Healthcare, Page 16 Category

Telemedicine app development has gained momentum over the last decade owing to several reasons. Young entrepreneurs and even giant companies are looking at this as an opportunity and are developing high-end telemedicine applications for healthcare organizations.

However, developing an exceptional telehealth app is not enough; you also need to monetize your app. And, one of the trickiest jobs for entrepreneurs or a telemedicine app development company is selecting the right monetizing model or strategy that would boost their ROI. In this article, we are going to give you insights on trending app monetization models and strategies that will prove beneficial to telemedicine app owners.

This category comprises a combination of free and premium apps – offering two versions of the same app. The free version usually provides access to the basic features, while the premium or paid version comes with additional offerings like advanced features.

The key objective behind this model is to encourage users to download the app for free initially and learn about its usability. Once the app succeeds in engaging the users and fulfilling their needs; the free users will most likely get converted into paid users for accessing enhanced features. This enables the users to get information on what kind of services they are paying for. Moreover, positive feedback by users adds value to your app.

This model involves charging users for downloading apps and is an ideal option for niche apps with a narrow target audience. Just create a merchant account in the Google Play Store or the App Store and then set the price for downloads. However, this kind of model may limit the monetization potential of your app.

This monetization strategy is applicable for apps that provide peer-to-peer services, and that sell certified content that is vital for the practice of care providers instead of selling features. Take a look at this example. In telehealth apps, a fixed amount of free content is displayed for doctors. But, for gaining access to comprehensive content that is periodically updated, practitioners need to sign up and pay a recurring amount as a subscription.

Introducing gaming into a telemedicine app enhances the app’s user-friendliness. This is so because the games are designed playfully as per the app’s basic idea and the users participating in these games have to achieve some levels based on the story created by the telemedicine app developers. The offerings through gaming include reminders about daily exercises, medicines, and doctor visits, and even provide fitness status after weeks of medication intake or exercising. Besides these, several innovative strategies like discounts, free prizes, or advice by practitioners can be also included. Thus, integrating gamification in a telemedicine app development solution enables users to set goals concerning fitness or healthcare as well as track their progress, thereby enhancing user engagement.

This is one of the commonest monetizing strategies for free applications. In telehealth apps, in-app purchases include refilling prescriptions, buying supplements, arranging for pre-pay doctor visits, etc. As such, this approach not only proves profitable for app owners but also benefits users. But remember that your app should function even if the users do not opt for additional purchases.

Free healthcare applications that serve as effective platforms connecting patients to physicians can charge a registration fee from practitioners who use the app for filling in their free time slots. Moreover, you can establish a subscription monetization model which enables users to select the subscription plan based on their requirements and pay a fixed monthly/yearly/quarterly charge for app usage.

This strategy refers to integrating sponsorship in your application. It includes embedding the sponsors’ logo within the application in the form of a pop-up or an icon on the splash screen or the footer. It may even include providing special offers or promoting the sponsors’ posts. Telemedicine app owners can rope in influential sponsors from the healthcare domain itself and establish a kind of barter system where they offer products, services, discounts, etc. based on the business domain. This approach proves highly profitable in the medical sector as it not only arouses users’ interest in the healthcare app but also enables app owners to accumulate crucial and valuable data.

Big data and AI are trending these days. Big data in the healthcare domain refers to all data concerning the patients’ health and is a valuable asset for several pharmaceutical firms, medical enterprises, fitness training centers, insurance agencies, etc. for effectively running their businesses. And, the healthcare app owners profit by selling this data to the interested parties. For instance, an app tracking the lifestyle of patients who were obese earlier and had gastric bypass surgery can sell the accumulated data to pharmaceutical/insurance companies, or fitness experts. Furthermore, this data serves as important statistics for usage in medical journals, reports, and magazines, and for assessing the advancement of the medical industry.

The advertisements in telemedicine apps must be relevant to user interests, or else the UX may get hampered badly. Certain mobile advertising partners employ beacons, GPS, and Wi-Fi to localize advertising to allow mobile ads that target customers in real-time. These ads allow the apps to connect to the users on the spot. For example, users within close vicinity of a pharmacy store with a beacon may get a notification on their smartphone device informing them about the availability of a medication coupon or any other such healthcare-related stuff. However, users should be provided the flexibility to choose the brands from which they wish to receive notifications. This will not only increase the users’ interaction with ads but also enhance the value of the ad spaces, thereby attracting more brand partners.

