Can Mobile Apps Help Improve Patient Care?

The speed and scale at which healthcare mobile apps are evolving have been remarkable over the last couple of years. According to Statista, the healthcare mobile app market is expected to touch 11.2 billion U.S. dollars by 2025. Whether it’s booking an appointment with a doctor or ordering medications online, healthcare mobile apps provide a plethora of healthcare facilities to individuals in the present scenario. This blog sheds light on different types of healthcare mobile apps, their primary features, and how they can help in improving patient care. Which are mobile healthcare apps helping to improve the quality of patient care?

Appointment Booking App

A doctor appointment booking app or patient portal plays a pivotal role in streamlining the complex processes associated with the healthcare industry. These apps are a boon for both doctors and patients. Patients can book an appointment with the doctor of their choice from the comfort of their home. Doctors and other healthcare staff can schedule appointments in advance and expand their medical practices leveraging an online booking system.

Ways Appointment Booking Apps Help Improve Patient Care

• Teleconferencing

This feature reduces the communication gap between patients and doctors. Both patients and doctors can communicate with each other via chat or video conferencing. Patients can easily share their symptoms online while doctors can diagnose the problem and offer the right medical advice.

• Appointment Management

Patients can easily plan and schedule their appointments as per their convenience using a doctor appointment booking app. On the other hand, doctors can accept, reject, and schedule appointments as per their availability. Doctors will get timely updates regarding canceled and scheduled appointments and manage their work routine effectively.

• Advanced Search

This feature will help patients to search for doctors of their choice using some specific keywords in a time-consuming manner. They can find the doctor without navigating through the entire app using search filters like pricing, specialty, location, certifications, preferable appointment timings, languages, etc.

• Push Notifications

Whether you’re a doctor or patient, everyone must stay updated about the healthcare industry in the present scenario. Both patients and doctors will receive push notifications regarding the latest trends in the healthcare industry. Apart from that, they will also receive notifications regarding their upcoming appointments.

Diet & Nutrition Apps

Another healthcare app category is diet and nutrition.  This category has seen tremendous growth in the last few years. According to a survey conducted by Statista, people aged between 18 to 29 daily use diet and nutrition apps to track and monitor their nutritional intake. From keeping track of their dietary habits to suggesting healthy food options to providing personalized healthcare tips, these apps help individuals of every age category adopt a fit & healthy lifestyle and keep several health problems at bay.

5 Features of Diet and Nutrition Apps

1. Diet Calendar

A diet calendar is used to track the eating habits of a patient. It would give detailed information on how good a patient is going with his/her fitness goals and how soon he/she will achieve the desired result. Patients can monitor their diet plans and make changes to their daily eating habits using this feature. They will also get reminders to renew their diet plans and daily workout sessions.

2. Calorie Counter

It is one of the most important features of a diet and nutrition app that help patients to reduce weight. This feature will notify patients about the accurate number of calories burned and consumed in a day. They will receive notifications regarding diet recommendations based on their food preferences, estimated height, and desired weight.

3. Barcode Scanner

A barcode scanner will enable users to make informed decisions while shopping for nutritional food products. One can easily fetch the nutritional information of packaged food products that come with a barcode. Users can scan barcodes and calculate the number of calories and other ingredients included in food products.

4. Online Diet Advice

Getting an online consultation is something that could help users in their fitness journey.   Patients can contact diet coaches online to get personal fitness advice using this feature. A dietician can share valuable tips and diet plans to help users achieve their fitness goals without any hassle.

5. Fitness Tracking App

In this busy era, people don’t have spare time to keep track of their fitness activities. Also, everyone can’t visit the hospital regularly for medical checkups. This is where fitness tracking apps come in handy. These apps help patients to set up a daily workout routine and build a healthy lifestyle. Patients can use these apps to keep an eye on their physical activities, like the number of stairs climbed. Hours slept, the number of calories burned, etc.

Are Fitness Tracking Apps Improving Patient Care?

Activities Tracker

This feature enables users to organize their workout plans effectively. Users can track the total number of calories burned during their daily routine activities like walking, running, cycling, swimming, etc. They can also calculate the distance covered, total time spent, and other outputs using this feature.

Sleep Tracking

Getting a good night’s sleep is essential for the user of every age group to lead a healthy lifestyle. This feature enables users to determine the quality of sleep based on their body movement. Users can improve their sleep quality by tracking their breathing patterns, snoring patterns, sleeping patterns, blood oxygen levels, etc.

Water Tracking

Water is the basic necessity, along with food, to lead a healthy lifestyle. There is no denying that having a healthy volume of water contributes a lot to keeping everyone’s healthy. Therefore, keeping track of the regular water intake is mandatory for everyone. This feature in a fitness tracking app helps users to stay hydrated by sending timely reminders to drink water regularly throughout the day.

Exercise Tutorials

This feature will serve as an instructor for users. It will mitigate the risk of injuries due to the wrong posture and enable users to learn the right exercise techniques. Newbies can also learn a wide variety of exercises in a free and affordable manner by watching exercise tutorials daily.

Conclusion

The features reviewed in this blog are more than enough to understand how various types of healthcare mobile apps play a crucial role in improving patient care. Whether it’s about booking an appointment with a doctor or keeping an eye on the sleeping pattern, mobile apps have taken patient care to a new level.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, people are finding it difficult to get the right treatment advice. Numerous doctors are busy curing the gazillions of Coronavirus cases in hospitals. In the current situation, building a healthcare mobile app is the need of the hour. So entrepreneurs looking to make a mark in the healthcare industry must invest in healthcare mobile app development.