Doctor On-Demand App Development: Tips and Costs

Doctor on-demand app market

Doctor on-demand entails the provision of virtual healthcare services — pertaining to mental, preventive, urgent, chronic, and primary care — by board-certified practitioners through electronic devices such as computers, tablets, or mobile phones. It falls under the realm of telemedicine services.

Fortune Business Insights™ estimated that the market was worth $144.38 billion in 2020. It has one of the most promising outlooks, with experts predicting a market size of $636.38 billion in 2028.

Types of doctor-on-demand apps

Before undertaking doctor-on-demand appointment app development, it’s crucial to recognize the app types in the space. This can help with idea development:

• Real-time live conferencing: Apps have live video and voice streaming capabilities, allowing remote doctor and patient interactions. Examples include Doctor On Demand, MDLIVE, and Teladoc.
• Remote patient monitoring: The applications allow doctors, nutritionists, and other medical experts to monitor their patient’s health remotely — for convenience or where in-person monitoring is not feasible. Patients can recover at home and lower costs by reducing time spent at hospitals. Apps can interface and collect data using wearables such as Fitbit. Examples include Diabetes:M and UTM:RPM.
• Store-and-forward telehealth: The apps deal with the asynchronous transmission of medical data (images, symptoms, and other information) from patients to physicians for asynchronous virtual care. They may facilitate the transmission of medical data to other physicians for evaluation. Examples include the MiiSkin skin tracking app.
• Physician-to-physician consultation: Another practical implementation is a physician-to-physician consultation app, where a general doctor can access a specialist’s network. Apps may come with the capability to share medical data quickly.
• Medical imaging: The apps may provide clinics with access to a network of remote radiologists, who can review X-rays, MRI, PET, and other images produced on-site. This can speed up evaluations. Examples of apps with similar features include Mobile MIM.
• Booking and health scheduling: Telehealth apps can also include scheduling apps and software. Clients can book time slots depending on availability. Examples include SimplyBook.me, Find out more about Doctor’s Appointment App Development.

Benefits associated with doctor on-demand apps

Telemedicine apps provide the following benefits to patients:

• 24-hour access to physicians;
• Reduced costs by eliminating unnecessary ER or doctor office visits;
• Maximum convenience – access to physicians from home, during work breaks, or when traveling;
• Easy access to a broader network of medical specialists without geographic restrictions;
• Ability to use health insurance plans;
• More transparent pricing;
• Care from the safety of home without exposure to germs in a waiting room;
• Access to prescriptions on weekends and evenings when the doctor’s office is closed.

Service providers stand to gain the following benefits by engaging with telehealth apps:

• Improved supervision of chronic diseases and better outcomes;
• Better flexibility with asynchronous virtual care apps as doctors and patients don’t have to be available at the same time;
• Reduced outpatient load for general care cases — hospitals can therefore prioritize urgent care cases;
• Shorter wait times and improved client satisfaction;
• Reduction of overheads associated with in-person visits;
• Better revenues with more bookings and live appointments;
• Reduction of patient no-shows — patients book appointments during their free time.

How doctor on-demand app works

The app solutions connect patients to board-certified doctors 24 hours a day using their phone, tablet, or computer. They work with both patients and providers. Now, here are common steps that patients go through:

Monetization strategies for on-demand doctor apps

The most recommended monetization strategies to drive consistent revenues include:

1. Commissions from the Visit fee – The platform can deduct a certain percentage from the fees paid by the patient during the visit.
2. Subscription-based model – In a B2B approach, the service can sell its services to employers who, in turn, offer them to employees. For B2C, the service can require customers to subscribe at a monthly fee.
3. Sponsored or boosted listings – Providers may pay a fee for prominent placement on search results and recommendations.
4. Premium app features: The app can charge fees to users to access certain premium features, such as free counseling, follow-up appointments, or wellness checks.
5. Sponsorships: On-demand doctor apps may seek partnerships with service providers in the health sector.

*Due to the sensitive nature of on-demand doctor apps, some monetization approaches may impact the user experience and result in privacy concerns, such as running unrelated display ads from third-party platforms.

Challenges while developing a doctor-on-demand app

Developers and clients should watch out for certain pitfalls when undertaking the development process of a doctor-on-demand app.

Main features for doctor on-demand app

When figuring out how to make a doctor on-demand app, it’s essential to know the main features for patients and doctors.

