Mobile health app development guide 2022 + Infographics

It’s one of the largest and fastest-growing industries in the world. The recent statistics clearly show mobile health industry (mHealth) has a growing market share and rosy prospects. Here are some highlights from around the globe:

1. Healthcare sector’s revenue is expected to grow 20% in 2021-22.

2. Global healthcare spending can increase three-fold to $10 trillion by 2022.

3. Healthcare IT’s profits are forecast to increase from 14 billion in 2019 to 28 billion U.S. dollars in 2024.

4. 60% of mobile users downloaded a mobile Health app to their device.

5. Online fitness app market could reach $14.46 billion by 2027.

6. Statista shows that the global mHealth market is expected to be $100 billion by 2022, which is nearly half of the predicted total digital healthcare share of $206 billion.

Isn’t the above data really lucrative for developing a mobile health app? Let’s dive into the blog to know more about mHealth.

What is mHealth?

How Coronavirus pandemic has increased the importance of mobile Health apps?

Top HealthCare Startups & the best mobile Health apps all around the globe

What features are required in mHealth and fitness apps? (Cost + Time + Infographics)

Health and fitness apps are playing a significant role to fulfil the healthcare needs of countless people across the world. Here are some important features that make the apps more useful and popular among the users:

Features of mHealth Apps:

Video Conferencing Features with Telemedicine:
This is an integrated feature in mHealth mobile apps that is used in medical training, education and credentialing, and patient care. It allows medical experts to work together in real-time with patients over video calls. It also helps to communicate with the patients more effectively and reliably from any location, on any device. This in turn brings higher productivity and reduces the overall cost of healthcare for patients and providers.  This feature can be developed in 78-80 hours and the cost is around $2200.

The User and Doctor Profile Feature:
This is a must-have feature of any mHealth app. It should allow the doctors to display their specializations, experience, clinic location, or appointment cost in the account profile. So that, patients can choose their required physician according to their needs. For patients, it should allow them to personalize the account’s profile and have easy access. It also helps them to log in to the app from their different social media accounts. The cost of the feature is around $600 and time requires around 15-16 hours. 

Search Feature:
It helps the users to search for anything they want to look at. The search box has filters, suggestions, and auto-completion much as you can experience with Google or a similar search engine. It may cost around $600 and the development time is 15-16 hours.

Listing Feature:
This feature works well to show a list of search results. Also, helps to verify the patients to set up appointments for doctors, lab tests, and so on. This feature might take 7-8 hours, with pricing around $400.

Booking Features:
In this particular feature, users can quickly check the availability of any doctor and have the appointment fixed at their convenient time. And, it ensures the users a hassle-free yet better management of appointments prior to visiting the place.  This feature can be developed in 22-24 hours and the cost is around $800.

An e-Prescription Feature:
It is a reliable feature of any mHealth mobile app. It lets patients feel comfortable as they can get access to their medication information along with other relevant details, communicate with doctors, look through all prescriptions. This feature also helps the doctors to improve the workflow and patient care quality. The e-prescription can be automatically sent to the drug stores with an in-built pharmacy lookup feature. It’s a way to boost the patient’s belief and satisfaction. This feature’s cost may range from $650-$750 and time will take around 18-20 hours. 

An Activity Feed Feature:
This feature helps to streamline the user activity. Users can check their different activities effortlessly which have been used sequentially. It also shows various topics that users might feel to be relevant. The development timeline for this feature is 7-8 hours and translates into $400.

The User or Health Dashboard Feature:
With the help of this feature, users can experience an outstanding and easy-to-use dashboard. It helps them to see charts, track health records, rehab exercises along other relevant details customized as per their activity feeds. Most importantly, a bright, colorful, and user-friendly dashboard should accompany it to gain popularity among users. It may cost around $1200 and the development time is 38-40 hours.

A “Share Your Progress” Feature:
A mobile health app must need a “Share Your Progress” feature. This feature makes it easy to track users’ daily, weekly or monthly health progress. Also, it enables to share the progress in the in-app community where users can have healthy competition with each other. So, the users feel comfortable and part of a supportive community. This feature is most useful in fitness or sports apps which takes approximately 7-8 hours to build and the pricing is around $400.

