Services
Telehealth
Integrations
Wearable
Patient Privacy &
HIPAA Compliance
An entire category of apps, called telehealth, exists and broadly entails making medical services available remotely using mobile devices. Use cases include remote doctor visits using video chat, online prescription management, appointment scheduling, health monitoring, on-demand access to emergency health services, and much more.
CitrusBits has had a demonstrated history of delivering advanced healthcare apps that leverage VR/AR technology, with a longtime development partnership with IrisVision, the leading vision rehabilitation platform for people with vision impairments such as macular degeneration.
Telehealth
An entire category of apps, called telehealth, exists and broadly entails making medical services available remotely using mobile devices. Use cases include remote doctor visits using video chat, online prescription management, appointment scheduling, health monitoring, on-demand access to emergency health services, and much more.
CitrusBits has had a demonstrated history of delivering advanced healthcare apps that leverage VR/AR technology, with a longtime development partnership with IrisVision, the leading vision rehabilitation platform for people with vision impairments such as macular degeneration.
Integrations
We are adept at integrating with most health and fitness-related mobile platforms, including iOS HealthKit and Google Fit. Also, our team is able to integrate with EHR and EMR systems and other existing systems in your tech stack, either through existing APIs or by building custom APIs ourselves
Wearables
Preventive healthcare is based on providing patients with instant access to information about their health.
What better way to do so than by providing them with 24/7 access to their vitals through a wearable health monitoring device? With today’s smartwatches being able to measure heart rates, run ECG testing, and more, there is now a great need for apps that take advantage of these sensors to realize the promise of mobile health.
From health monitoring to clinical research studies, wearables and their supporting apps are poised to play a crucial role in healthcare going forward.
Patient Privacy &
HIPAA Compliance
Securing protected health information and patient privacy is a critical requirement of any healthcare app—not just for HIPAA compliance, but for your users’ peace of mind. Our mHealth and health-related apps are built with security and privacy best practices in mind, protecting sensitive information both in transit and at rest.
Offerings
UI/UX Design
User Research
Wireframing, Visual Design, and Prototyping
Interactive Design
Motion Design
Gamification
Usability Testing
Mobile App Development
Enterprise Apps
iOS/ Android
Cross-platform
iPad Apps
3rd Party Integrations
Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality
Internet of Things (IoT)
Patient Privacy
HIPAA-Compliant Server, Cloud, and App Solutions,
Secure Authentication and Data Encryption
Privacy Management and Controls
UI/UX
Design
User Research
Wireframing, Visual Design, and Prototyping
Interactive Design
Motion Design
Gamification
Usability Testing
Mobile App
Development
Enterprise Apps
iOS/ Android
Cross-platform
iPad Apps
3rd Party Integrations
Augmented Reality/ Virtual Reality
Internet of Things (IoT)
Patient
Privacy
HIPAA-Compliant Server, Cloud, and App Solutions,
Secure Authentication and Data Encryption
Privacy Management and Controls
Client Testimonial
★★★★★
We’re most impressed by their commitment to delivering the best possible experience for our end users. Few partners approach a project as if the product they’re building will be used by people they personally know and care about, but we found this to be the case with CitrusBits.
Frequently Ask Questions
The healthcare app development cycle may vary depending upon the type of app being built (doctor-facing app, patient-facing app, and so forth). The basic workflow for making a healthcare app is as follows.
Analysis and project planning
UI and UX design
Front and back-end development
HL7 integration
App testing
App maintenance (updates and bug fixes
Honestly, there’s no one-size-fits-all answer to this.
The cost of the healthcare app depends on many factors, such as the features you wish to include, the number of operating platforms (web, iOS, and Android), and the level of customization, among many other things. Remember that the features vary according to the type of app you choose to build (patient-facing app, doctor-facing app, pharmacist-facing app, to name a few).
Just like the necessary budget, the time required for healthcare app development also varies. It depends on the scope of the project, including factors such as the nature of the app, level of customization, required features, and the solutions integrated, along with many other options.
While the app features may differ from one good health app to another, a truly great health app will focus on user experience and adhere to healthcare privacy regulations such as HIPAA in the U.S. which can bring monetary penalties of up to $1.5 million in the event of a data breach.
User experience is another critical area that mobile healthcare apps can get right – or get horribly wrong. Most mobile healthcare apps are designed for a wide range of users, including older users (e.g. baby boomers) who might not be as familiar with mobile app conventions like gesture controls (pinching and swiping), heart icons (favorite), or even how to use a “hamburger menu”.
Although healthcare apps are built on a consumer-centric approach, aiming to improve the overall health of their users, the majority of them fail to meet their expectations. People generally look for three basic features in a healthcare application:
Ability to schedule and cancel appointments
Access to their medical records
Ability to request prescriptions from doctors
A professional healthcare app gives healthcare providers access to treatment plans, medical resources, and more. They got an entire up-to-date glossary of drugs and pill identifiers. These apps help healthcare professionals facilitate and improve patient care by keeping track of their patients’ conditions and progress during treatment.
