We live in an era that is entirely dependent on technology and people of this generation are imbibing the trend of smartphone apps for their respective businesses. No matter which category of business they fall into, every industry is going mobile with their apps and are also collecting huge profits. If you’re a business that is engaging a team for developing apps, you’re doing the best that you can to boost the turnover of the company. With regards to the healthcare industry, they’re expanding in this specific field of mobile apps and now you will find more than 4 million unique apps in the app store.
Are you wondering why people are utilising these healthcare and mobile apps? Well, they’re doing so to fulfil their specific requirements. With the ongoing development of apps, simple and effortless ways are being developed in the medical industry for the people who work in the medical field.
Here are few statistics on mobile healthcare apps that you should know
Just as all other apps, mobile apps are just another thing which keeps you distracted and glued to your phone. You must have heard your family members request you to keep your phone away at least when you’re having your dinner.
Ask yourself:
- Do you require checking your blood pressure levels right now?
- Do you want to keep a tab on your blood sugar levels?
- Do you want the app to tell you where you can find the best manuka honey Australia?
- Do you want your app to give you a calculation of the calories that you’ve taken in today?
Here’s a take on the data.
- 68% of the Americans utilize mobile platforms through which they are able to handle their health issues and 80% utilize some kind of wearable device to stay updated about their health activities.
- More than 100K health and medical apps are added by 13K healthcare publishers to the market by 2016. The number has doubled by now. This was surveyed by Research2Guidance Annual mHealth Report, 2017.
- The pace at which users downloaded medical and healthcare apps slowed down in the year 2016 when compared to 2015.
So, it can be aptly said that market opportunity is evident and the fact that people will surely use your apps has also been proved. But what is the way in which you can design apps that will be surely downloaded? To know that, you need to take a look at the development trends in the healthcare app industry.
Medical And Healthcare Apps: Key Trends
Trend #1: Corporate apps will be on the rise
Whenever people get to know about designing health apps, the first thing that conjures up in their mind is fitness trackers. Did you know that 68 among 100 of the biggest hospitals in America engage in developing their own medical and healthcare app? Institutions like insurance companies and hospitals can profit by developing a healthcare app but the only thing that they require keeping in mind is that they should concentrate on making a simple UI which can be used both by their hospital staff and consumers.
Trend #2: Use of artificial intelligence
There are mainly 2 uses of Artificial Intelligence. It offers one of the most appropriate ways of customizing customer care, particularly by adding speech recognition features. Have you heard about health assistants called Babylon which possess the ability to recognize your diseases? They even perform the role of a reminder when you forget to track your blood pressure or take your pills. In short, it has got a plan for every user. In fact, the NHS and the other researchers are trying to check whether such health assistants can make cancer predictions.
Trend #3: Data is being protected through encryption
There are several internet users who feel too uncomfortable about the fact that Facebook is tracking their patterns of coffee drinking. While this is not a heavily personal matter, what if the pregnancy records and records of consuming antidepressants become public? This will undoubtedly lead to a scandal. Therefore, there are companies called Morpheo which utilize blockchain to safeguard their data. If you consider DeepMind from Google, it encrypts all the images and texts.
Trend #4: Geolocation to be used for emergency
How long do you take to reach out to the nearest emergency care unit which you have in your locality? How will you know where exactly you’re going to get a specific antibiotic? If you have installed medical apps, for example Your.MD, it will give you appropriate answers based on your location. There are some other apps which utilize GPS to know where you’re located and what activity you’re engaged in. Before taking any medical step, you can also check with the app whether it is against the advice of the doctor.
Trend #5: Video chats for a more personal experience
Robots haven’t still taken the place of humans entirely. No matter how well Artificial Intelligence has invaded the health care industry, people still need doctors and helping them to start a video chat with the doctors is definitely the best way of connecting with them. For a startup firm, Ada is a worthy solution which offers video chats and reference information with several healthcare experts.
Trend #6: Wearable tech finds a secured place
It can’t be denied that the entire healthcare industry has enough to gain besides the Android and iOS apps that are found on smartphones. Researchers predict that the market for pulse Oximeter, smart fitness trackers, blood pressure, sugar and heart rate monitors will grow by 40% by 2021. Have you heard about Lumify, which was declared the winner of 2016 Webby, and which plays the role of an ultrasound scanner?
It’s not enough that you get to know the basics of the current trends. In order to design an on-demand healthcare app, you will require in-depth knowledge. Identify your target audience and take good care of your customer experience if you want your medical app to flourish.