Medicinal Record and Calculation Feature:
Medicinal records and calculating the medical expense are significant features for any mHealth app. This feature helps to grow the patient care quality exponentially. It enables the users to calculate their medicine’s price, check how long their prescription will last. Also, helps to track other health-related calculations and maintain accurate online medical records. The development cost of this feature is $1000 and time requires around 30-32 hours.

Symptoms Checker Feature:
This is an inevitable feature in any modern health monitoring app. It is designed to provide proper and accurate information in a systematic manner. This feature enables the users to put their symptoms with additional parameters like age, sex, medical history, etc. And, offers them a more precise diagnosis.  It costs around $800 and the development time is 24-25 hours.

AI Integration Feature:
A mHealth application tips list should include an AI Integration feature. Artificial intelligence algorithm is the most useful tool if your app has health monitoring or tracking functionalities. This tool ensures fast and easy work of the app and to get the diagnosis as accurate as possible. Such integrations cost get little higher around $4200 and need approx 155-160 hours to develop.

Chat or Messaging Feature:
Developing a health app requires integration with chat and messaging features. These features allow the users to immediately contact a doctor and provide a 24*7 convenience communication option to both the patients and doctors. For any sudden illness, it also helps to find a support group and keep the patients away from adversities. It’s necessary for a minimum of 18-20 hours to build this feature and the cost is around $700. 

Custom Notification and Reminder Feature:
Most mHealth apps have integrated custom notification and reminder features. These features help users feel confident by eliminating the chances of having human errors in the healthcare process. Through these features, the patients are to be reminded to take the medicines on time or when they should be doing their rehab exercises. It also allows the users to customize their reminders. This feature requires 7-8 hours to build and the charge is around $400.

Wearable Devises Connection Feature:
Integrating wearable devices into medical apps offer users to track their activities and exercise schedule. It helps the app to connect with various external gadgets like health watches, bands, or trackers through IoT technology. This feature is best suited for fitness and health monitoring apps. It can cost around $800 and time needs 24-25 hours.

Patient Privacy Features:
This feature helps to protect the confidentiality, and integrity of individually identifiable health information. It ensures the patients that the app complies with all HIPAA and FDA guidelines. Basically, this feature is safeguarding patients’ privacy. It may need 15-16 hours to develop, with pricing around $600.

Blockchain Integration:
This is an advanced feature of modern healthcare apps. This feature allows for greater security of patient data management, data analysis, and data transfer. It also reduces the number of data breaches, improves the process of clinical trials, and protects networks against fraud. This integration might take up from 32-34 hours and it costs around $1000.

Cloud Integration:
A good mHealth application needs to be built with cloud integration. This feature allows the patients to access various kinds of data according to their needs anytime, anywhere. It costs approx $800 and can be built within 24-25 hours.

Payment Processing Feature:
The payment processing feature is an integral part of successful applications. This is an in-built and secure payment gateway. It enables the patients to pay their bills quickly and directly from the app. Apart from this, payment through wallet, credit card, or insurance policy feature must be included to make the app more attractive. The cost of this feature may range between $780 to $800 and time may require 24-25 hours. 

Features of Fitness Apps:

Compatibility and Synchronization of the Devices:
This feature allows the users to connect and synchronize with different devices quickly. With the rise of various wearable devices, it’s needed to make sure that the fitness app is compatible with these devices. Adding this feature to the app will increase its efficiency and give an extra edge undoubtedly. It can cost around $600, and the estimated time to build this feature is 15-16 hours.

Step-Counter/ Pedometer:
It is an essential feature of any fitness app. It keeps track of many kinds of stuff, including daily steps, physical activity, time active, etc. This easy-to-use feature works by using the built-in sensor and helps the users to meet their fitness goals. Developing this feature may need 7-8 hours, and the price is around $400.

Heart Rate Monitor:
Integration of a heart rate monitor can track users’ heartbeat rate variability, the pulse rate, etc at any time, anywhere. And, it provides other key information related to heart metrics using these insights. So, this feature can help them to monitor the intensity of their workouts and help them to achieve the level of fitness they are seeking. It may cost around $400, and the development time is 7-8 hours.