Mobile medical apps, also termed medical apps, are apps for mobile devices like smartphones and tablets that support healthcare professionals or patients in diagnosing, treating, and monitoring diseases.
We can say these are mobile apps that meet the definition of a medical device and are either an accessory to a regulated medical device or a way of transforming a mobile platform into a regulated medical device.
Using mobile phones and other wireless devices in medical care is referred to as mHealth or mobile health. The most common application of mHealth is the use of mobile devices to educate consumers about preventive healthcare services.
During the pandemic, the healthcare industry shifted from in-person care to virtual delivery. Many Americans today are a lot more open-minded and accepting of telehealth or virtual visits.
Contact Us
Stages of developing a healthcare app
Talking about the consumer side, patients absolutely love using healthcare applications. 71% of patients say they would prefer their doctors to use a healthcare mobile app.
The same applies on the provider side; mobile healthcare has become ubiquitous. According to NCBI, 70% of medical students reported using at least one healthcare app regularly, while 50% said they use their favorite healthcare app every day.
The stated facts and figures are convincing enough to get a mobile healthcare application developed, but keep in mind that it’s not a straightforward process. There are many nuances that are different from other types of mobile applications that you need to consider.
Here’s a brief rundown of the basic steps of developing a mobile healthcare application. (keep in mind that these steps may vary depending on the type of healthcare application you’re building).
Set the goals you need to meet with your application
First and foremost, you need to define the specific goal you want to achieve through your healthcare application. Specify the audience your application is intended to serve.
Here’s the secret formula that makes all the successful mobile applications users’ absolute favorites. From the consumer’s perspective, there’s always a connection between a mobile application and a specific use case. For instance, we scroll through Facebook to see what our friends are up to or to unwind, LinkedIn to job hunt or to read professional news and network updates, and a medical app for drug information.
Before you kickstart the development process, ask yourself this question first: what will my ideal customer regularly do using this application?
What is the problem that your healthcare application will solve?
In other words, define the type of healthcare application you are going to develop. If you’re developing a new healthcare application, make sure it serves as a solution to a problem patients/doctor’s are facing.
For instance, your major concern is getting healthcare to people living in remote areas. According to the Rural Health Information Hub, long distances can be a considerable obstacle in terms of time and cost to access healthcare. A mobile healthcare application will bridge the gap between them and healthcare providers, enabling them to access quality medical care
Study your competitors to outshine them
Once you have identified the goal, or rather, the problem your application is going to solve, look out for your competitors who offer comparable solutions.
More competition in the market means more demand for the product, and hence it will be more challenging for your brand to get noticed. But despite this, you still have to closely analyze what your competitors are up to.
Identify your competitors’ USP (unique selling point) to know what exactly your target audience is looking for. Lastly, define how you plan to monetize your application.
Once you have gone through the aforementioned steps, you are ready to kickstart your mobile healthcare application development as follows:
- UX and UI design
- Front-end and back-end development
- HL7 integrations
- MVP testing, debugging, and deployment
- App maintenance (updates and bug fixes)
Types of healthcare apps?
Though there are different variations of telehealth applications in the market, we’ve listed five basic types to get you started.
Live Video-Conferencing
One of the most popular telehealth use cases, live video conferencing, is exactly what it sounds like – a live, two-way video conference by everyone between a patient and their doctor. This type of telehealth is commonly used nowadays, from doctors in local clinics to healthcare providers with their own private practices.
Video-conferencing not only takes out the travel time and stress for both the patient and the provider, but also helps introduce healthcare to areas (typically rural) that do not have roughly the same health coverage as urban areas.
Emergency Apps
These types of apps are designed to help users get the attention they need during health emergencies. For instance, if a user feels ill, loses consciousness, gets burns, or anything else along the lines of an emergency, they can press the ‘Help button’, send a request, or make a phone call to the hospital. Or, people can access nearby clinics on maps and take a ride if their health condition is not that serious.
Reminders and Medication Tracking Apps
These types of apps are ideal for helping users stick with their routine treatment plans or medicine doses. They’ll allow users or caretakers to program treatment or dosage details—what to take, how much to take, and when to take—and then the app will serve up real-time notifications to ensure the treatment plan is followed.
Healthy Lifestyle and Fitness Apps
This is a broad category of apps that focus on helping users adopt or maintain healthier lifestyles. For example, women who are pregnant may use an app to help them manage and understand how they’re progressing through each trimester.
EHR Apps
Electronic Health Records (EHR) applications store data on all health conditions for each patient and make it accessible to the appropriate parties. They allow sharing of information with health care providers such as health specialists, laboratories, and pharmacists (if necessary). The data includes electronic medical records, and official documents used by clinics, hospitals, and other healthcare providers.
