Everyone knows how difficult it is to make an appointment with a doctor. Developing "find a doctor app" for medical centers, beauty clinics, and dentistry is a good way to improve the quality of services, stand out among competitors and gain the trust of customers. Doctors app is must-have for public and private medicine, as well as the pharmaceutical business! Since such applications contribute to the effective interaction between the doctor and the patient.
Table of contents
Main features of healthcare apps Business and monetization models doctor booking app Mobile doctor app estimations How much time does it take to develop an app? Development process Value of medical appointments app as a startup idea Popular doctor appointment applications Conclusion
The statistics say that at least 35% of smartphone owners use mobile applications to help monitor their health. This can be just one application, for example, medicine search, or several medical programs for Android or iOS at once.
How effective are they? It depends on the application type, how user-friendly the user interface is, and how seriously the user takes it. Experts predict that by next year the number of healthcare applications users will exceed 500 million.
Main features of healthcare apps
There is a high level of competition in the medical market because patients carefully choose which clinic to entrust their health. The professionalism of the doctors and the service of the clinic is the decisive factor in the selection.
Nice developed medical doctor app will help clients of the clinic to interact with it easily and save their time. It is also important that the application reliably protect patient data and medical confidentiality.
A mobile application is a virtual medical record with various capabilities that will make it easy and convenient to take care of your health. But what features should it include?
Book a doctor appointment
The patient can enroll at any time from any place without having to call the clinic. A booking can be moved or canceled;
Chat with a professional
Sometimes just a couple of messages is enough. If user has just a couple of questions, or would like to learn more about his state - he can just send standard or or video message to a specialist inside the application, without an offline appointment
Clinic or doctors search
Medical application should allow users to browse clinics around them, view other user reviews, check the schedule and list of specialists, and more
Specialists
Information about doctors, schedule and place of admission, rating, and reviews of patients, recommendations
Call a doctor
If it is not possible to come to the clinic, the patient can call the doctor through the doctor scheduling app. A specialist can describe his symptoms, as well as appoint a specific time of the visit;
Medical history
The patient can view past and future doctor's appointments, treatment prescription, medical examinations and tests directly in the application;
Family account
The ability to add a child or a close relative to your account will allow customers to take care of their loved ones;
Reviews and rating system
After visiting the doctor, the patient can evaluate his work;
Payment for services through the application
The patient can pay for the clinic services from his personal account in the application or by credit card.
Additional features:
Medication data, its reviews prices, and more.
Database. Obtaining detailed information about the medicine, its value by pointing the camera of the smartphone at the packaging barcode.
Patient's health log that helps to monitor vital parameters (blood pressure, pulse, blood glucose data).
Push Notifications about changes, news, promotions, events, new arrivals, etc.
Doctor app includes lots of features from social applications: messaging, reviews, and more. If you are curious about how to build a social media app or if you have any questions about doctor booking app, contact us. The best mova.io specialist will be glad to help you.
Business and monetization models doctor booking app
How can online doctor app be useful for business?
Increase in profits.
The application for doctor appointment is a new tool for increasing sales and returning visitors. The easier it is for the patient to interact with the booking system of the clinic, the more readily he will come back.
Customer loyalty
Offer your patients a convenient and affordable service to take care of their health, provide individual discounts. Your own application will help you to learn more about users, find out what they need and what they are looking for. Application will allow you to contact your users as well: reminding about upcoming or missing appointments, asking users if they need additional help, or how recovery is going, and much more.
Automating staff
Simple arithmetic: the more entries through the application, the fewer calls to the registry. Of course, there will be conservative patients for whom call is easier, however, administrators will be able to manage easily.
Personal offers
The data from the mobile application will help you to get to know your customers better and offer promotions interesting to them. For example, offer your patients who did not use your services for a long time to be examined by a doctor at a reduced price. It will definetely help you to attract at least half of the non-active patients.
Feedback
You can learn about the quality of the work of doctors and clinic staff by collecting feedback through the application. You can quickly correct problems, and patients will be pleased to know that their opinion is important to you.
Competitive advantage
Own mobile application will highlight you among other medical centers and will be another argument in the choice of your clinic.