Food Tracker/ Calorie Counter:
This feature offers users to log their food intake throughout the day. It also provides intake and the burning of calories. Considering this feature guides the users on the meal plans, healthy eating, the importance of quality foods, and more. Thus, it helps them to get an active and healthy body. The development timeline for this feature is 24-25 hours and translates into $800.

Water Intake Tracker:
Water is an important yet neglected component of our diet. So, adding a water intake tracker in the fitness app is a highly recommended feature. It calculates appropriate hydration amounts based on the user’s body weight, general health, or personal goal and reminds them to drink water accordingly. This feature also monitors daily/weekly/monthly water intake and keeps a complete track of the water intake balance. The cost and time for building this feature are $400 and 8 hours respectively.

Sleep Tracker:
With this feature, users can understand and improve their sleep habits. It helps to optimize the user’s routine, monitor sleep cycles, identify sleep issues and events during sleep. They can talk to a doctor if having any concerns about sleep quality. It also offers some additional insights into overall health and lifestyle. Basically, the integration offers a wonderful way to stay healthy, happy, and glowing. It costs around $500 and the development time is 10-12 hours.

Location Tracker:
While developing a fitness app, incorporating a location tracker can be very beneficial. This functionality offers users to plan walking routes, track their current location, build workouts and record them. With wearable devices, they can also track other activities like steps taken, swimming, cycling, etc more accurately. So, it is a smart solution to track their fitness progression and achieve the target. The development cost of this feature is $600 and time requires around 15-16 hours.

Online Fitness Consultation/ Diet Consultation:
Consideration of this feature into a fitness app is increasing at a rapid rate. It provides users to get personalized fitness consultations or nutritional guides from professional experts. Hence, it helps them to achieve their fitness goal and stay healthy. Adding this feature can cost $1000, and time may take around 30-32 hours. 

Personalization:
Personalization is an integral part of a fitness app. This feature refers to collecting users’ personal information like age, height, gender, weight, and other physical parameters. It helps users to customize their diet, exercise, supplements they need to take, and many more. Thus, it considerably assists them to become more engaged in overall health and achieve their goals. This integration costs approx $500 and can be built within 11-12 hours.

Gamification:
This is one of the must-have features of any fitness app. It allows the users to play games, complete a target, get rewards and share with their friends. Also, the app can be more attractive by adding many components such as leader boards, badges, progress bar, etc. Hence, it helps to improve user experience and increase user retention rate. It may need 24-25 hours to develop, with pricing around $800.

Chat:
With this feature, users can talk to fitness experts anytime to get an online consultation or workout schedule. If the app doesn’t have live chat options, incorporating a chatbot with pre-programmed responses can also help the users. It will make them feel valued and they will appreciate the app. Moreover, this feature offers to talk with other users and share their experiences and fitness progress. It may cost approx $700 and the development time is around 20 hours.

Push Notification:
It has long been a fundamental feature of fitness applications. It helps the users to remember daily workout sessions, medicine dosages, next mealtime, and many other events. The proper use of this feature helps to increase user engagement. But sending too many notifications is not a good idea as it may annoy the user experience. This important feature can cost $400, and time requires 7-8 hours.

What are the different types of healthcare apps available in the market:

The marketplace is crowded with a wide range of healthcare mobile apps. In-App store (for both iOS and Android), there are more than 95,000 apps dedicated to the healthcare sector, and approximately 200 new healthcare apps are being built each day. And, we can assume that this number will increase substantially since the Covid-19 pandemic. Let’s now check out various types of healthcare apps for patients and apps for medical professionals available globally:

Apps for clinical use and assistance in diagnosis:
Mobile apps for clinical use and diagnosis carry significant importance in today’s time. These apps offer symptom monitoring, suggest treatments, personal health record access, reviewing electronic charts and lab test results, and many more. It makes it easier to monitor vital health parameters and allows patients to have affordable healthcare in their hands. This also helps the healthcare workers to improve their workflows to provide faster and better service.

Application for remote monitoring reminder apps:
Remote monitoring apps monitor the health of chronically ill patients (like COPD, Diabetes, Heart disease), track their data, and help them with independent living. These apps assist in better access to the healthcare team, provide public health surveillance, aid in community data collection, improve quality of care, and so on. It has been used to check ECG reports, check oxygen levels, track heart rate and heart-rate variability. These apps also provide appointment reminders and daily prescription reminders which help to automate overall health care and track drug doses. Thus, it allows you to put your treatment’s success into perspective. 

