Tag: Healthcare

Aspects to consider when developing mental health & wellness apps

Posted on by Adina Humayoon

Living with a mental health disorder can be an uphill battle, and it only gets harder when people around you fail to understand the gravity of the situation and simply portray the disease as laziness or procrastination. In both developed and underdeveloped nations, mental health issues continue to be the leading cause of disability and death by suicide. Alarming statistics suggest that about 20% of adolescents live with a mental health disorder, highlighting the pressing need for effective treatment and support systems.

In this age of technological advancement, healthcare app development and mental health apps have emerged as a boom for individuals grappling with psychological issues. These apps offer a safe and anonymous platform for seeking help, without the need for in-person therapy. Moreover, with the convenience and accessibility of smartphones, mental health apps can be a valuable resource for individuals looking to improve their mental health and well-being. 

However, while developing a mental health app, ensuring the privacy and confidentiality of users should be a top priority. Regulatory guidelines, such as GDPR and HIPAA compliance, should be strictly adhered to in software development. The availability of the app on different platforms, along with the features it offers, are also crucial aspects that developers need to consider.

The possibilities for the features that a mental health app can offer are endless, ranging from guided meditation to therapy sessions with licensed professionals. In order to make a positive impact on the mental health of users, developers must ensure that their apps are inclusive, user-friendly, and comprehensive in addressing a range of psychological illnesses.

In this article, we will delve deeper into the development processes of mental health apps and explore the essential elements that go into creating a successful and effective mental health app.

How to develop a mental health app?

The increasing use of mobile phones amounts to more than half of the audience on the web, hence the reason why businesses are steering towards creating mobile-friendly systems and apps for various mental health services. You’ll find some of the best mental health apps trending due to their accessible nature that allows patients and doctors to stay connected remotely, always keeping a check on their cases. And it further creates a sense of relief for users that a solution is available, just a click away. 

But before we get into how these apps are created, and what makes them some of the best mental health apps, let us take a look at the most common types of mental health apps. 

Types of Mental Health Apps

Mental disorder apps: These apps offer features like mood monitoring and psychotherapy to help individuals cope with mental health disorders like depression, anxiety, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia.

PTSD apps: These apps provide tools to manage anger and anxiety, including breathing exercises, music selection, and self-talk methods. Some apps allow integration with healthcare apps and emergency contacts for easy access to assistance.

Eating disorder apps: These apps include mental health tracking features in addition to diet tracking to help individuals with eating disorders manage their symptoms. They also provide goal-setting and meal recommendations.

Meditation and self-improvement apps: These apps focus on stress management, relaxation, mindfulness, effective breathing, and anxiety management to help users practice relaxation techniques and manage stress.

CBT-based apps: These apps use cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques to help users reframe negative thoughts, develop coping skills, and change harmful behaviors, especially among women. They often provide interactive tools and activities to guide users through the therapy process.

Understanding vital KPIs & target audience for mental health apps

Did you know, every 1 in 4 people may suffer from mental health issues at some point in their lives, and nearly 970 million are currently struggling with major mental issues and drug abuse? While the disease is very common, the symptoms and cases heavily vary from person to person, so mental health apps must be feasible in catering to all demographics. An integral part of a mental health app will focus closely on the following aspects:

  1. Audience
  2. Similar/common issues
  3. Current mental state

In order to create a well-rounded and effective application, one must comply with the following KPIs, and abide by these holy grail elements while creating mental health apps

User needs and goals

One of the most crucial aspects to consider when developing a mental health application is the needs and goals of the target audience. Mental health issues vary from person to person, and the app should be tailored to meet the specific needs of the users. Conducting user research, user interviews, and surveys can help in understanding the user’s mental health needs and designing an application that is useful and engaging.

Mental health experts

It is important to consult with mental health experts when developing a mental health app. Mental health professionals, including psychologists and psychiatrists, can provide valuable insights into the latest trends in mental health, common mental health issues, and the most effective treatment approaches. This can help ensure the application’s content and features are accurate, effective, and relevant to the target audience.

Features and functionality

The features and functionality of the application should be developed keeping in mind the specific mental health issues it aims to address. For example, if the app focuses on anxiety, it may include guided meditations, breathing exercises, and cognitive-behavioral therapy techniques. It is essential to develop an app that is easy to navigate, engaging, and meets the user’s needs. Additionally, the app should be developed with the ability to personalize and adapt to the user’s progress and feedback.

Design and user experience

The design and user experience of the application should be intuitive and engaging. A user-friendly interface with easy-to-navigate features can encourage users to engage with the app regularly. The app’s design should be visually appealing, with clear and concise messaging that aligns with the app’s intended purpose. Design elements, such as typography, color, and imagery, should also be consistent with the app’s branding and messaging.

Accessible

The app should be accessible to all users, regardless of their ability, age, or ethnicity. This includes providing language options and ensuring the app is compatible with assistive technology such as screen readers. Moreover, the app should be optimized for different devices and screen sizes, ensuring a seamless user experience across multiple platforms.

Evidence-based

The application should be developed using evidence-based practices, including research and studies conducted by mental health professionals. Evidence-based practices ensure that the app’s interventions are effective and supported by scientific research. The app should also provide clear information on the source of its content and interventions and cite any relevant studies or research.