Patients (app)

• Account registration and log-in: Multi-factor authentication is recommended for enhanced security.
• Push notifications: For alerts and reminders of upcoming meetings.
• Account profiles: Individual accounts or multiple account profiles for family members sharing the same account.
• Appointment booking: For scheduling video calls at an appropriate time.
• Payments page: To make payments for services without insurance using credit cards or with HSA, FSA, or HRA cards for eligible plans.
• Provider search & matching: To find providers using search criteria (specialty, gender, language, etc.) or receive recommendations after answering a few questions.
• Pharmacy selection: The doctor will need it to prescribe medication.
• Text notifications: Patients can leave their phone number to receive text notifications (optional).
• Medical history or Records: Patients can provide a brief medical history before interacting with the app and update it yearly.
• Video or voice chat: Both voice and video interactions may be permitted *, but certain medication prescriptions may be restricted from phone voice visits.

Doctors (app/web)

• Account registration and login: Maybe secure with two-factor authentication.
• Patient visits summary: Summary of the patient’s visit: conditions, prescribed medications, duration, and other details.
• Health questionnaire: To screen patients and their symptoms before the live call.
• Apple Health integration: To collect vital information: patient’s blood temperate, blood pressure, and heart rate.
• E-prescription: To prescribe medications and send prescriptions to an appropriate pharmacy based on the user’s selection or geolocation.
• Virtual waiting room: Breakdown of upcoming appointments with the ability to cancel or reschedule;
• Patient summary: May include patient information, health summary, and last visit information.
• Providers panel: Virtual dashboard offering access to different account sections, such as messaging, settings, payments history, etc.

Required tech stack for doctor on-demand app

The following technologies may be relevant when developing doctor on-demand apps:

• Video streaming APIs: The technologies facilitate real-time video communications on browsers and mobile apps, providing functions such as stream encoding, stream ingestion, storage, and playback. The streaming media server platform should be scalable and flexible to support popular streaming protocols. Examples include Flashphone, Wowza, and Twilio.
• CDN: A Content Delivery Network (CDN) speeds up the delivery of video content to user devices, reducing lagging and other issues. Top providers include Amazon CloudFront, Akamai, and Azure CDN.
• Technology platforms: Apps may be developed for the following computing platforms:
  • iOS – with Objective-C or Swift
  • Android – with Java or Kotlin
  • Web (browser-based) – with Javascript, Express.js, Html5
  • Cross-platform (one-code base multiple platforms) – via Flutter
• Backend: The backend stores and manipulates the app’s logic. Languages used for backend development may include Python, Django, Ruby, or Node.js.
• Payment processing: Doctor on-demand apps use payment APIs to accept customer payments. Top APIs include Braintree SDK, PayPal API, & Stripe API.
• Database: Database management platforms that can be used to build highly secure apps include Cassandra, HBase, MongoDB, & Postgres.
• Location data: Medical apps may need to display the user’s position on the map. Map SDKs include the AppKit framework for iOS and Google Maps SDK for Android.
• Healthcare & third-party security APIs: The demand for data, security, e-prescription, and insurance payment features necessitates developers to use other third-party APIs. Some implementations include TrueVault API (data privacy compliance), Vericred (health insurance data), Getsafe (health care insurance support), and Human API (health data).

Required team structure for doctor on-demand app development

What is the ideal team composition for doctor on-demand app development? It’s helpful to have the following experts on board:

• Business analyst (if needed) – Validates requirements, plans development activities and evaluates ideas.;
• Project manager – Plans and schedules activities, prepares the budget and ensures proper execution & delivery of the project;
• UI/UX Designer – Evaluate user requirements, illustrates design ideas, and designs GUI elements;
• Backend developer – Creates, tests, debugs and maintains the app’s backend including the core logic and database;
• iOS developer – Builds applications for iOS devices using Swift or Java;
• Android developer – Codes apps for Android, using platform-specific languages;
• Cross-platform developers – Uses a cross-platform technology such as Flutter to build apps targeting multiple platforms using one code base;
• Quality Assurance engineer – Performs functional testing, identifies problems and discusses appropriate fixes;
• DevOps engineer (optional) – Handles app infrastructure, streamlines development with automation, and ensures the development of secure code.

When working with an app development company, the team selection should be made considering the project scope, complexity, schedule, and management approaches.

