Telemedicine Software Development Guide: Cost, Benefits and More

Telehealth software development solves most modern medical problems. Queues at polyclinics, lost time on the road, difficulties in making an appointment with the right doctor - all this is a thing of the past. Telemedicine solves such problems by offering fast, convenient, and effective ways of interacting with doctors and patients online.

In this article, we’ll guide you through telehealth software development aspects, from market research and monetization models to functionality and cost. There is also a bonus section for you with a telemedicine platform demo made by our team, which will give you an experience of the solution's interface and functionalities.

Telemedicine stands for the use of electronic communication technologies to track and treat patients instead of in-person visits. Simply put, telemedicine is a way of bringing medical care to patients remotely. And there is telehealth software to provide it.

Telehealth software is a solution that enables people to reach physicians anytime from miles away, and healthcare providers can manage their resources effectively and attract new patients without high costs. Also, it provides delivering on-demand access to different medical services for people while lowering doctors' workload.

The telemedicine software development process consumes various details you need to pay attention to and technologies you need to use to provide all the features that patients need. Let’s take a closer look at the main telemedicine technologies.

Video conferencing. Patients can schedule a remote appointment to share their symptoms with physicians and get the diagnosis determination. Audiovisual technology allows users to get virtual consultations via the camera of mobile devices, desktops, or web applications. Instead of waiting in a long line, they can schedule an online meeting with a doctor.

Store-and-forward. Store-and-forward functionality allows recording, storing, and transmitting patients' medical records to various healthcare professionals at another location for examination to create a treatment plan without a face-to-face visit. It’s also a great method to analyze visible symptoms like bruises through photos.

RPM. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) refers to the use of cloud computing technology that makes it possible to gather patient-generated data and hand this information to doctors. RPM solutions aim to identify the symptoms early and make medical assistance possible for patients remotely.

Telemedicine is the future of healthcare. Looking at its convenience, more and more people are choosing telemedicine services. Statics prove all of these words:

• According to the Rock Health report, 80% of people have accessed care via telemedicine at least once in their lives.
• The report by Doximity highlighted that 88% of individuals believe that telemedicine has increased patient access to healthcare.
• The survey by Eagle Telemedicine found that 87% of patients were either satisfied or very satisfied with their telemedicine care, indicating a high level of patient acceptance and satisfaction.
• According to Allied Market Research, the global telemedicine market size is projected to reach $451.4 billion by 2032, growing at a CAGR of 18.3% to 2032.

Looking at the statistics of the telemedicine market, it is a trend now. So, that’s why telehealth software development is a way to adhere to such medical industry trends, which will increase your company's authority, client base, and revenue.

The core purpose of telemedicine software development is to create a suitable environment for physician-patient relationships. Commonly, telehealth software solutions can be divided into four types:

Emergency care can gain from digitalization the most. To create custom telehealth software of this type, you’ll need to add video and audio support, Google Calendar, schedule-related features, document management, and integrate the EHR system. These features allow patients to quickly and easily connect with healthcare providers for immediate consultations and treatment.

This type runs for a patient checkup after an in-person visit. The doctor handles the patient according to their treatment plan. Users can send text or voice call messages to the physician if they have treatment-based questions (e.g., drug schedule, result monitoring, etc.). Such communication provides ongoing care and support between visits.

These days, the mental support type is acquiring popularity because many people experience physical and mental overexertion. By using mental health app development services, you will deliver mental health services to users' homes, which makes them feel safe and secure. Also, it allows them to receive support in a comfortable and familiar environment.

There are a variety of self-care applications, but few of them provide professional support for patients. This type of software enables users to track their well-being, such as blood pressure, heart rate, and oxygen level, or remind them about the amount and type of pills that should be taken and track the confirmation about that.

Telemedicine software brings significant benefits to patients, doctors, and healthcare providers. Accessibility and seamless delivery of healthcare services are common reasons for integrating telehealth software development. Let’s consider the main advantages each party can achieve using telemedicine software.

Patients are the most important party in the whole medicine area. Their satisfaction and well-being, both mental and physical, are the main goals of each doctor and medical service. So, here are the key benefits of telemedicine services for patients.

Convenience

Patients get high-quality care at the desired location. It means that there is no need to schedule an appointment beforehand, waste a large amount of time on the road, or wait in long queues. It’s especially relevant for people who live in distant areas with no healthcare establishments nearby.