Regular updates

Regular updates can ensure that the app is up-to-date with the latest research and developments in mental health. This includes adding new features, updating content, and fixing bugs. Additionally, regular updates can help maintain the user’s engagement and interest in the app.

Ethical considerations

To ensure ethical standards in the mental health app development process, it is important to take into account factors such as the use of non-stigmatizing language and obtaining informed consent from users before collecting their personal information. These considerations should be integrated into the development process to ensure that the end product is ethical and respects the rights and privacy of users.

Privacy and security

Mental health information is highly sensitive and should be handled with the utmost care. The application should have robust privacy and security features to protect users’ personal and health-related information. It is important to comply with local data protection laws and regulations, such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in the European Union and HIPPA in the United States of America. Moreover, the app should provide clear information on how user data is collected, stored, and used.

Partnerships and collaborations

Developing partnerships with mental health organizations and professionals can help ensure that the application is relevant, effective, and based on the latest research. It can also help to increase the app’s credibility and reach.

In the end

Mental health and wellness app development is a niche that requires special attention to detail in order to succeed. And their success depends on how well their customer retention rate is, or how well it is in helping customers reach their goals. Developing a mental health and wellness app requires careful consideration of various aspects, including the type of application, target audience, features, privacy, and availability. 

These apps can provide a safe and anonymous space for individuals to access treatment and support for their mental health disorders. The use of technology and mobile applications has significantly reduced the stigma surrounding mental health and increased access to care for individuals who may not have otherwise sought help. 

Learning Management System for Healthcare: Essence and Key Benefits

Posted on by Adina Humayoon

Did you know that the global e-learning market was valued at nearly $197 Billion in 2020, and the numbers are projected to soar to up to $840.11 billion by 2030. Out of this, the healthcare learning market itself reached USD 110.54 Billion in 2022, and the forecast for upcoming years is only projecting a brighter future. Of all these figures, Learning management systems (LMS) are still dominating the e-learning market as 84% of organizations use this system. 

In a fast-paced and rapid industry like healthcare, engaging and organizing educational content and upkeeping skills traditionally is near impossible. In a high-functioning healthcare workplace, gathering all the employees and arranging crucial teaching sessions is not only stressful, but it will create a bottleneck of patients and workload within the organization and the hospital, resulting in disrupted patient care and an endless backlog. 

What’s the best possible way to not only help your employees gain the knowledge and skill they require to perform their current job in the healthcare sector with ease but also keep a track of all of this information? A learning management system for healthcare. Before diving deeper into the technicalities, let’s take a look at what a healthcare learning management system is and how has benefited the industry itself throughout its inception.  

Essence of LMS: What is a learning management system for healthcare?

A learning management system is a software solution developed for the healthcare sector, mainly hospitals, clinics, and other major medical facilities. It aims to provide an update on medical professionals with courses, education, and training to maintain their skill sets based on current trends, research, and discoveries. With rapid changes in healthcare and medicine, it is a necessity for e-learning for healthcare. 

Keeping oneself updated with the right operating procedures, research papers, and discoveries bring about numerous benefits to not just the healthcare professional, but their patients and the people associated with them as well. LMS is simple and highly accessible, like a pocket educational system that teaches, helps you revise, and tests your knowledge based on what you have learned. 

LMS is affiliated with all the top educational systems, making it legit, and is always working in compliance with all the top medical regulations like HIPPA, OSHA, ACTM, etc. Complying with the official rules set by them will

7 Vital Benefits of Healthcare LMS

1. Efficient Talent Management

Healthcare is a competitive field that requires employees and workers to always be equipped with the best and most recent knowledge, along with the right expertise to cater to their patients. Therefore, healthcare learning management systems not only help you add to your pool of talent but also keep in check their expertise, helping them stay ahead of the curve through various training programs. 

A well-trained healthcare professional will not only boost the quality of patient cares within your system but also help promote a healthy culture amongst its peers, maintaining a good reputation throughout.

2. Updated Training Material

LMS companies always have the best and most recent learning materials available for their workers at all times. In a tech-driven era where everything changes at the bat of an eye, keeping up was never this easy with an agile learning management system. By frequently updating and deploying new courses on a healthcare LMS it lets geographically dispersed students get first-hand access to top-quality resources in a well-documented e-learning environment. 

3. Reduced Training Cost

Remote learning and agile learning methods globally have resulted in reduced costs that yield way better results than traditional physical learning and education system. From saving costs of hiring trainers, to their accommodations and classroom rents, Healthcare LMS has evolved the way teaching and learning take place altogether. 

4. Flexible Schedule Management 

With learning materials readily available 24/7 on a remote device, who needs to take time out for classes separately from an already busy schedule? LMS allows workers to create their own study schedule, and take lessons and training bit-by-bit, chunk-by-chunk, helping them not only process and retain information in a relaxed environment. 

5. Security and Confidentiality

To ensure doctor-patient confidentiality, an LMS is encrypted well enough to maintain the security and confidentiality it requires. It always abides by the state’s healthcare security and ethical laws like HIPPA, PIPEDA, IEC 62304, and GDPR. A good learning management system will always be secure with two-factor authentication and permission-based access to ensure the data stays in place.