Although potentially beneficial, these apps can be limited by many factors such as the patient’s ability to utilize the device accurately, internet reliability, etc.

Applications for easy medical referencing:
These kinds of apps names speak by themselves. It provides information on differential diagnosis, treatment, pill identification, medicine interaction, and specialized medical referencing materials. It also enables the healthcare workers in evaluation and management coding and effectively streamlines the communication to improve overall patient care.

Apps for maintaining a healthy lifestyle:
Healthy lifestyle apps have gained extraordinary popularity in recent years. These apps allow the users to set goals based on their needs and make lifestyle modifications. It is mainly focused on maintaining a healthy diet and developing a training program. This app can be very effective to provide checklists for proper care, tracking fitness, reducing the dose of nicotine consumption, monitoring blood glucose/blood pressure levels, etc. 

Medical Calculators:
Medical calculators use standard formulas to determine risk scores and other measures like BMI, BMR, and correct medicine doses. And, this app allows the calculations of heights, weights, indices, etc. It also helps to calculate heart disease and stroke risk based on various patient variables. Therefore, this app enables you to experience the convenience of specialized medical solutions.

Medical education & teaching apps:
Other medical apps, such as medical education & teaching apps have become ubiquitous in medical education settings. It is playing an increasingly important role in teaching medical curriculum and for medical students as well. Students can use it for rapid access to educational resources like making basic notes, accessing patients’ health records, knowing their medicines and way of treatment, logging their experiences, and reading interactive case studies

How much does it cost to make a mobile Health App?

A superior mobile health app consists of many features and functionalities. And, the cost to build a mobile Health app obviously varies as it depends on several factors, considerations, and price tiers.

There are a lot of great mobile Health app developers worldwide. Different companies across the world charge between $50 to $250/hour, with an average of $100/hour. Eastern European developers will offer you an average cost for app development: $80–$150/hour, while India-based app developers charges around $30–$90/hour. And, USA is considered to be the most expensive one, the highest development costs will be required with $80-$200/hour.

The cost also varies upon several other factors such as app design, features, complexity, platform (Android/iOS/Cross-Platform), and the number of integration points. Therefore, it’s quite difficult to provide a precise cost estimate before deciding the types of features and functionalities that you want in your mobile Health app. But you can refer to the image above where the development cost for every feature is mentioned.

What are the privacy and security standards of developing a health app in different countries?

The importance of mHealth apps and the question of app privacy and security are increasing simultaneously. Coping up with these changes, protecting some sensitive, personal information like patient history, contact information, address from the cybercriminals; nowadays, health care tech start-ups or the mobile health app development companies are more willing to take care of app security and compliance when developing a health app. To make the apps impregnable, some regulations and compliance are needed to be maintained which used to vary country-wise.

For the USA; HIPAA regulations, CCPA, HITECH are necessary to follow. Specifically, HIPAA is a US federal law that governs the protection of health information through encryption, authentication, etc. There is also guidance called 2013 MMA guidance issued by FDA that suggests some rules and regulations for some medical condition diagnosis apps. GDPR or General Data Protection Regulation is an important set of regulations mandatory for the companies in the European Union. HL7 integration is also an essential standard to define the format for exchanging health-related data. Except that, there are PIPEDA regulations in Canada, the National Cyber Security Centre website in the United Kingdom, the Data Protection Law Enforcement Directive in the European Union to protect health-related information religiously.

Therefore, to save health-related information from cryptographic vulnerabilities, data leakage, and to save the penalty charges, mHealth applications should be compliant with the regulations. Because the show must go on!

Conclusion:

The healthcare sector has seen seismic changes by harnessing the power of mobile technology. And, mobile Health app development has become instrumental for modern healthcare settings nowadays. These applications guarantee quality healthcare more accessible, increase patient engagement, improve medical experts’ efficiency and provide quality of patient care and convenience desired. Given the advancements of technologies and benefits it provides, it is clear that the future of mHealth mobile apps really promising. So, if you’re passionate about improving patient care through technology, mHealth is the way to meet the ever-changing needs of the patients and stay ahead of competitors.