Accessibility

Healthcare services become available for people at all times from any part of the world. From the remote-controlled medical robots applied to simplify surgery to more simple healthcare apps to track blood pressure. Going even deeper, some technological solutions in healthcare will be able to inform people on best practices.

Reduced service cost

Telemedicine solutions are more cost effective than traditional care methods. The growing adoption of telemedicine technology during the COVID-19 pandemic pushed healthcare providers to offer packages with various telehealth services to deliver instant medical care at an affordable price.

Telemedicine brings a new opportunity to medical service providers, fostering cost-effectivity, improving management, and more. Let’s take a closer look at the main benefits of telemedicine software development for healthcare providers.

Increased Revenue

Video meetings are more time- and cost-efficient than in-person visits. According to Stream, 53% of healthcare systems report that telemedicine lowers operational costs, indicating a positive impact on the financial efficiency of healthcare providers. Healthcare facilities can save on rent, run administrative facilities, look for suppliers, and hire personnel.

Better cross-team cooperation

As telemedicine software updates, healthcare practitioners can learn new processes and obtain sophisticated skills to provide effective telehealth system management. Also, this intent may stimulate the employees to attend specialized courses, contributing to better team collaboration in the future.

Fewer canceled visits

It’s pretty annoying for clinic staff when patients don’t attend the scheduled meetings, cancel, or reschedule late. Based on ReferralMD research, such appointment cancellations cost healthcare providers over $150 billion annually. By using custom telemedicine software development services, you can solve such problems by enabling the replacement of physical meetings with virtual ones.

Doctors interact with patients and are the key factor in their well-being, which is a critical part of each medical service. And by using custom telehealth app development services, you can improve the quality of their working environment. So, there are core benefits of telemedicine for doctors.

Efficient time management

The research "Physician Burnout— and Virtual Care as a Solution" executed by Prentiss Taylor, M.D., claims that more than 15% of physicians experience burnout at work. In-app schedules and push notifications will allow for better time management and work-life balance. The doctors will be able to make schedule changes, browse the patients’ medical history, arrange meetings, or apply for sick days with one click.

Medical record-keeping

Custom telemedicine software solutions will make it possible for doctors to access and store patients’ EHR effectively. In a conventional hospital, it’s quite challenging to find clients’ records or hand them to other specialists for accurate medical prescriptions. Digital solutions will guarantee seamless data access and transmission.

Paperwork management

Healthcare solutions work great for medical-related issues and allow companies to automate administrative processes. There won't be a need to fill out various forms and internal documentation, as most back-office functions will be automated. Breaking down this inefficiency will lead to higher profits and quality treatment.

Despite the type of healthcare solutions you choose, all the telehealth platforms include both the patient's and the doctor's sides. Below, you will find the required telemedicine features depending on the user’s role.

Now, let’s explore the most essential features that empower patients to easily manage their healthcare needs and demands remotely.

Easy registration

Since telemedicine applications store a lot of sensitive information, the registration process should meet EHR integration norms and allow document uploads. To complete the registration two-clicks easily, patients can register via email, mobile phone, or use third-party services like Facebook.

Video meeting

Video meeting is a key feature in telemedicine software development. Remember that video and audio should be transmitted in high quality to enable doctors to see the symptoms and determine the diagnosis correctly. For this purpose, you can apply such streaming protocols as Real-Time Messaging Protocol (RTMP) and Web Real-Time Communication (WebRTC).

Text messaging

Minor issues like a runny nose or cough don’t require a video call. Instead, the patients can text a doctor to ask for advice. This option will allow physicians to answer in their spare time without distracting from other patients. Besides, users should have the opportunity to attach photos and files for visual clues.

Appointment management

Answering the question “How to build a telehealth app?”, appointment management is a critical feature you should pay attention to. It will allow patients to track and manage appointments with doctors. Users should be able to see the physician's available time and their planned meetings and have the ability to cancel their appointments.

Notifications

Apart from calendar notifications, users can get custom ones to get notified about monthly visits, prescription renewals, and physician queries. Besides, they will help you to inform your customers of future updates. Users also receive personalized notifications for monthly check-ups, prescription renewals, and physician consultations.

Reviews

Patients should have an opportunity to leave a review about their visits to doctors. Include the rating system to enable users to rate the doctor (for example, with the help of a scale of one to five) and put a comment. Based on users’ feedback, physicians can monitor their performance and improve the quality of their service if needed.