6. Effective Monitoring

Organizations running on healthcare LMS rely on the progress and performance of each employee presented within the system. It helps them track their current trainings that are in progress, and the ones that they have scheduled for later. Administration can also include their own assessments to test out how well the training went, and how well they retained information. 

7. Blended Learning Support

A well-made healthcare LMS supports different mediums and modules of work for workers to benefit from. Whether it be e-learning, offline, or web-based training, a blended learning system helps gain insights and experiences that simple e-learning cannot on its own.

Conclusion

Healthcare is a complex and extremely challenging field that requires its workers to stay up to date constantly with new technologies, reports, research, and patient-care techniques. And with their busy schedules, a reliable and well-constructed learning environment is the only way to achieve these business goals. A custom-made healthcare learning management system is the key that bridge the gap between a well-maintained healthcare system.

FAQs for Learning Management System for Healthcare

An LMS is an overall tool used by medical professionals that allows them to not only track but maintain their workload, medical certifications, and necessary data to help them grow their expertise and professional knowledge.

A learning management system that keeps doctors and medical professionals up to date with patient care, personal goals, and training, while tracking the growth of their fellow trainee staff.

It is essential for healthcare professionals to upskill their prior educational learning as it is not only a necessity, but is beneficial. The four common benefits are:

  • Refine skills for patient care
  • Stay up to date with recent research
  • Updated on practice
  • Address real-world challenges

Tracking skills and certifications is the key feature within an LMS that helps organizations stay up-to-date on their employees’ professional progress and their overall expertise.

Top HIPAA Misconceptions & Myths Debunked

Posted on by Adina Humayoon

Healthcare and wellness application development is not a piece of cake, while we all may have our 2 cents on what we can include and exclude within the app, and what’s “trending”, there is compliance to follow. While regular app development has a strict rule book to follow, so does application development within the healthcare industry. And that cannot go by without the uber-strict HIPAA laws that are the epitome of debunking common HIPAA misconceptions that arise due to sheer negligence. 

If you’re a newbie and wondering what HIPAA stands for its Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. A federal law in the United States that has set a national standard for patient data protection and privacy of their sensitive medical health information and records. It’s an essential factor within healthcare and medicine that helps regulate laws, ensure compliance within legal jurisdictions, and protect patients’ privacy and rights, while also maintaining & improving the quality of healthcare provided.

HIPAA is strictly an American federal law, but every region practices a similar route with its own laws and regulations. The European Union follows General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), while there are other globally known guidelines from International Organization for Standardization (ISO) 27799 that focus on information security management in healthcare. 

With that being said, it’s essential to be aware of all the rights patients have while getting any sort of medical treatment. In the era of fast information and the internet, it is common to come across various HIPAA misconceptions that can start a chain reaction of misguided information. And we’re precisely here to help you debunk all of the top myths that we’ve heard over the course of years. 

Myth #1: HIPAA does not apply to all healthcare providers

FACT: HIPAA applies to any and all healthcare providers who transmit, store, or handle protected health information.

HIPAA doesn’t pick and choose any healthcare facility or provider for compliance, they apply to all healthcare entities and facilities. If your system in any way handles Protected Health Information (PHI), then you are bound to be subjected to HIPAA regulations. The PHI includes any patient’s name, address, social security number, etc. 

If the healthcare system uses a third-party or cloud-based provider to store or transfer information, that too must be an active follower of HIPAA law. In case of a data breach within a non-HIPAA-compliant server, be prepared for the consequences that will follow in the form of lawsuits and litigations.

Myth #2: HIPAA privacy rules are strictly for electronic records

FACT: HIPAA covers all patient records, regardless of their nature.

Medical records and patient records are still records that can be accessed, stored, stolen, or breached, regardless of their nature. HIPAA indeed prohibits you from disclosing PHI in electronic communications, but the same rules and regulations are applied to paper-based records and files too. 

Despite the difference in mediums, patient data is still patient data that can be transmitted, putting it at high risk of a breach if no privacy rules are applied. Your facility still has to adhere to HIPAA compliance and the privacy rules that come along with it. Also, who deals in paper-based health records now anyways? 

Myth #3: HIPAA strictly prohibits email correspondence between doctors and patients

FACT: The HIPAA Privacy Rule allows providers to use many different means of communication, up to and including emails.

While HIPAA pays close attention to doctor-patient confidentiality, this doesn’t affect their mode of communication to be diverse. As long as high-grade encryption and security are practiced, especially while transferring medical reports and data, email is a safe mode of communication. 

Emails are otherwise a more genuine and responsible way to transfer and track data, as well as the history of the patient. But it is necessary to safeguard your email credentials and the systems you log into. 

Myth #4: Employers can get access to employee’s healthcare information

FACT: HIPAA prohibits healthcare providers from disclosing personal health information to employers without patients’ consent.

Employers are never allowed to access the healthcare information of their employees regardless of whether they are on the company’s health insurance or not. Healthcare providers are also not allowed to share any information based on an employee’s health until and unless explicit written permission is granted. 

