How to Build a Virtual Nurse App – A Comprehensive Guide
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According to Globe News Wire, the global digital health market was accounted for at $181.8 billion in 2020. With an expected CAGR of almost 25 percent from 2019 to 2025, the digital health market should reach nearly $660 billion by 2025.
Moreover, the global mHealth market was valued at $45.7 billion in 2020. And it's expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.6% from 2021 to 2028. The key factors driving the market growth are supportive government initiatives and growing penetration of smartphones & internet connectivity.
As the market is booming, there are plenty of niches to conquer. For instance, you can develop a virtual nurse application. Now is the perfect time to launch your innovative solution in this sphere. Still, to create a solid and competitive product that will take its place in the medical market, you need to understand this domain's intricacies.
We've gathered the information to understand better whether you are ready to create a virtual nurse solution for patients and healthcare professionals.
You will get acquainted with modern trends and find out which virtual nurse app other companies are equal. Moreover, we will show you the key features of such an AI-powered solution and what challenges you may face during development.
Virtual nurse app development trends
The rapid development of the digital healthcare market is raising the expectations of patients. Companies have started to look for the best options for developing mobile medical applications on popular platforms. Therefore, you should analyze the current trends in the IT healthcare market. You will understand what the problems are now and what product needs to be made to meet the needs of consumers.
Success lies in synergy, so you need to combine several trends in one solution to launch a unique product. A striking example is the medical application Sensely. In 2013, it forever changed the perception of what the IT healthcare market could and should be. Other companies are still trying to recreate this digital masterpiece. Its creators have shown how artificial intelligence can create a virtual nurse who cares for patients remotely as a living person. We will tell more details about this application in the next block.
And now, let's look at the five trends in virtual nurse app development.
Telemedicine
It is a solution that helps patients get advice and prescriptions from doctors without visiting a clinic. At the same time, each side remains a big plus. Patients can get privately needed medical information at home. There is no need to contact other healthy and sick people. In turn, the doctor can diagnose and save time working on particularly severe medical cases.
The patient and the healthcare professional use modern technologies such as computers, regular calls, video calls, and messaging. And all this in one mobile application.
According to Statista, the telemedicine market has grown significantly in recent years. The first half of 2021 has already surpassed the previous record of venture capital funding in digital healthcare set just last year. According to Rock Health, an unbelievable $14.7 billion has been invested compared to 2020's full-year total of $14.6 billion.
Read Also: The Cost of Implementing Telehealth
According to Statista
IoMT Wearable Gadgets Integrations
The Internet of Medical Things is becoming an important component for physician patients' care. At the heart of this trend is a mobile application connected via the Internet to various items. They track a person's physical activity (such as heart rate, blood pressure, weight) and transmit this data to a program to see their health.
The application can pass this information to a doctor or nurse. They can respond quickly to deviations and contact the patient on time for urgent consultation or hospitalization.
Artificial Intelligence (chatbots, voice assistants, and virtual avatars)
Companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) in developing their solutions. According to a survey conducted in 2021, 45 percent of respondents reported healthcare data integration as a function for which their organization was currently using AI technology or had plans to use it before the end of 2021. Furthermore, 36 percent of organizations had implemented or were planning to implement natural language processing.
AI-powered solutions help save time for healthcare professionals by providing the right information to patients 24/7 through the app. Among the popular options for using AI, we highlight the following:
Chatbot
You can implement chatbot integration in your application. The patient will want to know some information about his illness, the location of the nearest pharmacy or clinic. There can be many questions, and your chatbot needs to know the answers to these questions and write like a living person.
Voice assistant
It can be useful if the patient does not want to write his needs. It can be either dialogue or just a reminder that it's time to take medication.
Virtual avatar
An avatar can look like a living person, animated
for greater effect. Ideally, there should be different avatars for different
categories of people to inspire trust. That is what one can call a virtual
nurse.
In all cases, the patient communicates with a program, not with a living person. However, it is important to develop a virtual nurse app so that people feel that they are communicating with a doctor or nurse. It should be a perfect imitation of human emotions and thoughts.
