In 2022, everyone will prefer to solve their difficulties through smart devices and the healthcare industry is no exception. Especially in the era of a global health crisis, where almost everyone depends on online services for everything.
Today most of the activities in healthcare service can not be completely conveyed without the automation technologies, IoT, ML, and mHealth Apps.
To make mHealth apps highly productive and responsive to patients and healthcare providers, they should have essential features. Profound knowledge of the healthcare sector, market trends, and users’ demands may generate a clear picture of the future of healthcare apps.
As a helping hand, we are mentioning some of the must-have features incorporated into a mHeath app to build an effective digital solution.
mHealth App Features for Healthcare Providers
#1. Patient Data Collection
The app must-have features that help to gather and store patients’ crucial data during their whole treatment journey. It will help healthcare providers keep track of the patient’s health progress and offer treatment based on that stored details.
#2. Professional Network
Just like in any other professional field, doctors might also need a more experienced opinion in some circumstances. If the app provides a feature for professional networks, it will help to clear doctors’ doubts on the go. Time is crucial when it comes to delivering the right treatment to save a life.
#3. Latest Updates
The healthcare providers need to stay updated with the latest developments and evolutions taking place in the healthcare field and news of the infections, illnesses, diseases, etc. to treat the patients right. The app should have features that monitor the upcoming updates of the MedTech Market.
#4. Telehealth
With modern technology, doctors can diagnose patients without the need of visiting them in person. Through video interaction, doctors can provide detailed opinions to their patients based on their symptoms. To go the extra mile, many healthcare apps provide doctors with an interface to add patients’ details during diagnosis through telecall. Integration of EHR (Electronic Health Record) helps to save a bunch of time as well as boost productivity.
#5. Scheduling Appointments
Keeping track of all the upcoming appointments is significant for healthcare providers. So the feature of digitally scheduling appointments and providing on-time reminders can be a huge helping hand to the physicians.
mHealth App Features for Patients
#1. Personalized Updates
Providing users on-demand updates about their blood pressure, heart rate, oxygen level, or any other health-relevant information will help them to make decisions about their healthy lifestyle and intaking medications.
#2. Diagnosis
Wearables or smartwatches have features to diagnose and analyze users’ health status and call ability for help in case of any emergency. Not only Smart gadgets, but mobile devices also support users’ diagnoses.
#3. Prescription
A prescription feature helps patients keep track of prescribed medications by doctors and physicians. It will help to ensure that the medications are taken properly. The more effortlessly medication-taking fits into a patient’s everyday routine, the more likely they will stick with it.
#4. Reminders
Some patients would love to have a pillbox, and some use reminder applications. Some set an alarm on their smartwatch, and some manage a medication reference sheet that includes pills, dosages, and times. Assess each patient’s routines and preferences to build a reminder feature that suits the best patients.
#5. Monitoring Patient Health
For the patients who are suffering from chronic diseases, this feature helps to keep monitoring them round the clock to take the right actions in advance before the situation gets worse.
#6. Nutrition
Everyone needs a proper diet plan that suits their body type and lifestyle and maintains good nutritional status. The diet should also be analyzed for calories, vitamins, fluid, calcium, protein, and other nutrients. The personalized nutrition feature will offer patients a meal plan according to their health data that helps them to prevent both undernutrition and being overweight throughout life.
#7. Personal Trainers
Getting a personal trainer is not a budget-friendly option for everyone. So app developers should develop features of personal trainers that help app users throughout the whole journey of weight loss, remind them of exercise regimen, diet, etc.
mHealth App Common Features
#1. Data Security
Security is the top priority of any mobile app and is especially important for mHealth apps. It is necessary to add the features of data encryption, PINs and passwords, high-level authentication, limited accessibility, server-side security, regular updates & security patches, and secure data storage. Also, check on the third-party code as it is one of the major risk factors in app development.
#2. Geolocation
Geo location-based services are one of the great features of any healthcare app. The mHeath app developers can display a medical institution on an integrated map or navigate the user to the nearest clinic/hospital. Many apps facilitate outdoor maps, so it is recommended to add an indoor hospital map for a superior user experience.
#3. Payment Gateway
The traditional way of paying bills is very time and effort-consuming. So, any of the mHealth apps should have a feature of payment integration as it is necessary to offer users a simple way to pay for their appointment. Offering Visa or Mastercard payments or integrating payment gateways like Stripe and Paypal make the process of bill payment seamless for healthcare professionals.
#4. Integration with Wearable
Wearable devices collect essential details like blood pressure, heartbeat, sleeping hours, steps, breathing, and much more. It will help healthcare providers for improved health condition detection, drug prescription, and more precise patient tracking. That is the reason why a good healthcare app should have flawless integration with different wearables to collect the data from the users.
#5. Reviews and Ratings
Reviews provided by the users about their experience are a strong tool to display the credibility and transparency of the service providers. A review and rating feature will ensure that the hospitals are taking good care of their patients’ relations.
Summing Up
For the betterment of any mHealth app, make it highly effective and valuable for different user categories whether it is patients, doctors, emergency caregivers, and the whole medical system. The app must integrate a set of essential features that address users’ needs.
The above-listed features are necessary to make the mHealth app function well. There is always room to build and integrate additional features to meet evolving market demand.
