Medical Apps for Patients
Medical apps for patients are all about engagement in care management, personalized communication with providers, and effortless health monitoring. Since 2005, ScienceSoft has been designing and delivering all types of patient apps in compliance with HIPAA, FDA, GDPR, and MDR.
ScienceSoft In Brief
- 19 years of expertise in healthcare and mobile domains
- Quality management system for medical devices and SaMD backed by ISO 13485:2016 certification
- Knowledge of healthcare standards (e.g., HL7, ICD-10, CPT, XDS/XDS-I)
- Research-based user experience and user interface design
- Experience with the standards of National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) concerning electronic information exchange (e.g., NCPDP D.0).
What makes ScienceSoft different
We achieve project success no matter what
ScienceSoft does not pass mere project administration off as project management, which, unfortunately, often happens on the market. We practice real project management, achieving project success for our clients no matter what.
Our Awards
2023 award in the medical device connectivity industry
2023 award in the RPM category
Among Healthcare IT Service Leaders in 2022 SPARK Matrix
2022 award in the category of digital pathway and workflow optimization
Health Tech Award 2022 for an RPM solution
Named in the Top 1000 Companies List by Clutch
Named among the Americas’ Fastest-Growing Companies 2023 by the Financial Times
Inc. 5000 2023 list of the Fastest-Growing Private Companies in America
Patient Apps We Develop
Empower patients to actively participate in their health care by taking advantage of:
- Access to patient portals
- Health education
- Search for healthcare professionals
- Patient-generated health data trackers, and more
Offer highly convenient remote healthcare services, providing:
- Safe video appointments with a doctor/nurse
- Doctor/nurse guidance between visits
- Remote diagnosing
- Vitals and symptoms tracking for gathering detailed information about patients’ health
Streamline the process of scheduling and attending virtual and in-person consultations by offering:
- Dynamic search filters for choosing the best provider
- In-app interactive calendar
- Upcoming visit reminders and notifications of appointment changes
- A virtual waiting room
- Remote queue monitoring, and more
Pre- and postoperative care apps
Lower risks of surgical complications remotely by leveraging an app for:
- Pre-surgery or follow-up visits
- Preoperative checklists and questionnaires for recovery symptoms
- Post-surgery monitoring and physician alerts in case of symptoms or vitals indicating complications
- Medication intake scheme and recovery recommendations (nutrition, hydration, wound care)
Engage patients with chronic conditions in continuous care and reduce complications and readmissions with the help of:
- Notifications on scheduled appointments and lab results
- Medication intake scheme and reminders
- Vitals and symptoms log
- Instructions on nutrition, physical activity, checking vitals, and more
- Gamification techniques to increase patient motivation (e.g., goal-setting, badges for results).
Medication apps
Make sure nothing gets in the way of patients’ medication adherence as they embrace:
- Medication plans and intake reminders
- Pill identifiers
- Medication price and location search
- E-prescription, and more
Encourage patients to lead a healthy lifestyle with the help of:
- Health monitoring
- Fitness and exercise sessions
- Sleep cycle tracking
- Meditation manuals
- Meal planning, nutrition calculators, and more.
Help patients manage their mental state or fight mental disorders using:
- Mood diaries
- Addiction trackers
- Self-care tips and reminders
- Guided meditation sessions
- Relaxation manuals, and more
Support patients in their recovery from illnesses or injuries with:
- Follow-up care plans
- Rehabilitation journals
- Interactive sessions for neurological rehabilitation
- Cognitive skills trainers, and more
Foster patients’ rehabilitation after injuries or surgeries, support chronic diseases management, and provide remote physical therapy in professional sports with:
- Online physical therapy sessions
- Customizable patient therapy targets for tailored progress monitoring
- Therapy sessions and health parameters log
- Real-time treatment adjustment suggestions
Inpatient care apps
Make patients’ hospital stay more comfortable and foster patient engagement in their care management with an app providing:
- Patient access to their medical record, lab results, and medical images
- Personal care calendar featuring upcoming tests, procedures, rounds schedule, and more
- Easy assistance requests (personal hygiene help, wheelchair request, etc.)