Cloud-based solutions
When designing your virtual nurse app, you need to think about where you will store patient data. An integrated cloud-based system with Electronic Medical Records (EMR) is a good option. In addition to patient cards, there may also be their insurance schemes and medical bills. All data is structured.
Cloud-based solutions help healthcare professionals easily manage their paperless work and quickly find the necessary information about the patient. However, it is important to ensure the confidentiality and security of medical data about patients. We will talk about it below.
Blockchain
Blockchain is an innovative technology already well-known in the fintech sector. And now it is spreading to the IT healthcare market. Simply put, this approach manages and writes information into connected blocks so that each of them includes information about the previous ones. Technically it is more complex, but essentially blockchain makes it impossible to change at least somehow or break the data in your system.
Blockchain is perfect for a cloud-based solution because all patient data is securely protected, and there will be no information leakage. Using this technology significantly increases the credibility of your medical application and saves all parties in the process money and time. Blockchain trends also helps to ensure GDPR and HIPAA regulatory compliance.
How does it work?
Creating a virtual nurse app is an extremely complex process, as you need to involve many professionals in different areas. Therefore, we will first show you which groups of people are working to create your future IT project for patients and doctors:
- An experienced IT development team builds your virtual nurse app, complying with all legal requirements and using modern technologies. Developers know how to create an IT solution that will help you take your significant market share.
- Hospital IT specialists who know the necessary protocols and standards
- Healthcare professionals (doctors and nurses). They can provide medical materials to form the database required for virtual medical care in the application.
According to a report by the National Health Council in 2020, about 157 million Americans have chronic diseases. The number of such people is growing every year. It leads to an increase in the share of the state budget for healthcare in the United States.
Therefore, this domain has huge potential for virtual nurse apps designed to reduce, optimize costs in this area, and help improve the population's health. Since the global pandemic, remote monitoring has proved its worth. According to the newest report of McKinsey & Company, the use of virtual care has been 38 times higher since February 2020 than it has ever been before.
Take Sensely, for example. Using artificial intelligence helps nursing patients with chronic diseases reduce the likelihood of being re-hospitalized. The doctor communicates with the patient in the hospital and prescribes medication. The patient goes home, and the application helps them take medicine on time for the right period.
Moreover, every morning a virtual nurse communicates with a patient, checking their health. She speaks like a living person with emotions and tones so that a user feels comfortable and caring. This nurse can capture the mood and emotions of the patient. She records the information in a secure database accessible to nurses and doctors in the clinic. If the program notices a deviation during communication, it notifies the required medical staff.
A patient can also find out the information he needs through a chatbot, similar to communicating with an ordinary person in this application. At Sensely, a patient can find the nearest medical center, read prescriptions and view useful medical information.
At the same time, the doctor sees in the app all daily records that are part of the medical card. They can easily see the data. Thus, round-the-clock patient care helps them respond quickly to the slightest deterioration in health and take appropriate measures. The doctor can communicate with patients in the application.
In your virtual nurse app, you can make similar functionality by adding some useful options.
Key features of custom virtual nurse application
When creating an application, you need to think about what features you want to add there. Moreover, you can divide them into two categories that will benefit your solution: patients and healthcare professionals. We'll show you what the features might be so you can figure out for yourself exactly what you need for your app.
Features for patients
You need to create a virtual nurse application that the patient can easily understand himself. We understand that this is a difficult process, but it will help you avoid developing many instructions for using your application.
Chatbot
It's an important function for round-the-clock receipt of quality and useful information in the format of dialogue as with a living person. The patient can solve most of his usual questions in the chatbot.
Virtual nurse avatar
Except for the chatbot, a patient can get information from a virtual nurse checking their health every day. Visually, the avatar should look like a living person. The same applies to the nurse's manner of communication.
Symptoms Checker
IIt's one of the most important virtual nurse app features in your product. The application daily analyzes the data received from the patient and promptly passes it to healthcare professionals. They can contact a person quickly if abnormalities are found.
Content Module
This block consists of medical information (video, images, text) about various diseases, medications, and warnings.
Consultation
In extreme need, a patient can talk to their doctor in the clinic (video call, regular call, chat).