Meanwhile, any other mental health surveys conducted by HR do not come under any HIPAA laws or compliances as well. 

Myth #5: Patients can sue their healthcare providers for violating HIPAA

FACT: Even in case of a violation of the HIPAA Privacy Rule, patients cannot sue healthcare providers.

One of the very common misconceptions about HIPAA is that it takes private patient-doctor lawsuits into action and consideration. While a patient can easily report or file a complaint against their healthcare provider, it never goes up in court straight away. 

A healthcare provider’s lack of HIPAA compliance or privacy regulations that a patient reports are submitted for investigation first. If there are any reasonable grounds for conviction, the Secretary of Health and Human Services does so at their own discretion. 

So, if next time a Karen tries to threaten your healthcare practice with a lawsuit, ensure that they won’t be able to do anything, apart from submitting a written complaint. The real court of HIPAA law is under the Secretary of Health and Human Services only, which will impose penalties and criminal sanctions if negligence is proven upon investigation.

Myth #6: A doctor cannot share medical records with another doctor

FACT: A doctor can send medical records to another doctor without your explicit consent.

It is normal for doctors within the same vicinity to share and discuss various cases of various patients, and get insights and possible new diagnoses and treatment plans. Hence, it is allowed for doctors to share the medical records of their patients for as long as it is in the patient’s best interest. 

It is also stated within the privacy rules of HIPAA that for the purpose of treatment, payment, or other vital healthcare operations, information can be shared without the patient’s consent. With that being said, healthcare providers can also share information with family members who are listed by the patient, and for payment purposes as well. 

Myth #7: It’s your right to have unrestricted access to your medical information

FACT: It’s a bit more complicated than that.

Since it’s your healthcare records, you have a right to access ALL the information listed within a hospital’s records, right? Wrong. 

While you can request the information, you are not entitled to it, and hospitals can deny that request if it can harm your well-being. These cases are strictly linked to mental health or psychiatric patients and cases where the patient is at risk of harm if certain information regarding their health is disclosed. 

Apart from that, you can obtain all the necessary reports and records easily by following the right steps to acquire them. 

Myth #8: HIPAA prohibits calling out patients’ names

FACT: The Privacy Rule explicitly permits certain incidental disclosures that occur as a by-product of an otherwise permitted disclosure

One of the most common HIPAA misconceptions is that you are not allowed to mention or call out the name of the patient in the hospital. While discretion is still advised when catering to other patients, it is not against HIPAA laws or anything of the sort. 

Safeguarding identity and treatment confidentiality is a must, especially in cases that involve mental health and fertility. While calling out a patient’s name is not an objectionable act, it is advised to keep the purpose of the visit and treatment private.

Final Thoughts

It’s always encouraged for everyone to do their research when it comes to understanding HIPAA laws, especially if you have a deeper link within the healthcare industry, as a healthcare provider, patient, or healthcare application developer. These HIPAA misconceptions are nothing that can’t be solved with a little Google search or basic common sense. While it is also important to be aware of the rights that the state provides every individual in healthcare. 

VentureDive Acquires Nexdegree, A Premier AI & Data Analytics Company

Posted on by VentureDive

Leading global full-service technology provider expands its services portfolio through strategic acquisition of data products & solutions company. 

KARACHI, 2 September 2022 — VentureDive, a leading global full-service technology provider, announced today that it has reached an agreement to acquire NexDegree, a premier data products & solutions company. With this strategic acquisition, the two companies will join forces to create comprehensive technology solutions that harness the power of data to accelerate growth.

According to industry publications, the global big data analytics market is projected to grow from $271.83 billion in 2022 to $655.53 billion by 2029, at a CAGR of 13.4%. Alongside this massive growth is a need for talented professionals who can analyze the data and draw inferences from it. Data analysts and data scientists are leading the way towards future innovation, mining information from vast sets of data to unlock meaningful value. 

“The digital enterprise of the future is being reimagined today with the use of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) making massive amounts of data actionable. In this rapidly evolving space, constantly building new capabilities is key, and NexDegree will further enhance our A.I. and data science capabilities to strengthen value delivery to our global clients.” – Atif Azim, CEO, VentureDive

“NexDegree’s experience in data-centric value delivery for enterprise and the use of cutting-edge technologies blends naturally with VentureDive’s strengths in building world-class scalable solutions. We are confident that by bringing our skills and expertise together we can help global enterprise customers leverage data to solve the most challenging problems of tomorrow.” – Imran Moinuddin, CEO, NexDegree

The deal is expected to close within September 2022. Financial terms have not been disclosed. 

About VentureDive

VentureDive is an award-winning digital development company that builds cutting-edge technology solutions to improve lives globally. Since its inception in 2012, the firm has enabled two tech unicorns and successfully driven digital transformation initiatives for large enterprises. Led by co-founders Atif Azim and Shehzaad Nakhoda, VentureDive has a presence in Silicon Valley, London, Dubai, and Pakistan. To learn more, visit https://www.venturedive.com.