Payment details

Payment functionality is vital in telemedicine software development. You can integrate payment methods like PayPal, Stripe, and Braintree, create custom payment services, or use third-party services like MasterCard or Visa. The main advantage of payment gateways over third parties is that they take care of fast, secure transactions and are easy to implement.

The doctor's side also has some specific telemedicine app features. Some of them are similar to the patient's side, while others are different. Let’s discuss them.

Dashboard with patient data

The patient dashboard is the primary screen that is shown when physicians access a patient's medical data and displays all the personal as well as health-related details of each customer. It can cover the treatment history, prescriptions, and personal information.

Doctor profile

Physicians also need to set up their profile, entering their specialization, qualifications, experience, and more information. Client's rate reviews and shifts should also be included in the profile. This information helps patients make informed decisions. A complete profile builds trust and attracts new clients.

Electronic Health Records

Before the meeting with the patients, the doctors need to be provided access to the patient's EHR/EMR. Thus, to diagnose clients' health conditions accurately, your app should have integration with EMR. Ensure the physicians can't download users' medical files from your database.

Communication

Telehealth software development implies two-sided communication between patients and physicians. Doctors should also be able to text or call the patients to ask for test results, treatment process, or state of well-being. In case there is a need for a planned physical examination, the doctor should be granted to schedule an appointment with the client by themselves.

Internal data exchange

The doctors may need to hand their patients to another specialist when, due to unforeseen circumstances, they cannot make an appointment. In this case, they should be able to exchange the clients’ information between departments. Your task is to provide smooth, secure, and reliable internal data exchange.

Creating telemedicine software demands substantial responsibility and thoughtful preparation steps because it directly influences people’s health. As a telehealth software development company experienced in the healthcare niche, we’ll discuss the appropriate steps you should take to design a user-centric app.

So, you've decided to build your telehealth application. Due to the complexity of this process, you can't do without qualified tech software providers. During this stage, you formulate the main points of your idea for your technical vendor. A qualified team of specialists will help you find the right solution for your project case together.

Before getting down to selecting the right type, platform or technologies, you and your tech team define the purpose of your future product. As for telemedicine apps, it’s a value that you’ll bring to your potential users. For instance, you want to develop a healthcare solution including powerful video conferencing software to simplify patient-doctor communication, or you intend to design pharmacy management software to automate pharmacy-related processes, or you need an all-in-one solution.

The Discovery phase is vital for telehealth software development because clients and software engineers might have different visions of required features. This phase involves planning and drawing a roadmap for your project. When your telemedicine app development company completes the analysis to determine the problem worth solving, it’s time to analyze your main competitors and market leaders. It is worth concentrating on their strong and especially weak sides to figure out what can be done better to attract more leads.

The next step your IT team executes is researching your target audience and diving deeper into the detailed information about the users your software is aimed at. Again, careful analysis and research will allow you to segment your audience and develop features that will meet their expectations and proof of demand. On top of that, you will need to consider high-level integrations (e.g., with EHR), collect compliance requirements for relevant regulations such as HIPAA, and determine the software license required. For this, Business Analysts scrutinize your business goals and concept.

After that, they prepare a project specification that details information about the software product: features, design, tech stack, number of third-party integrations, etc. Finally, after all the information is analyzed, you get an accurate cost estimation.

Within UI/UX design services, designers define the core user scenarios (e.g., video meeting arrangement, prescription renewal), visualize the main features of telemedicine software, and plan convenient customer journeys for all users involved. Then, they prepare an app prototype that shows how the platform will look in the future, perform, and its capabilities. It is worth mentioning that depending on your project, the prototype may or may not be included in this stage. Finally, designers create appealing user interface elements.

It’s the most crucial and challenging part of telemedicine platform development. It stands for developing the server-side of the product, API integration, and turning attractive UI design into working software. It’s better to start with Minimum Valuable Product (MVP) development to test the software idea and launch the app with minimum investments. The core idea of MVP is to develop a telemedicine app project with enough features to attract first users and receive initial feedback. Further, once you start making a profit, you can reinvest in implementing advanced functionality.

What's more, you can create a Proof Of Concept (POC) for telehealth app projects at a special level of complexity. A POC, also called a proof of principle, refers to the implementation of a particular method or idea to determine its feasibility or to a presentation in principle to test the promise of an idea or theory in practice.