What would make a successful telehealth app
The telehealth market is projected to reach $560 billion by 2027. Every organization in the healthcare sector is taking measures to ensure they can meet care demands digitally.
Simply adding new telehealth applications and digital experiences won’t be enough. Healthcare services have to focus on delivering high-quality and reliable applications to meet their patients’ needs and expectations.
Take a look at the following key considerations to develop a successful telehealth application:
Take insights from your patients
Whether it’s a retail application or a remote healthcare facility, transparency and convenience are something that today’s educated consumers are looking for. Your patients’ input is crucial in building a successful telehealth application.
While apps may be designed to perform certain functions, without patient input, there’s a chance you’d miss the mark on what they expect from it. To avoid this, you definitely need to gather information from a representative patient base.
You need to make sure you’re designing the telehealth app for all your consumers – does your app work well for specially abled people? Does it work with a screen reader? Did you take into consideration some best practices for dyslexic readers?
Lastly, your telehealth application should be well integrated with your system to deliver a consistent and well-coordinated user experience.
Make the app intuitive for healthcare professionals
Telehealth apps are not just about patients. Healthcare professionals are the most frequent users of telehealth applications. Apps that deliver real value are the ones that give healthcare workers quick access to patients’ medical records and other information while saving them time and effort.
Furthermore, think of incorporating automated monitoring either through sensors or by fetching information from patients’ health-tracking devices (after thorough testing, of course).
Common healthcare app features?
Different types of apps provide specific and distinctive features for patients, doctors, and supporting staff, which comprise the telehealth service. Let’s go through some of the common features of each version:
Patient-Facing App
Patient-facing healthcare applications pursue four main goals:
- Connection to healthcare workers and facilities
- Management of healthcare records
- Diagnosis of health conditions
- Maintenance of chronic conditions
Video-conferencing not only takes out the travel time and stress for both the patient and the provider, but also helps introduce healthcare to areas (typically rural) that do not have roughly the same health coverage as urban areas.
If you log in as a patient in the telehealth app, you should find the following components in your app:
Sign In
The easiest way to register a profile in these apps is by using a personal email or, even better, a phone number. Such apps can include highly confidential and sensitive details about the health of a patient, which is why strong security is necessary.
Personal Profile
In their personal profile, the patients will be entering information about anything their doctor might need to know (medical conditions/illnesses they may have had). This may include blood type, allergies, age, weight, and other critical medical information.
Search and Find a Doctor
This feature will let patients browse through a list of healthcare providers using filters ranging from specialty and gender to language and insurance provider. It will help patients find a doctor who fits their interests and preferences.
Schedule
Patients value the ability to schedule appointments with doctors using a mobile app. Additionally, each patient using the application should have a personalized calendar where all scheduled doctor appointments can be seen.
Text and Video Chats
Patients will have private discussions about their conditions or health concerns with selected doctors. They may need to send text messages, make video calls, send pictures, and share files via the chat interface.
Payments
Patients will expect to have multiple payment options at their disposal. If your telehealth app deals with or accepts insurance, the app may need to be integrated with different insurance carriers. If not, it should allow users to quickly connect and pay with a credit card.
Geolocation
The doctors and specialists that the patients will be connected with must be licensed to practice in the county where they are based.
Give Reviews and Rate Doctors
Patient reviews are a reliable way for potential patients to make educated decisions about whether or not to book an appointment with a specific physician.
Doctor-Facing App
Similarly, if you sign in as a doctor (or other healthcare provider), you must have the following components on your dashboard
Management of Appointment Schedules
Doctors can schedule appointments, accept or reject appointments, make any changes to them or manage their availability through the app.
View EHRs
Telehealth apps can be connected with EHR systems, allowing doctors to check their patients’ medical records or any other health-related information such as lab reports in real-time.
Provide Digital Prescriptions
This feature will enable doctors to prescribe medication or treatment directly from the app.
Messages
This feature will allow the doctors and patients to chat in real-time and/or via in-app mailboxes. Messages allow doctors to respond to their patients’ queries and recommend treatment plans.
Calls
A calling feature helps doctors connect with patients through face-to-face video consultations. Doctors can respond to the patients’ queries and prescribe medicines and treatments through messages.\
View Patients’ Medical History
As a doctor, you would find checking on a patient’s medical history through an app incredibly helpful. The patient history tab will contain details such as the doctor’s name, date of the appointment, and type of treatment they received.
Notifications
Doctors run busy schedules. Therefore, a telehealth app that provides real-time reminders about appointments before they start can be an extremely valuable proposition. Also, doctors (and their staff) might want to be notified when a patient requests an appointment.
Types of apps we can help with (building/revamping)
- Wellness and Fitness Apps
- Remote Patient Monitoring Apps
- AI-Based Voice Assistant Apps
- Prescription Management and Automation Apps
- Telemedicine Apps
- Secure and Private Communication Apps
- Emergency Response Apps
- Staff Training and Conferencing Platforms
- HL7 Service Apps