- Room condition control (e.g., lighting, temperature)
Reduce costs, improve your clinical trial credibility and get real-life patient data with:
- Remote monitoring of disease symptoms or medication side effects
- Patient data input via text or video chat, chatbot, or focused patient questionnaires
- Image and video capture (e.g., of healing wounds) for further analysis
- Trial data analytics
Haven’t found a patient app you need?
ScienceSoft’s team worked with over 150 exciting healthcare IT projects and is ready to bring in the tech expertise to implement a competitive patient app of any complexity. Just drop us a line!
Technical Advantages of ScienceSoft's Apps
- Compliance with data integrity and data protection requirements
Our healthcare apps for patients comply with the data integrity and data protection regulations, such as HIPAA and HITECH; industry standard ISO 13485, IEC 62304, and FDA policies. All PHI is encrypted at every point of interaction and securely stored at your servers.
- Integration with other healthcare solutions
To make the best of patient apps, we guarantee the smooth integration of the apps’ back end with other software via HL7 v.2/v.3 or FHIR. When integrated, any medical app for patients can freely communicate with EHR, EMR and other systems, thus facilitating the work processes of health professionals.
- Cross-platform availability
Along with native iOS and Android solutions, we offer healthcare apps for patients developed on Xamarin. Thanks to this robust cross-platform development technology, both the performance and the design of the app remain impeccably native on any mobile platform. Make sure you reach out to all the patients, regardless of the platform they use.
Examples of Patient Apps ScienceSoft Delivered
ScienceSoft’s Tips on How to Make the Most of the Patient App
With 150+ healthcare projects under our belt, ScienceSoft has shaped a winning strategy on how to deliver maximum value for the clients. Check our approach below.
Have a clear patient app concept
Design the mobile app with an eye on the end users: you may add features specific to a certain disease, age group, or gender.
Keep an eye on security and compliance from the very start
Identify the regulatory requirements that apply to your app (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR). Then create a compliance and security plan and follow it.
Prioritize application scalability in the early stages
Ensure the app’s architecture allows for scaling up without performance and security issues. It’s easier to consider scalability from the start than to rearchitecture the app later.
Engage the patients
Leverage patient app personalization and engagement techniques like badges for sticking to a healthy habit, competitions between users, games, etc., to achieve better care adherence.
Integrate the app with IT systems or medical devices
Ensure smooth data transfer between your app and relevant IT systems and enable connectivity with the medical and general-use devices that collect useful data for your app (glucometers, smart inhalers, smartwatches, etc.).
Design the interface focused on the patients’ needs
Pay attention to an appealing patient app design and self-explanatory navigation. Whether tech-savvy or not, the patients should feel at ease with the app on the first go.
Patient App Services by ScienceSoft
Patient app consulting
ScienceSoft will help you get insights into the competitors or OOTB alternatives and shape the concept of your patient app. You will have a clear picture of the features, architecture, compliance measures, and development steps.
Patient app development
ScienceSoft will take over the whole patient app project, from tech and UI/UX design to development and integrations. With our expert team, you won’t have to worry about compliance, security, and further app support.
Support and evolution of a patient app
When your app is launched, we’ll help you proactively monitor its performance, security, and compliance. We are here to support your patient app on L1, L2, and L3 levels and help you add new features as needed.
The Benefits Our Clients Get
Healthcare software product companies
- Reduced time-to-market thanks to iterative development
- Improved conversion rates, upselling and user retention thanks to professionally designed UX
- Easy-to-evolve product due to high-quality architecture and code
- Seamless integration with other healthcare software
Medical device companies
- Easy use of medical devices – without training and manual tuning – and, as a result, improved medical device adoption
- Increased patient engagement
- Improved medical device development - thanks to the PGHD collected by patient apps
- Augmentation of medical device capabilities (e.g., with continuous progress tracking via an app)
Pharmaceutical and research companies
- Enhanced communication with patients
- Improved medication adherence
- Insights into company’s product adoption
- More personalized offers and increased loyalty
- Simplified clinical trial process
Healthcare providers
- Personalized health care
- High-quality telemedicine services
- Reduced in-person visits and re-admissions
- Enhanced health care outcomes
- Increased patient engagement
How to Assess The Feasibility of Your Patient App Idea?