It’s impossible to deploy the telemedicine platform without complete testing. At this stage, QA engineers conduct multiple tests to verify the product’s functional requirements, find and fix possible bugs and malfunctions, and check software security compliance. After that, they enter the results into the bug report and transfer app developers for further fixing. Before the final client review, QA engineers check all the functionality to ensure it performs as expected and complies with project demands.

Once all previous telehealth software development stages have been passed, it’s time to deliver a ready-made application to the customers and stakeholders for testing and acquiring feedback. Based on the gathered information, you make improvements if needed. Telemedicine solutions require ongoing support due to their complexity, so it’s better to continue cooperation with the dedicated development team. They can maintain the software by implementing new functionality or improving the old one, fixing defects, and providing seamless software performance. Moreover, system security and standards compliance have to be checked regularly.

Successful telemedicine software development involves several difficulties you should encounter along the way. So, let's discuss some key telehealth development challenges and how you can overcome them.

Keeping security strong is very important in telemedicine software development. You work with sensitive patient information, so you should protect it and strictly adhere to the standards of healthcare data security. If there are data breaches, they can cause serious problems, hurting your reputation and patient trust. You must guard against unauthorized access, data leaks, and other online dangers.

It is very critical to have a telehealth software development partner who understands the importance of security. We at Cleveroad provide ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certificated security management – the standard that demonstrates we care about maintaining strict information security guidelines. That, in turn, means we have good practices in access control, such as MFA, RBAC, activities tracking, automatic logouts, and more, as well as healthcare industry standards for data encryption. Cooperating with us, you can be quite confident that your online telemedicine application development is really secure.

Since the telehealth software development life cycle consumes personal patients’ data, it needs to be implemented according to specific regulatory and medical standards. These rules are written to protect critical information and prevent cybersecurity violations.

Here is the list of country-specific standards that your telemedicine software has to agree with.

• HIPAA (United States)
• PIPEDA (Canada)
• IEC 62304 (international)
• DICOM (international standard to manage medical imaging data)
• ICD-10 (international classifications of disease)
• Data Protection Directive 1995/46/EC (Europe)

Your medical application should also be compliant with FHIR and OWASP requirements. Besides, you’ll need to apply secure messaging and encrypted data transmission protocols to transfer patients’ EHRs and EMRs within the telemedicine app and healthcare organizations.

The ability to easily integrate with the current healthcare systems is important for smooth workflows. Your telemedicine platform should work well with Electronic Health Records (EHR), e-prescription systems, remote patient monitoring devices, Health Information Exchanges (HIEs), and other tools. Siloed systems increase administrative work and make patient care less effective. You need a system that shares data easily.

A good technology partner realizes how important interoperability is. For instance, we at Cleveroad are knowledgeable in HL7 integration, HTTPS, encrypted WebRT, and other standards of sharing data in healthcare. Also, we provide custom telemedicine app development that integrates well with your existing infrastructure, creating a coherent system and smoothing the flow of data for better efficiency. We develop custom telehealth software that meets your particular needs. It simplifies the workflow, decreases mistakes, and improves the general user experience.

Good, dependable, real-time communication is a must for any successful telehealth platform. Patients expect clear video and audio during online appointments with doctors. Poor video quality, lost connections, and other technical issues can interrupt appointments and irritate patients. You need a platform that is smooth and reliable.

A reliable vendor focuses on both high video quality and stable connections. For example, we at Cleveroad have strong systems and make their software work well in different network conditions. They use methods to lower delays, cut down on buffering, and keep connections stable, even when bandwidth is low. When you create a custom telehealth solution with a trustworthy partner, you receive a platform that provides a smooth and professional user experience.

Most current development trends can be advantageous to telehealth software development. Artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, Big Data, and others will contribute to better delivery of care services. Let’s discuss the most demanded technology solutions in brief.

AI-based chatbots are made to deliver care to patients quickly. They can consult patients on their symptoms and transmit the record to their doctors for setting up a treatment plan if needed. Besides, chatbots can answer questions concerning physician's schedules, competency, and more.

The role of IoT in healthcare is to ease the patient's life by delivering improved care. Connecting IoT sensors during software development for medical devices will improve the monitoring of health conditions, diagnosis, prescription adherence, and more. For example, using wearables and other medical devices, patients will be able to track temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, and others.