Usually, doctor appointment app that is made for one particular clinic is available for free. It helps to generate new patients flow, which helps increase profits.
Applications that work as a catalog of different clinics usually use ads to make money. Besides, they can have individual contracts with various clinics. It allows earning money by helping each of them to increase the number of new patients, return existing users, and more.
Another way of monetization is offering in-app payments for rendered services, or in-app store that would help people to buy medications, pay for appointments, and so on.
Some mobile doctor applications generate profits using a paid subscription. For example, each doctor could pay a monthly membership fee. Depending on your business model, you can allow only doctors with paid subscriptions in the app. Or to show premium doctors higher in searches, and help them to find more clients with in-app ads. In this case, doctors will be happy to pay the fee, because it will allow them to increase their client base, and to market their services easier then in offline.
If you are not sure about the correct business strategy, contact mova.io. We worked on many projects, and we understand which model will work best in every individual case. Our highly professional specialists will help you to monetize Android and iOS applications by finding unique solutions for your project.
Mobile doctor app estimations
Estimating the costs and timeframes for each particular stage is a difficult task. To do this, we need to be well aware of the final result and be technically savvy in order to estimate the labor costs for each function. Therefore, most experienced specialists are usually involved in this process.
1. Preliminary cost estimate
Although the preliminary estimations are called “rough,” it allows one to know with sufficient accuracy the necessary amount of investments needed to create an application before signing any contracts. That is, you can get it within one day max.
2. The exact price for application development
A more accurate assessment of the cost of developing applications includes estimations for each particular feature: Welcome Screen, Login Screen, Registration, and so on. We calculate how much time is needed for user interface design and development, business logic development, back-end API server, and so on. It helps us to make an extremely precise estimation, that will be used to make a final offer. It is supported by a contract, which fixates the dates and stages of work with a detailed description of the final result.
How much time does it take to develop a doctor appointment booking app?
The process of creating a doctor phone app for iOS, Android and other platforms consists of several successive stages. Terms at each stage may be different depending on the complexity of work specifically for each case.
Free Estimate (~1 day)
Detailed study of the problem, analysis of the market and competitors (1-3 days)
Prototyping Writing technical specifications (5-15 days)
Design (5-15 days)
Programming (depends on the project, number of features, complexity, and so on)
Testing (just like Programming, this stage depends a lot on project complexity, and is unique to each project)
Deployment
On average, doctor appointment application development for one platform (iOS or Android) can take around four months:
user interface development: at least ~200 hours
business logic development: at least ~350 hours
back-end development: at least 250 hours
If you decide to make an app for both platforms, it will add an additional 500 hours, depending on the project complexity. With the second platform, we will be able to save much time on reusable parts of the project, such as back-end and admin panel.
The last few months were full of a whole set of events related to music services. And if you have an idea to create a music app , contact us. Our specialists will be happy to develop your project and help you achieve your goals
Development process
The development of a mobile application from scratch to release takes place on average in 7 basic steps. Some of them are pretty simple and can be done in a couple of days. Others might 3 months, or even more. Some steps can be performed in parallel and some only sequentially.
Below are the stages of the full cycle of mobile apps development from the planning to the release to stores.
Planning
Each project participant must clearly understand the task. To do this, we make a mind map, which clearly demonstrates all the product functions and prototypes, which reflect all the application screens and the transition scheme for them. Depending on our needs, prototypes can be static or interactive.
Design
After the approval of the prototypes, we take up the design of the application. After all, it is essential that the application is beautiful, functional and contains unique features that distinguish your application from competitors. We carefully draw each screen, taking into account the characteristics of the platform.
Mobile App Development
Directly developing a mobile application consists of three stages. At each stage, the customer is involved in the process in order to judge the status of the project independently and try how it works.
You must select a platform for development. Android mobile development or iOS mobile development , or both.
Server Development (backend)
The back-end is the core of the project. It helps us to save and retrieve the data from the database, authorize users. The back-end is where the core logic of the project lives in. It is essential to write the API and all the accompanying documentation and keep it in good condition.