The words “Free services/products” are never missed by any user whereas complex or costly stuff is likely to be overlooked by most. So, free services are a smart way to attract new customers and motivate existing customers to use the app more often. They include:

It is important for healthcare app owners to pick a suitable monetizing strategy. It is advisable to choose a combination of monetization models for maximizing adoption and optimizing profitability. But, if you are not technical enough or require a customized telemedicine solution, seeking assistance from an experienced Telemedicine app development company will prove beneficial.

Technological innovations have smartened the processes involved in diverse industry verticals and the healthcare sector is no exception. A modern-day medical facility is expected to possess smart tools like a health management system to streamline workflow; medical software for doctors to ensure error-free diagnoses and treatment; and patient management system software to provide prompt services and deliver a rich patient-experience. The key requirements of a smart medical facility are as follows:

Smart healthcare solutions are the need of the hour as they not only add to the convenience quotient of practitioners and patients but also prove advantageous for the medical facility. Modernized healthcare management systems help medical organizations to deliver the highest standards of patient care and effectively manage patients and staff. This blog pens down the reasons why healthcare providers should consider adopting a smart healthcare management system.

Before we dive deeper, let’s take a look at what a smart healthcare system is.

Healthcare management software refers to an all-inclusive solution that caters to diverse management requirements of patients, physicians, and providers unanimously. The commonest applications include Electronic Medical Record software (EMR), Electronic Health Record software (EHR) and Practice Management Software (PMS). These software solutions enable effective communication between doctors and patients, generation of e-prescriptions, maintenance of billing records, maintaining patient data digitally, online appointment-scheduling, management of doctor-schedules, and many more.

Traditional record-keeping involving a huge amount of paperwork is being replaced by digital healthcare records. Electronic Medical Records (EMRs) and Electronic Health Records (EHRs) are employed for this purpose. These software systems ensure the proactive collection and maintenance of medical data. Patient data such as prescriptions, health reports, medical history, etc. are stored in a centralized system and can be accessed whenever needed. The usage of digital record maintenance assures data accuracy. Additionally, these systems are made HIPAA compliant to ensure the safety of sensitive data and to avoid the data violation protocol. Click here

why hipaa compliance plays a major role in protecting data privacy in healthcare apps

to know more about HIPAA Compliance.

The HMS is multitasking. It functions as a patient scheduling system by enabling the patients to book online appointments based on the slots provided by practitioners. Besides booking appointments, the patients can also reschedule or cancel appointments. Doctor appointment app solutions help the doctors to view weekly calendars displaying the doctors’ appointment-schedule and hence can book appointments themselves in case of referrals.

Effective doctor-patient communication is crucial for collecting more specific details from patients, establishing trust amongst the patients and providing them the much-needed psychological support to make them feel cared for. Hospital Management Systems open up multiple options for online doctor-patient interaction like calling, messaging, personal chatting, etc. These communication channels help in strengthening the doctor-patient bond and lead to more productive outcomes.

Appointment scheduling, rescheduling and cancellation is an integral aspect of every healthcare facility. However, managing doctor appointment schedules is a challenging task and chances of errors are likely. But the advent of management system software has eased things considerably. This system has physician schedule management that displays the appointments in the form of a digital calendar. As such, doctors can effortlessly view their own schedule as well as those of the other doctors. This simplifies the tasks of adding, re-scheduling, and cancelling of appointments. Moreover, this software sends them reminders about appointments well in advance. Therefore, digital calendars are productive tools that save time and effort.

The use of a Practice Management Software (PMS) boosts the accuracy and effectiveness of operational decision-making in a medical facility. The reasons are:

Thus, the employment of a smart Healthcare Management System assists the medical facility to handle mundane operational processes effortlessly. Reaping the benefits of digital systems for hospital management and automation tools for executing healthcare operations; enables service providers to grow exponentially and reach new heights of success. So, every health facility, whether big or small must adopt hospital and patient management systems to expand their patient base and hence gain a competitive edge over peers.

I hope this blog was helpful. Did you face any challenges while managing your hospital functions? Do share your experiences in the comments section below and let us know if you have any queries.