specific patient. It must provide demographic data, previous and current treatment, lab results, and other critical details. You should also enable clinicians to generate and download reports as well as share data with other doctors.

Video meeting

Video calls are the fundamental feature in interactive telemedicine apps being used in 88% of virtual visits . Patients and doctors should see each other to find common ground and explain their point. Video chats help to build trust that phone communication or messages cannot ensure.

Messaging

When you build a telehealth app, allow patients to get in touch with healthcare professionals through quick messages. Video or phone consulting is not always necessary. Sometimes, a concise message is more appropriate and informative.

EHR integration

Develop telehealth solutions that easily integrate with an EHR. It’s a popular combination to create an advanced electronic record management (EMR) platform that allows patients and doctors to talk directly on top of other features. Medical software integration capabilities will make your app more popular among providers with established IT infrastructure.

Scheduling

Implement a calendar with scheduling to allow users to arrange meetings right in a telemedicine app. They should be able to view free time slots and request a consultation when both parties can join it.

Remote patient monitoring (RPM)

Remote patient monitoring is necessary to create a custom telemedicine app for IoT. The app will monitor patients independently and automatically record metrics like heart rate, body temperature, oxygen level, etc., in the system.

E-prescription and medication tracker

Design telemedicine apps with a medicine tracker to avoid preventable deaths and high medical costs. It must also enable clinicians to make e-prescriptions.

Payments

To return the funds invested in telemedicine app development, you need to charge people using it. So be sure to integrate a payment gateway to process user payments when they subscribe. If you plan to sell a telemedicine platform to hospitals, online payment functionality may be unnecessary. Read also: How to integrate EHR in medical billing .

Notifications

Enhance the user experience of your telemedicine app by implementing push notifications, text messages, or email alerts. Note that you must deliver critical updates only.

Unique features of telemedicine software

Since telehealth apps greatly vary, the core functionality in your product may be different. You may add unique features to customize the app based on the end-users' needs.

For example, if you create an application for patients, consider adding geolocation tracking. This feature will allow patients to check medical facilities and pharmacies nearby. Doctor reviews are also a helpful add-on since they guide users on what clinicians to pick. Besides, you may integrate the app with home devices like Alexa, allowing patients to give voice commands.

A doctor's app, on the other hand, must include more administrative and analytical features. Its task is to help clinicians manage their work by checking their schedules and communicating with other doctors. You may also need to build an admin web app with features to manage patients and doctors' profiles, analyze app use, and integrate third-party solutions.

Initial market research is a good way to narrow down the functionality the app must have. Afterward, software developers will create an MVP to test the core features, add new functions, or eliminate unnecessary ones.

Common benefits of telemedicine software for patients, doctors, providers

Patients, doctors, and healthcare providers are the main user groups benefiting from virtual healthcare software development. Let's clarify why.

Benefits for healthcare providers

The research by McKinsey suggests that virtual urgent care solutions could potentially replace around 20% of emergency room visits. 24% of healthcare office visits and 35% of regular home health attendant services could also be delivered virtually. Such changes would add up to $250 billion in healthcare spending. In addition to considerable optimization of expenses, telehealth apps also enhance the performance of medical teams and facilitate cross-team cooperation.

Benefits for patients

The development of telemedicine systems heavily benefits patients by making care more accessible and convenient. Instead of going to a hospital and waiting in a lobby, they can get help without leaving their beds. Patients can consult with leading specialists even if they live in a distant rural area or travel abroad. It makes quality healthcare services available worldwide. Most importantly, such healthcare services are more affordable than in-person visits.

Benefits for doctors

Telemedicine apps eliminate a great deal of paperwork. Doctors have less information to enter manually as the software does it for them through remote patient tracking. Telemedicine software also gives clinicians an easy way to contact patients directly for a quick talk. Thus, they assign in-person visits only to people who cannot do without offline treatment. As a result, clinicians' performance considerably improves since they can help more patients in less time.

Challenges in telemedicine software development

Telemedicine app development requires profound expertise as you will face many challenges. They may disrupt the software development process or, what's worse, harm the final product. If you fail to address these issues, an app will be inconvenient and insecure.

Regulatory compliance

Custom telehealth software processes highly confidential data and is subject to a bunch of regulations. You must partner with software development professionals who know how to create telemedicine apps compliant with:

• HIPAA
• GDPR
• IEC 62304
• DICOM
• HL-7
• ICD-10

Without following these guidelines, you risk creating an app that is vulnerable and violates data privacy regulations.

Keeping the quality of healthcare services

Diagnosing patients remotely is more challenging than in person. That's why the product must offer quality video and imaging while working smoothly. A tech flaw may result in wrong diagnoses and harm patients.