Testing
Automatic and manual testing on different devices. It is important to pay great attention to the quality of each feature present in the application and to test them under different conditions. Users never use the app in an ideal environment, so we need to see how the app works without internet or on a slow connection. What happens if the user turns off the phone right in the middle of important calculations? Moreover, how the app will work in a “Low Power” mode, or when the battery is almost drained.
Publication to App Store and Play Market
Promotion and Marketing
Marketing is extremely important and often forgotten part of the process. Without users, the project won’t live and obviously won’t generate any revenue. Marketing can be started even before the development itself. You can contact the media, create a website with additional info about the project, begin gathering emails of early adopters, attract people in social media, and listen to their feedback.
Value of medical appointments app as a startup idea
This is a promising direction in functional medicine and pharmacy. Many health care institutions are interested in implementing new technologies. Every year the number of hospitals and private clinics increases, wishing to acquire their own mobile applications, but not everyone is ready to spend a lot of time and money on their development. However, on average, more than $ 2.5 billion is being wasted on outdated ways of interacting with patients. Moreover, we think that many hospitals will benefit a lot from simplifying the process of booking new appointments, acquiring new users, simplifying the procedures of collecting data about user’s treatment, and so on. The mobile application will not only increase profits, but will improve the user’s loyalty, and will help to expand a number of services that the clinic provides.
Applications allow you to systematize all the essential information for the health worker and have unrestricted access to it at any time, and on the patient’s side - to quickly receive adequate assistance and maintain health.
Such a startup idea will help to increase sales and return visits. Besides, it will stand out among competitors and will gain the trust of patients. Reducing the burden on staff and take feedback from users will be additional advantages.
Portfolio: LyvFit
We already worked on apps that allow you to find people who will make you healthy. LyvFit app allows you to find best trainers around you, contact them, and book a session. As for trainers, they can post their services in the app for a small fee, and make money right in the app. Want to make something similar? Contact us at mail@mova.io!
👉 read more...
Popular doctor appointment applications
Practo
This application will be useful for both a user and his relatives and friends. You may not have suspected that going to the doctors may be completely relaxed and effective. Moreover, through Practo, one can sign up for consultations with individual doctors, general examinations in clinics, spas, etc. You can get the best advice from doctors and experts in your city and share information with others.
Thanks to the search capabilities, users can search for doctors depending on the area, the availability of the institution, and even symptoms. By the way, you can consult online, which is very important for those who can not get to the hospital for several reasons. More than 30,000 qualified doctors of 20 specialties are gathered here. As well as a feature of the doctor appointment online app is that you have access to useful selected articles from experts in the field of health.
ZocDoc
ZocDoc is a medical technology company that allows patients to find and make an appointment with a doctor through a mobile application or online. The company's management claims that the average waiting time for a doctor is 19 days; the goal of Zocdoc is that patients can meet with the doctor after 24 hours.
A big problem in this area is inefficient planning methods and a high percentage of canceling or rescheduling a doctor's appointment. Having solved these issues, ZocDoc managed to achieve its goal. The company earns a subscription fee of $ 3000/year, which is paid by doctors and provides free access to patients.
Thanks to the law “On Protection of Patients and Affordable Care”, by 2025 there may be a shortage of more than 100,000 doctors, which will make the ZocDoc service even more in demand.
Each month, the company attracts more than 2.5 million unique visits.
Conclusion
Most of the online customer booking services do not stand still. They constantly improve and acquire new useful features. This type of applications is even actively implemented in many government agencies, helping to reduce queues. It is safe to say that the competition between various services for online booking will increase every year. Therefore, it is essential to create the right, and unique doctor consult app.
If you don’t know how to make a doctor booking app and want to develop it, our professional team will be happy to help you. We are developing mobile applications for iOS and Android operating systems for years, and we will be glad to share our experience with you. We worked on a wide range of projects, including applications that help find and book the right professional.
To start the process, just contact us with your idea. Our business analysts will help you to make a detailed specification and will describe in details how to build a doctor appointment app. We will find the best business plan and monetization strategy. Our company provides a full cycle of creating doctor finder app. Starting from the design of the interface and the development of the client part to the creation of the server part and integration with the existing IT infrastructure.
Have a question? Just write to us at:
📮 mail@mova.io