About NexDegree

Founded in 2007 and led by Imran Moinuddin and Saad Hashmi, NexDegree is a premier data analytics company, one of the top 10 in the APAC region. The firm has a rich history of successfully delivering large, end-to-end complex data intensive projects for clients from the US, EU, APAC, MENA and LATAM regions across a variety of industry verticals. 

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Essential features to include in an on-demand healthcare app

Posted on by Adina Humayoon

Telehealth and on-demand medical app development soared in 2020 when the pandemic severely hit the globe. The whole population was isolated, depriving them of all the essentials in their lives, including healthcare.

This gap in the healthcare system left all of us with a lot to think about. It is mainly how we will make it as accessible as it used to be, but at the same time, follow all the necessary protocols and SOPs that the government has enforced. 

Ironically, all this hassle brought about the need for a thoroughly curated and well-organized healthcare application that fulfilled all the medical needs and provided a safe and secure platform for patients to rely on. But for it to be a success, a custom software development firm must list and include all the essential features that must be included in an on-demand healthcare app. 

What Are On-Demand Healthcare Apps?

Healthcare is a crucial industry that has yet to catch up with technological advancements in implementing mobile and remote services. While most of the world population still strongly believes in in-person and in-office experiences, the mobile world is slowly taking its place within the healthcare sector. 

On-demand healthcare apps are medical applications on your mobile device to assist patients in carrying forward their treatments in real-time remotely. These applications can help you book an appointment, consult with a physician, access your reports and prescriptions, and even order them for you. All this is done via a mobile device from anywhere in the world. 

This prevents critical or immunocompromised patients from visiting the contaminated hospital and avoids waiting in long lines just to get a 10-minute consult. Saving time and preventing you from catching any germs while you commute to a hospital. On-demand healthcare apps are lifesavers.

Essential Features in an On-Demand Healthcare App – Overview

A reliable healthcare app is nothing without the features listed below; it must include all of these to qualify in the healthcare sector and be utilized by various patients.

  1. Patient and Doctor Portal
  2. Rating and Reviews
  3. Appointment Scheduling
  4. Telehealth
  5. EHR – Electronic Health Records
  6. ePrescription 
  7. HIPAA Compliance
  8. Payment Methods
  9. Emergency Cases 
  10. Key Updates and Notifications 
  11. Integration with other devices
  12. Professional Networking
  13. Updated Tools

Essential Features in an On-Demand Healthcare App

These essential features are vital during any medical app development, responsible for making it a reliable and successful health app that makes lives easier for patients and the doctors who are effortlessly providing their services to mankind in this difficult time. The features required in an on-demand healthcare app are as follows:

1. Patient and Doctor Portal

First, getting the health portal started with an easy membership or a sign-up page for either of the parties is necessary. The page should be simple and include all the necessary patient details, like their name, age, and email. 

The same should also be for the doctor’s portal, but with a little more detail since doctors must have their complete profiles with their fields of expertise and experience jotted down, along with a picture. These membership portals are the right way forward for a successful healthcare app and are a necessary feature through and through.

2. Rating and Reviews

Bringing in a human-centric approach, allowing complete transparency when selecting your doctor is a patient’s right. And by providing this feature in your on-demand healthcare app, you would be doing the patient a massive favor by giving them the option to rate and review their experience and the doctor for his services. 

It is necessary to have the right check and balances as well, only having the best-in-class for the user, and keeping a keen eye on each of their feedback and abiding by them will elevate the user experience, and it’s the right thing to do as well.

3. Appointment Scheduling

Long gone are the days when patients had to wait in line for their turn, crowding the clinics and hospital waiting rooms since dawn break, to get the first consult with their doctors, who were otherwise hard to reach. With a digital application, all these painstakingly long tasks will be eliminated.

 A good digital healthcare platform must have a vital appointment scheduling feature, allowing patients to book the time slot of their liking and look at their doctor’s schedule to see what day and time fits best for them and what slots are already booked. Moreover, these appointment schedulers must have a notification button, reminding the patient of their appointment a day before or so while also including it in their mobile calendar. 

4. Telehealth

Turning everything digital and out of physical settings is the main aim of an on-demand healthcare application, and hence a telehealth station within the app is a crucial feature. And this is the next step for patients after they have booked an appointment with their respective doctors. 

The meeting can be via audio or video call if they are willing to show their physical symptoms to the doctor. And it is known that patients resonate more with their doctors if they have a physical presence in front of them, whom they can see and talk to face-to-face. But, for some, it is also possible to open up more if they do not meet or see the person to avoid any judgment or anything that will trigger the patient’s anxiety. 

healthcare

5. EHR – Electronic Health Records

EHR, commonly known as Electronic Health Records, is a must-have for on-demand medical app development. Now that everything is finally getting a digital platform, why not EHR? An automated and online health record will be easy to store on the cloud and easily accessible for the doctors while taking multiple patients, avoiding them repeating their history while approaching a new doctor on the portal. 

Moreover, this cloud-based data will allow these records to stay safe and secure without getting lost or altered for illegal means. This data can be used for various medical research and studies with the patient’s consent. But consent is necessary for that, no matter what.  

6. ePrescription 

A platform with an active EHR system will always have a digital prescription. Both features go hand-in-hand because they are linked to a patient’s history, medical records, and dosage. 