Reminder
The application uses smart machine learning algorithms to calculate when a patient needs to take a prescribed medication. And a reminder pops up at the right time.
Healthcare Services
A patient can find the necessary medical center on the map in a critical situation with his health.
Log-in/Sign-up
The patient can enter the application by specifying such data as name, email, and a unique password. You can also pull up registration through social networks.
Features for doctors and nurses
You also need to understand what the application for clinic staff should look like and function. Here are some popular features:
Patient Management
A nurse sees in the app all their patients with all the necessary information. Attendants can take care of them remotely and respond quickly to deviations in their health. In addition, a nurse can do push notifications for patients who will have useful information.
Symptom Analysis
Patients send their health data daily. The nurse reviews and analyzes this information to determine the potential disease. Patient reports can also be received per email.
Consultation
Healthcare professionals can talk to the patient in the app on their own. It will be private and confidential.
Healthcare content
The nurse can send useful medical information to her patient and see the entire history of referrals.
Sign-Up/Log-In
A health professional (doctor or nurse) can register in the application via social networks or email.
We have shown an approximate list of typical functions for a medical application, as there may be other additional functions. For example, you can add multiple payment gateways to allow patients to make single-tap payments for medical services in your application. It all depends on your requirements and expectations for the product. And it is also important to create a virtual nurse app design, which will harmoniously display all the features you plan to place there.
Read also: 20+ healthcare app features to consider.
Virtual nurse app development challenges
You may have an incredible idea for creating a virtual nurse app, but you need to approach this issue carefully. You need to think and analyze everything in detail. Before you start developing an application, you need to understand whether you are ready for the next challenges.
Long product development time
If you are the startup owner, you should consider whether you can afford to wait a while to develop your application. It is a large-scale process with the integration of artificial intelligence and blockchain, which requires the presence of many specialists in both the IT and medical industries. Of course, it all depends on the intended functionality of the future application.
Correct application work 24/7
You need to be prepared for your application to work correctly and without glitches every second. Even a tiny mistake can disappoint your consumers. Therefore, you need to test the product many times before launching it. You need to understand whether your application will work with a sharp increase in users. Therefore, you can turn this challenge into both your competitive advantage and your disadvantage.
Virtual nurse as a living person
It is a complex innovation that requires a lot of experience and knowledge to create a virtual avatar that will talk to patients like a real person. The nurse must capture the user's emotions and mood to interact with them relevantly. Therefore, you need to do deep research, starting with reviewing how successful applications already work with this feature. You may see a new opportunity that no one has yet thought of.
Market readiness for the product
You need to understand exactly where you plan to run your application. Also, figure out which countries are ready for your product and any legal conditions for this. You can enter the developed market, where many different virtual nurse apps already exist and get your share of customers there. Alternatively, look at the countries potentially ready for healthcare innovations, but there are no similar medical applications yet.
Constant update after launch
If one virtual nurse app development company has created a medical application for you, its developers should work with your application after launch. They know all its intricacies and will make sure to update it in time and correct possible mistakes.
Developing a virtual nurse app can help take your business to the next level and announce your company or startup to the world despite all these challenges.
Create a virtual nurse app with Softermii
Innovative technologies increasingly penetrate the medical field, meeting patients, nurses, and doctors' modern needs and expectations. Leading companies are trying to create IT solutions that can solve the problems of these groups of people.
Patients with chronic diseases in leading countries can now receive medical care in special healthcare applications.
Artificial intelligence replaces healthcare professionals in routine matters, simplifying their work and saving clinics money.
However, developing an application with a virtual nurse is a rather difficult task that requires solid experience and relevant knowledge from an IT company. Therefore, it is important to choose professionals who have already created similar innovative solutions, such as telemedicine and for people with chronic diseases. Then you understand that such a company can be relied on.
If you have an idea for your IT medical product, our virtual nurse app developers in Softermii will help you quickly and profitably create an innovative solution. Your application will meet modern requirements and take your business to a new level.
We have a dedicated team consisting of a Project Manager, a Business Analyst, UI/UX Designers, Mobile App Developers (iOS & Android), and Quality Assurance Engineers.
Contact us, and we will create a
virtual nurse app for your business.
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