"The technology is problematic, very cumbersome: there are multiple programs which can cause delay…"

nature.com

Interoperability

A telemedicine app is a part of larger healthcare IT infrastructure with many applications. Yet, integrating it with the existing software of a clinic may be difficult due to discrepancies. Thus, developing an application with proper interoperability is essential to ensure flawless data exchange.

Implementing UI/UX

While building a telemedicine platform, you may have to develop several connected apps for patients, doctors, and admins. All of these solutions need a custom approach to UI/UX. It increases the time spent on software development and requires thorough testing to ensure all applications are convenient. Mind that some end-users may have low computer proficiency or disabilities. Hence, you must create a design with as clear navigation as possible.

"There are also accessibility issues, because not everyone has access to a high-quality mobile device or personal computer that they can use in a private, secure space with a stable internet connection. And there are others who have difficulty using computers altogether."

Antonio Baldassare

CEO of UniDoc Health

Scalability

If your app gains popularity, the number of users may rapidly grow. You should also expect peak seasons like the pandemic or rising cases because of the cold weather. It creates additional complexities since you must build a solution that can withstand rapidly growing loads with equally good performance.

How to develop telehealth software [Step-by-step]

Now, let's talk about how to build a telemedicine platform in more detail. The main steps correspond to the standard stages of any progressive software development lifecycle.

1. Planning

Even though telehealth software is in high demand and super popular globally, you must develop it for a specific target audience. During the planning phase, evaluate your business goals, financial and human resources, timelines, and KPIs. Also, consider the regulations you must meet in your location.

2. Research

The discovery phase is crucial for telemedicine app development as engineers and clients may have different views of the product. Thus, you need to clarify what functionality your potential audience needs through market research. Your business analysts will formulate the best project concept based on the findings.

3. UI/UX Design

Define the core user scenarios (e.g., messaging a physician in an online chat, launching a conference to discuss a patient's case, etc.) and main features to plan user journeys. Then, create a prototype that shows how the app will look when it's ready. The prototype will guide your engineers during the next stages and can be used to start promoting the app.

4. Product development

Code, create the final design, and integrate API to develop a working product. It's the most time-consuming and challenging stage of telemedicine software creation.

5. Testing

Involve QA engineers to test the product and eliminate bugs before launching the app. They will test every detail to compile a bug report and hand it back to software developers for fixing. This stage is life-critical for end product quality .

6. Delivery and maintenance

Make your application available to users and publish it on app stores if applicable. Gather feedback from real users to implement app improvements based on the reviews.

You must also keep promoting the product to engage new users and nurture its popularity.

Tech stack for your telehealth software platform

Telehealth platforms are usually web-based but you may also choose to design mobile versions for iOS and Android. It will make your solutions more convenient, especially for people who prefer smartphones.

Based on the experience of the Binariks software development company, telehealth software development involves the following tech stack:

How to integrate telemedicine software features to your existing software

Since most healthcare providers already use software for everyday operations, you may need to integrate telemedicine features with existing services. The integration with an EHR system is a common case. It powers the EHR with additional useful features like video conferencing and remote patient monitoring. Hence, medical teams can arrange, launch, prepare for, conduct, and follow up virtual visits in a single platform.

If you are looking for the best ways to add telemedicine features to your existing software, contact Binariks for help. We can evaluate your project to provide consulting or do the integration for you.

How much does it cost to build telemedicine software?

For accurate cost estimates, you need to have the detailed concept of a telehealth app. Only then, you will know the functionality, additional integrations, team size, deadlines, and other factors defining the final cost. Generally, the total price varies from $100,000 to $250,000. The development duration is from 6 months and up, depending on the project complexity.

Let's say you want to build a telemedicine consultation app with profile management, appointment scheduling, audiovisual communications, and payments. You pay $60/hour of work. Then, the timeline and cost may look as following:

Of course, these estimates are rough. For more accurate pricing, you need to calculate the budget for your project based on its specifications. Besides, the hourly rates of every specialist joining your team also vary.

How Binariks can help with telemedicine development

Binariks is an IT outsourcing company specializing in telemedicine software development . We can assist you with EHR and telemedicine integration or develop a separate application from scratch. Our company offers engagement models suitable for any business needs. You can request consulting, engage our specialists to solve specific tasks, or hire a dedicated team 100% focused on your project.

Check the projects we have completed for healthcare providers here to understand how Binariks works. You can also reach us with any questions directly.

Final thoughts

Telemedicine is the most popular direction in healthcare software development. It grows extremely rapidly since patients, physicians, hospitals, and even governments are interested in telehealth adoption. Therefore, if you are about to initiate a telehealth app development project, it has great chances to become a success. Just mind inevitable challenges like regulatory compliance, software interoperability, and reliability. If you need help with any tech process or consulting, Binariks is always happy to assist you.