Speaking of medicines, an essential feature is providing access to all the nearby pharmacies where patients can reserve or purchase their medications. Medical apps have an advantage that allows them to partner with pharmacies. If they are affiliated with any hospital, they can add this feature, linking all the orders to their own hospital pharmacy and delivering through it.

7. HIPAA Compliance

Medical app development is incomplete without HIPAA, also known as The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA), which ensures that doctor-patient confidentiality is maintained along with the privacy of the patient and their data. A reliable medical app must abide by the legalities of HIPAA and other firms, allowing them to keep an active eye on whether these regulations are followed.  

8. Payment Methods

E-prescription and an online pharmacy also require a secure and accessible payment gateway, allowing patients to choose how they would like to pay for their medicines. This feature will make things easy and accessible for the patient and regular users in the long run as well. 

9. Emergency Cases 

A healthcare app is incomplete without an option to report a medical emergency. From reporting the emergency to availing the service of an ambulance, transporting the patient to the nearest hospital, or allowing them to get instructions for first-aid. 

10. Key Updates and Notifications 

Getting timely notifications and alerts regarding your appointment or availability of a spot is a crucial and essential feature that has to be there, regardless of anything. One can also install reminders for when to take their medicines, according to the e-prescriptions that are also a part of your medical record, included in your profile. 

Be sure to keep your notification and update feature relevant to the patient’s needs and not for useless and excessive notifications, which will cause them to block the notification feature altogether, causing them to miss out on important announcements and reminders. 

11. Integration with other devices

Users have become extremely tech-savvy and have numerous gadgets, like Apple watches, fit bits, and more. These gadgets tend to calculate your original pulse and heartbeat, which can be a crucial element required while getting a telehealth consult. 

Integration of these external gadgets in the mobile healthcare app will bring better results. Doctors can administer crucial results like the patient’s blood pressure, blood sugar, heart rate, and more. These integrations will also help develop a steady market, allowing more devices to make their way into the market that can remotely calculate and send data to these respective medical apps.

12. Professional Networking

Like any other hospital, your on-demand doctor app must include a platform for doctors to network professionally and share their patient profiles and reports with other doctors for a consult. This feature will allow the doctor to not only network but also the patient to get the best treatment.

13. Updated Tools

Last but definitely not least is a regular health check-up of the application and keeping it updated with all the new tools and features that allow the user experience to be unprecedented and safe as well. From multiple languages to a search bar and whatnot. These small features make the medical app accessible and easy to use.

Conclusion

With that said, if you are wondering how to develop a healthcare app, then these are some of the essential features one must include for it to succeed amongst patients and doctors. Medical app development is a huge responsibility; thus, it must cater to all the medical needs of an in-person hospital visit.

FAQs for Essential features to include in an on-demand healthcare app

For patients of all ages, a medical app must be easily accessible, and also with a user-friendly interface with all the necessary features available, like an easy registration method, easy navigation of doctors and appointment scheduling, etc.

The major components of telemedicine include audio and video conferencing, access to images and reports, remote monitoring of symptoms and vital signs a readily available helpline for emergencies, and more.

The top priority of a healthcare app revolves around the patient’s sensitive information and its protection under all the laws that are imposed by the medical community and the government as well.

The major benefit of telehealth medicine is to: 

  • Keep immunocompromised patients safe at home
  • Avoid physical interactions
  • Don’t have to take time off from work
  • No transportation cost
  • No worries about child-care in your absence
  • No wasting time in the waiting rooms
  • Easy access to all the specialists
  • All available from the comfort of your home

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The legal aspects of launching a pharma app

Posted on by Adina Humayoon

Medical applications and devices usually have a separate fanbase amongst the audience. Not only do they cater to many users’ pet peeves of reducing hospital and pharmacy visits, but they also provide accurate results. Health and pharmacy apps have been a source of great help throughout the pandemic by reducing the hefty visits to a pharmacy and standing in long queues to get even the basic medicines of sorts. 

As stated, as much as it makes a citizen’s life simple, creating a pharmacy app and getting it right the first time is extremely tricky. A lot of aspects find themselves involved if words like healthcare, pharmacy, or medicine are a part of it.

If any mobile app is fulfilling a medical purpose, according to the FDA (US Food and Drug Administration), it is subject to getting approval from the FDA to launch in the market. 

“If a mobile app is intended for use in performing a medical device function (i.e., for diagnosis of disease or other conditions, or the cure, mitigation, treatment or prevention of disease) it is a medical device and therefore subject to FDA oversight.”

This is true by all means because most of the applications found on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store do enable users to use their mobile phones as medical devices with the assistance of these applications. So naturally, FDA has to intervene to maintain its guidelines and regulations. 

With that said, the FDA is not the only legal aspect that a pharma app development company has to follow. The company does not have much choice, as the health regulator’s approval is necessary for it to pass through to the right audience.

If you are new to the healthcare industry or are looking forward to creating an impactful product in the healthcare sector with a digital healthcare solution like a pharmacy application, then these are some of the legal factors you must abide by before pushing the final product out in the market.

Hippa compliance

What Legal Aspects Do You Need to Consider Before Launching a Pharm App?

