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So, you’ve done your research and selected the market niche and the type of your mHealth app. Now it’s time for planning and estimating the project scope, budget, and main features of your product. Healthcare mobile app development can be daunting and time-consuming unless you’re well prepared.

Follow these steps to make sure you don’t miss out on anything important.

Understand your audience

Target audience analysis is a crucial part of your product discovery phase. The target audience represents more than just users of your app. It’s a huge market segmented by various factors, including country, gender, age, education, income level, lifestyle, etc.

There’s no way to build a successful medical app without understanding users’ needs. Each region has its specifics and regulations, so start by choosing the targeted countries for your platform. In 2020, the global mobile health market revenue share in North America was 38%. Europe and the Asia-Pacific took other parts of the pie with shares of over 25%.

Your audience research will give you a clue on necessary features and general expectations from a mHealth app.

Outline core features for MVP

Unfortunately, you cannot have all the cool features at once — otherwise, the development time and cost will be outrageous. That’s why you should separate must-have from nice-to-have features for your MVP. If you’re stuck on prioritizing the features, the business analysis will help you better understand your product requirements and business needs.

The key features of your medical app for doctors will depend on the chosen application type. Here is a brief list of mHealth apps functionality:

• Patient data monitoring
• Secure doctor-patient communication
• File exchange
• Appointment scheduling
• Integration with EHR
• Integration with payment systems
• Integration with Google Kit and Health Kit
• AI health assistant
• Progress tracking and analytics
• Cloud data storage
• Cross-platform accessibility
• Notifications

Go for essential features that reflect your app’s concept in the first place. You can always add more functionality after the MVP is released.

Take care of UX/UI design

While the fancy design is not a must for a medical application, usability could be the turning point for your app’s success. Paying attention to UX and UI design ensures smooth interaction between the users and your brand.

Follow these rules to make your healthcare app user-friendly:

• Optimize user journey. Make all actions as easy as possible.
• Choose an ergonomic information architecture. Highlight core features with UI design.
• Make sure your design is responsive. Adapt the app’s interface to various platforms and screen sizes.
• Empathize with your users. Find out what your audience needs and give it to them.
• Test your design. Validate your ideas through usability testing and user feedback to upscale your app. You can choose a more conservative or modern design depending on your target audience’s preferences. Planning all details and visualizing them with design prototypes will save you costs and shorten time to market.

Pick a dedicated development team

The qualifications and experience of the chosen development team make a big difference in the prosperity of your product. Hiring in-house developers increase the project cost and require additional time while working with freelancers doesn’t guarantee the expected result.

The best option is to choose a close-knit team with experience in healthcare mobile app development. Entirely focused on your project goals, it takes care of the whole development process from hiring to project management. A dedicated team accelerates the product development lifecycle and provides smooth and effective communication to achieve the best possible result.

Consider security compliance

Since healthcare applications handle a lot of personal information, it’s vital to keep patient data safe by complying with legal and privacy regulations. The following list includes regulations needed for medical apps within the US market:

HIPAA. Adherence to HIPAA is mandatory for all apps that process and store Protected Healthcare Information (PHI) such as CT and MRI scans, lab results, and doctor’s notes.
CCPA. This law informs patients about the collected data, provides reports, and removes the data at the request.
NIST. It’s a cybersecurity framework that offers a wide range of tools and services explicitly for mHealth applications.
In other words, there is no way of launching a medical app without following cybersecurity standards.

Choose app monetization model

Whether you’re building a medical app or any other app, you can choose from the same list of monetization strategies. Your options include:

Freemium. The idea is to give access to basic features while offering advanced functionality for a premium account.
Certified content. This strategy involves providing free access to a limited amount of content. After users reach the limit, they need to sign up and pay for a subscription.
Relevant advertising. You can bet on targeted mobile ads that use GPS or beacon-based localization.
Subscription model. Offer different subscription plans for doctors

Enterprise systems help integrate various business functions across an organization. As good as it sounds, developing an enterprise system has hidden pitfalls that can affect your spending. Read our in-depth guide to get the best out of enterprise software development.

What is enterprise software development?