AR technology will enable data visualization in healthcare in a multidimensional way. For example, detecting disease through image recognition can help doctors diagnose patients with real-time screening analysis that is just as accurate as that done by experts. This empowers clinicians with enhanced precision and faster diagnostic capabilities.

Blockchain secures patient data. It creates a transparent, tamper-proof record of medical history. This improves data sharing and streamlines administrative tasks like billing and insurance claims. Blockchain technology also reduces fraud and errors associated with traditional record-keeping.

The telehealth implementation cost varies depending on software type, features’ complexity, design, integrations, and rates of the software developers. However, if you consider all of them, telemedicine software development cost ranges between $150,000 and $250,000+. Unfortunately, no specialists can tell you the exact price until they know the required functionality, what type of telemedicine app development services you need, and what app you want to create.

If you decide to build a telemedicine app, there is no need to employ in-house specialists. There are a lot of experienced telemedicine software development companies available. To give you a hint, we’ve estimated the approximate cost to start your own medical solution in different regions, as well as the average rates of every specialist involved.

As you can see, the rates are very different across the globe, which affects the cost of telehealth implementation. For example, developers from North America have the highest rate, but the price doesn’t always guarantee a quality service. Moreover, finding specialists with the required skills and software development expertise in local markets may be challenging. In addition, it can be a costly solution since you’ll need to compete for decent wages.

Central and Eastern Europe has a solid reputation in this field. You can outsource healthcare software development to Central and Eastern European countries to get lower rates and high developer qualifications. There are many reliable software development companies that can deliver custom software solutions for approximately $25 to $50 per hour. Moreover, hiring globally opens access to a vast pool of talented experts skilled in various technologies, even rare ones. For example, one of the largest American technological companies, Google, uses outsourcing services for its numerous products and services.

Cleveroad is a skilful healthcare software development company with 13+ years of expirience located in the EU, Estonia. We’re helping businesses create any-scale software solutions in multiple domains, among which Healthcare takes a leading position.

Our team has proven expertise in developing medical solutions such as EHR, EMR, ERX, mHealth solutions, remote patient monitoring software, telehealth platforms, and other custom solutions for Healthcare and Medicine. We help established businesses such as hospitals, laboratories, and pharmacies to provide personalized care, reduce operational load, and bring users’ experience to new heights.

By collaborating with us, you’ll be ensured of the following benefits:

• Hands-on software development experience in Telemedicine solution creation.
• Guaranteed a high data protection level by following best security practices, such as data encryption, strict access control policies, regular security audits, and vulnerability assessments.
• Free Solution Workshop to connect your business needs with effective IT solutions tailored to your project goals.
• Cooperation with IT companies with a focus on ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 compliant processes, ensuring reliable tech services.
• Signing Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA) per your request.
• Hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies like cloud computing, blockchain, AI/AR, machine learning, business intelligence, and IoT.
• Flexible cooperation models: dedicated team, IT staff augmentation, and project-based collaboration.

During this time, our team developed and released many software solutions for healthcare providers. The latest one is the telemedicine appointments management system. The platform provides 24/7 access to healthcare services, including video and audio consultations.

We’ve successfully delivered a turnkey system compliant with core healthcare regulations (namely MNRA and CQC), including the following modules (but not limited to them):

The appointment management module allows the administration to view and control the details of each Appointment, including appointments booked for children.

Patient KYC procedures module enables patients to register into the system by uploading identification documents and taking selfies. We have also added the selfie comparison mode to simplify the verification process.

The patient management module contains detailed and secure patient data and allows patients to schedule/reschedule meetings with doctors and review appointment history.

The booking system helps patients book an appointment with doctors, starting from selecting the needed specialist and ending with confirmation and payment.

Online meeting functionality allows receiving consultation via voice and audio calls. In order to deliver high-quality processing, we’ve integrated a video conferencing API (Twilio). This feature is available on mobile apps with adapted UI and UX to provide correct symptom interpretation.

A complex project like telemedicine software can be properly developed only with the help of competent experts. Our team is prepared to help you architect a top-notch custom software solution of any degree of complexity and make it modern, profitable, and competitive on the market. So, let's cooperate and develop a powerful medical solution in tune with your time, budget, and expectations.

The Cleveroad team designed a demo version of the Telemedicine app, so you can see how the Telemedicine platform can look and feel on the example of patient-side and provider-side solutions.