HIPAA

HIPAA, also known as the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996, is a federal law that revolves around protecting the patient’s sensitive information from being disclosed. This information consists of the ones users have entered on your application while creating an account or placing an order for their medical and pharmaceutical needs. 

HIPAA’s involvement in a healthcare and pharma application is something that will be inevitable now or in the future after you have developed your application. It is wise not to rely on any app developers to keep your application in compliance with HIPAA regulations and to understand the data aspects of the application themselves. 

It’s smart and safe to plan ahead when creating pharmacy apps or other healthcare apps that require you to insert information linked to your medicinal history. Complying with the HIPAA regulations from the initial stages of pharma app development will keep you on track regarding the security rules and disclosures to prevent you from breaching any HIPAA laws due to your application. 

Sales tax

Healthcare applications that revolve around the concept of buying and selling, like online pharmacy apps, must comply with the sales tax allocated for each product by the government. You, as an owner, must be familiar with the tax situation of your state and the ones from where you are generating your supplies.

Not all states follow the same tax laws, so a thorough investigation of each product is necessary. Some taxes may be high, some low, so in order to stay up to date on your tax returns and avoid trouble with the authorities over your it, complete your research on all ends and conduct your online business accordingly.

Privacy laws (National and International)

Most pharma apps have their bases defined when it comes to the location and the geographical reach of their company. But this comes after close consideration of all the aspects that are involved in the vast reach of the application and its audience. It is common for pharmacy apps to see the light of day in states other than their own, so software development applications have to keep a keen eye on all the legal technicalities involved.

The state/country’s privacy laws, tax laws, and financial regulations must be considered. If the app is operating and conducting sales in other states, it must abide by their privacy laws regarding the seller, buyer, and patient themselves.

The healthcare regulatory environment

Healthcare authorizations and regulations go far beyond the FDA or HIPPA. Apart from the regional and international laws, pharma app development companies must prepare themselves for other regulators with whom they may have never interacted before.

Healthcare applications and online medical apps tend to make developers vulnerable to further investigation and checks and balances. If your health care app takes a leap onto the internet, you may subject yourself to the rules of various third-party companies, even those of the Federal Trade Commission’s Rules and Regulations, so always be prepared for the unseen. 

FAQs for Legal aspects of launching a pharma app

Medical apps that attempt to perform functions of a medical device are the ones that FDA regulates. Other than that, applications that are used to monitor medical records, patient care, educational and medical training, and so on are not bound by FDA regulators.

Pharmaceutical regulations are for the safety and well-being of the patient and the medical staff itself. These regulations perform a check and balance on the drugs that are launched in the market along with their quality control and usage.

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How we did it: insight into our QA process for Pakistan telehealth initiative

Posted on by Mehdi Salehi & Tabinda Kazmi

After weeks of hard work, countless meetings, and a successful project delivery later, we’ve decided to pull back the curtains on exactly what it takes to assure the quality of a high-availability healthcare app.

Back in April 2020, when the first wave of the novel Coronavirus was at its peak, VentureDive reached out to the Government of Pakistan to help the country combat the virus through technology. As part of the ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative, spearheaded by Tania Aidrus, an ex-Google executive, we collaborated with her team to build and launch the COVID-19 telehealth portal. It is a website specially designed to combat the crisis of the pandemic. It allows Pakistani doctors and all healthcare professionals to register on it and volunteer to remotely help the patients who might have COVID-19 symptoms.

“VentureDive team, I cannot thank you enough on behalf of the entire team for leaning in to help! There has been SO much interest in the platform and what’s interesting is how much interest we are seeing in other verticals. For example, today we had a call with the Law Ministry who are very eager to do something similar to sign up volunteer lawyers to provide free guidance to victims of domestic abuse. I hope this is just the beginning of our working relationship – excited to have started off on doing something that I hope can help thousands of Pakistanis during this time.” — Chief Digital Officer, Digital Pakistan

Healthcare is a very sensitive subject and it was a technology to be used by millions of people across Pakistan. Therefore, it demanded the highest quality, with zero downtime, zero bugs, and intuitive user journeys.  In this blog, we’ve highlighted our experience of testing a portal that was to be used by healthcare professionals to reach out to patients via our technology.

What follows is a tale that tells the challenges we faced during the three-week-long project, and how we resolved them to successfully deliver a web and a mobile application.

The functional, security & scalability challenges of testing the telehealth portal

Before the project kicked off, the quality assurance team at VentureDive gathered the application requirements and shared them with the experts dedicated to working on this. A thorough documentation and sample mockups helped the QA team to begin working on the test plan, test design, and test cases during the development phase. We conducted daily stand-ups so the development & testing teams could stay synced and brainstorm on maneuvering through this project smoothly and in time.  We faced six major challenges during our course:

Time management

The main challenge was racing against time to meet the client’s expectations while ensuring the security of the sensitive healthcare data, and zero glitches within the app. This meant that the QA team had to keep track of every requirement and reporting templates for testing updates that helped the development team fix defects and bugs timely, prior to delivering any milestone to the client.

tools used by QA team
Tools used by the QA team to effectively deliver each milestone

3rd party integrations

The application was to be integrated with third-party software such as WhatsApp chatbot for doctor-patient communication & telecom operators to enable anonymous calling mechanism and receiving SMS OTP. These were essential for fetching data from official sources and making sure both our applications remained in sync with the whole system we were creating.