Enterprise software development focuses on a company’s needs rather than individual user’s needs. Since enterprise apps are used within a company, they are developed based on the internal environment and business processes. Organizations of different sizes and industries have different demands. The goal of enterprise applications is to fulfill a company’s specific needs and meet specific business goals.

The majority of modern enterprise systems implement the SaaS model when software is developed using web technologies and is hosted on a cloud. Sofware as a service approach ensures rapid performance and flexibility of a system. However, some organizations still prefer traditional desktop apps as they provide greater security and control.

The three main types of enterprise systems

The first and foremost task of any enterprise software is to store, process, and transfer data. Most systems provide various workflow automation and document management tools designed for a specific industry or company’s activity field. The larger the organization, the more complex system they need. For example, large corporations combine several applications or choose integrated enterprise systems for their supply chain, inventory, accounting, and sales management.

Here are the most common types of enterprise software used in retail, pharmacy, real estate, manufacturing, and other industries.

Customer Relationship Management systems

Customer retention can be challenging. Companies make tremendous efforts to find new clients, but they put even more resources into establishing solid relationships with existing customers. CRM systems centralize and streamline all customer-related operations by gathering, categorizing, and analyzing customer data from various channels. That’s why the CRM market keeps growing year after year and will reach $114,4 billion by 2027.

The benefits of using CRM systems include:

• Defining consumer trends and insights based on customer behavior
• Enhancing the quality of brand communication and client service
• Automating sales funnels
• Increasing customer retention rates
• Protecting customer data privacy
• Engaging customers through loyalty campaigns and other marketing tools

Here are the top requested features for CRM software:

• Contact management
• Interaction tracking
• Scheduling
• Email marketing
• Pipeline monitoring
• Reporting and analytics
• Integration with other platforms
• Mobile accessibility
• Artificial intelligence
• Workflow automation Summing up, CRM systems help companies sell faster and provide better customer service. To keep all business processes in one place, many organizations integrate CRM within ERP systems.

Enterprise Resource Planning systems

ERP solutions are used to manage day-to-day business activities, including planning, budgeting, procurement, human resources, risk management, etc. ERP systems tie together different business processes and ensure safe data flow within an organization. This type of software is crucial for managing medium and large-sized businesses. The global ERP market worth will hit $48,22 billion by 2022.

There are numerous benefits of using ERP software:

• Lower operational costs thanks to optimized business processes
• Data and infrastructure consistency across departments
• Risk reduction through data integrity and control
• Actionable insights based on real-time data analysis
• Enhanced cross-team and in-team collaboration
• Workflow efficiency
• Lower maintenance costs

The most requested features for ERP systems include:

• Accounting
• Finance
• Human resources
• Planning
• Marketing
• CRM
• Inventory management
• Order management
• Invoicing
• Project management
• Scheduling
• Reporting

Although ERP solutions offer great opportunities for business growth, not every company can fully leverage them. To get the most out of ERP software, make sure it’s accessible for employees and aligns with current company processes. The safest option would be to choose software development services that combine ERP development with excellent client support, software maintenance, and integration.

Supply Chain Management systems

According to The BCI report, 69% of companies don’t have total visibility over their supply chain operations. Supply chain management systems increase visibility and control throughout supply chain activities. SCM applications are involved throughout the whole supply chain lifecycle, from production to logistics and warehouse management. They take care of end-to-end supply chain transactions, data and document flow, supplier relationships, and other related processes.

The advantages of using SCM systems include:

• Lower costs and better financial control
• Eliminating logistical errors and other risks
• Maximizing customer value
• Effective forecasting and decision-making
• Faster time-to-market
• Better customer service and communication

Here is the essential functionality of supply chain management software:

• Inventory planning
• Warehouse management
• Logistics
• Returns management
• Sourcing and supplier management
• Order management
• Inventory management
• Order management
• Data analytics
• Procurement
• Production lines maintenance

Supply chain management software development is vital for companies looking to keep up with the market competition. The best option is to partner with a company that provides custom software development services. This way, you get a system that seamlessly integrates into your workflow and serves your specific company needs.