Steps to make a doctor-on-demand app

If you’re figuring out how to build a doctor-on-demand app, the following steps can help:

1. Form a clear vision of your doctor-app idea
   The idea should be solid and properly formulated. Start by analyzing the market demand and look for a strong market fit. It’s important to evaluate both direct and indirect competitors, paying attention to the strongest rivals and looking for gaps in their services —from negative user ratings. Medical services are quite sensitive, so it’s invaluable to know the people who are most likely to use the service.
2. Find developers
   The development process is quite intricate, and it’s crucial to hire a team with relevant development experience even when developing for other markets. The company should comply with HIPAA, PCI, GDPR, and other security standards.One of the best places to find developers from offshore markets is on Clutch. It does a wonderful job of displaying verified reviews with a good selection of companies to choose from. Other places to find teams include GoodFirms and The Manifest.
3. Prototypes and design
   The prototyping stage allows the design team to experiment and elaborate on the visual look of the app. It may entail coming up with user stories, drawing storyboards, sketching, and building a low-fidelity prototype —with limited interactivity.Once the prototype is validated, the team can build a high-fidelity prototype. The stage ends with developer hand-off, allowing the programmers to start implementing the design in code.
4. Build an MVP
   The minimum viable product (MVP) contains the minimum amount of features for the day one launch. It’s a useful app that can help test the viability of the project. Here’s a comparison of must-have features to focus on during the demand doctor app development:

    

   Features for patients	Features for providers	Super admin features
   Sign up/Log-in for patients	Sign-up/Sign up/Log-in for practitioners	Secure login
   Patient profile for updating info, uploading doc & adding billing	Provider’s panel to update info, view earnings, patients, etc.	Records management
   Search feature to find doctors with filters for different specialties	Health questionnaire for patient intake, with the ability to upload photos	Search feature to view registered practitioners
   Appointment and prescription history	Electronic medical record documentation tool and e-prescription	Number of appointments tracking & appointment management
   Push or email notifications for upcoming visits	Waiting room to view and manage appointments	Resource health alerts

   *We recommend building the MVP with a Flutter app development service.

5. Release and improve
   The developer releases the MVP by publishing it on the appropriate app store or making the online version available. This is only the beginning. It’s important to keep collecting user engagement metrics and analyzing them to know which changes to make or advanced features to add.

Cost to develop a doctor-on-demand app

What influences the cost to create a doctor-on-demand mobile app? The costs typically boil down to the amount of time spent on the development process, from start to finish. Factors that can affect the development time include:

• Design complexity: It’s influenced by the number of screens, User interface sophistication, and the number of custom elements.
• Number of complex features: The app’s complexity will influence the time spent working on the core logic, backend, and third-party integrations.
• Development option (native apps or cross-platform): It takes more time to develop native apps for iOS and Android. Cross-platform development saves time with code reusability, reducing the doctor on-demand app development cost.
• Team composition: A highly-specialized team with many experts may be more expensive to maintain compared to a simple team. Choosing the right region such as Eastern Europe can allow clients to stretch their budgets and have all the expertise required.

When providing an estimate, the company may try to calculate the overall development time and multiply the total with their hourly rate. Given the intricacies of developing doctor-on-demand apps, it may take 1,000+ hours.

So, how much does it cost to make a doctor on-demand app? The minimum cost of developing an MVP may start from $52,000 in Eastern Europe and more than $100,000 in the US.

And how long will it take? According to our experience, it may take 4 to 6 months.

Conclusion

Covid-19 significantly changed the way consumers think about healthcare, with more people now open to using telehealth applications for doctor visits. As of July 2021,
McKinsey noted that utilization had stabilized at levels 38 times higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Current solutions are not nearly perfect, opening doors for new entrants into the space. Most of the progress has been in the US, meaning that many other markets are ripe for opportunity.

Given the intricacies of doctor app development, it’s paramount to choose a distinguished app development company. Attractgroup has this requisite experience, having been involved in telehealth and mental health projects:

• Bausey Urgent Care: Web app built to facilitate urgent medical care needs of schools in New Orleans, with super admin, nurse, and doctor roles.
• Blue Moon: An iOS and Android app developed to connect mental health practitioners with senior patients for in-home counseling).
• Clinisoft: A CRM/HRM/ERP system targeted at a chain of clinics.
• Sleeptrack: Sleep monitoring Flutter App for the mental health space (Learn How to Develop a Mental Health App)