Mobile responsiveness

The telehealth portal was supposed to be a hybrid mobile application, which meant that the testing team had to test it across various mobile devices and operating systems to make sure that it was responsive and compatible.

Security

Cyber attacks and threats are a real-world problem today with thousands of networks and websites being compromised each day. To help identify, classify, and address security risks, we performed vulnerability assessment and penetration testing activity including server VA, API penetration testing, and web application penetration testing to identify possible routes an attacker could use to break the system.

System performance

Monitoring the performance of the application was an integral part of building the portal, since we anticipated a large number of users, including doctors and patients. The QA team planned to automate the scripts on JMeter to determine how the system performs in terms of responsiveness and stability under heavy load and a huge volume of data.

Standards

A big challenge for the QA team was to keep the testing practices as standardized as possible even with a short time to spare. VentureDive believes in maintaining the quality of the deliverables as our utmost priority, regardless of the length, complexity, or intent of the project.

Adopting a smart testing strategy for successful project delivery

The process of Alpha testing was done remotely. The QA team collaborated and focused all their efforts towards detect any major defects in data security. We carried out usability, performance and security testing for private and sensitive information in a healthcare setup.

It was pertinent for the QA team to also analyze business criticality, plan around testing efforts in minimum time, make the application usable for thousands of users and ensure that testing was compliant with the Open Web Application Security Project (OWASP) standards.

The test strategy called for having separate environments for development, staging, and production. We performed the following steps in the given order:

Functional testing

Keeping in mind the criticality & nature of health-related projects, requirements had to be precise and the validation had to be perfect. We performed static analysis on requirements followed by actual test execution to meet the requirements and clients’ expectations. Data flow integrity and business rules were repeatedly tested via automated suites in our regression cycles

Tools:

  • Postman for API automation & integration testing
  • TestRail for test cases and test cycle reporting
  • PostgreSQL for data validations

Cross browser testing

Browser compatibility was mainly focused on Google Chrome version 80+ on windows. Extended smoke and regression cycle was performed on Firefox and Safari for Windows and Mac respectively.

Tools:

  • crossbrowsertesting.com
  • Browserstack.com

cross browser testing configuration
Cross-browser testing configuration

Responsiveness

Understanding the market trends of portable devices, we analyzed the data of the target audience and performed UI/UX testing on mobile & other portable devices. The application was tested on 6 different Android and iOS devices with different screen sizes and resolutions having different OS versions.

tools and devices
Tools and devices used to check responsiveness

Security testing

Thorough security testing was performed on infrastructure, API, and application level, keeping the top 10 OWASP standards in mind. 

Tools:

  • Burpsuite
  • ZAP 
  • KALI Linux operating system

The QA team identified the following vulnerabilities during the security testing activity:

  • Broken access control
  • Broken session management
  • Disclosure of internal directories
  • Unrestricted file upload
  • Missing server validation
  • Sensitive data exposure
  • Brute Force 
  • No rate limit
  • WAF & ACL implementation

Our goal was to immediately address these issues and recommend further best practices that should be followed as pre-emptive measures against any potential cyber-attacks.

Performance testing

The system undergoing the test was required to have a load-balanced infrastructure supporting thousands of interactions between the patients and the doctors. The flow includes the signup process including uploading of images, populating, and fetching patient data lists and assignments of users one to one. 

Tools:

  • Jmeter
  • Blazemeter
configuration for performance testing
Configurations for performance testing

We analysed all the results, and generated an extensive report using SmartMeter, which was later shared with the stakeholders. The primary issues identified were load balancing, CPU utilisation, and WAF configurations. These were addressed and recommended configurations were made for resolution.

Project delivery

A standard process was put in place to validate the requirements and meet the client’s expectations. After complete and thorough testing, we demonstrated and delivered the project to the client successfully.

Wrap up

Working on the telehealth portal as part of the ‘Digital Pakistan’ initiative was a short, knowledge-packed, and completely amazing journey that helped us learn and implement advanced quality assurance methodologies for a secure application. We adopted agile software quality practices to align software quality with product requirements and accelerate the software lifecycle. In addition, the continuous feedback we received from the project managers helped minimize retesting for verification and validation. Our iterative approach and short sprints enabled us to deliver quality products within a set deadline, successfully.

Thanks, team for all the amazing support. As I mentioned on slack, thanks to your hard work, we have 3000 doctors signed up and 1000 who submitted their documents. I had an amazing experience working with you all and truly admire your work ethic and efficiency. We couldn’t have done it without you. We will keep you updated on the stats and the launch event! — Project Coordinator, Digital Pakistan

Here’s where having a process-driven, and designed around ‘best-in-class’ software technologies delivery model helped us greatly.  It enabled robust scalability while maintaining cost-efficiency within strict quality control measures.

Thanks for stepping up to swiftly contribute towards our nation in these challenging times. It’s been a privilege to watch such a well-oiled team in action. — CEO, Digital Pakistan

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