Analyze the market
Whether you want to launch a product or an internal app, we recommend analyzing the market first to know potential competitors or existing OOTB solutions.
Envisage your patient app
You should have a clear vision of the high-level architecture, tech stack, and feature set of your app to clearly predict the potential expenses and value for your company.
Create a business case
You should calculate the TCO, ROI, and potential business value of your patient app. Then, compare it with your monetization strategy (for products) or using an OOTB solution (for organizations).
Patient App Pricing
When it comes to the patient app cost, the complexity of a feature set is a major factor. On average, the cost varies between $40,000 and $300,000. Here are some examples:
From $100,000
A mobile patient app focused on one functional aspect (e.g., pain/anxiety management, medication intake).
From $150,000
A complex EHR-integrated patient app covering multiple care aspects (e.g., a telemedicine application, mental health app).
Around $100,000–$150,000
A patient app for a medical device (e.g., wellness monitoring, insulin pump management).
From $250,000
A chronic disease management app with top-tier patient engagement techniques.
From $300,000
A digital therapeutics app helping to handle or prevent a certain disease with innovative virtual therapies.
Want to get a tailored cost estimate?
Just answer a few simple questions, and we’ll share a patient app price with you.
5 Questions about Patient App Development You May Be Asking Yourself
How long does it take to develop a patient app?
It highly depends on the software functionality scope, the number and complexity of integrations, and the expertise of a project team. At ScienceSoft, we can start working on your patient app within a week and will deliver an MVP within 2–6 months.
Can you develop software as a medical device patient app?
Yes, we can. We are ISO 13485-certified to develop secure SaMD apps and know all the ins and outs of this process. Throughout the project, we will gather all the required project documentation and later help you submit the app to the FDA (according to the FDA 510(k) clearance procedure) or Notified bodies under the MDR.
Do we need to sign a Business Associates Agreement with the development vendor?
US-targeted organizations should sign a BAA with a software development company to comply with HIPAA. According to the regulatory requirements, a written contract ensures that a business associate will adequately protect ePHI.
How can we reduce the patient app costs?
There are several ways to do so. For example, you can reduce the costs of developing chat and video call functionality by using ready-made services (e.g., Sendbird). If you need to cover iOS and Android devices, you can opt for near-native cross-platform apps instead of developing two native ones. Our business analysts can help you choose the best-fitting options to save costs without compromising on the patient app quality.
Would you sign the NDA before discussing my needs in detail?
Sure, we are ready to sign the NDA within a day and proceed with discussing your unique patient app idea. Don’t worry, this agreement does not bind you to sign the development or consulting contract later. We just want you to feel secure when sharing your project needs at the earliest stage.
Should You Opt for a Custom Patient App?
To determine whether you need a custom patient app, please answer a few quick questions from our healthcare IT consultants.
Do you have complex patient management processes you want to mirror in your patient app?
Do you want to integrate the patient app with multiple data sources, a complex IT environment, or legacy apps?
Do you have stringent compliance and security demands?
Do you need a patient app specialized for a certain health condition?
Do you plan to monitor patients’ vitals using connected medical devices or sensors?
Do you want to add advanced functionality to your app? For example, ML-based predictions based on patient’s vitals and AI-based therapies.
Tell us more about your needs
Please answer at least one question to help us better understand your business objectives.
It’s best to opt for a custom patient app
It seems that a custom patient app is more suitable for your needs. ScienceSoft’s team is ready to help you define the necessary features, design a robust architecture, and develop a reliable patient app.
A ready-made app may be the best fit for you
Based on your answers, an off-the-shelf patient app will suit the needs of your organization. ScienceSoft’s healthcare IT experts are ready to help you choose the best-fitting app.