Building Patient-Centric Healthcare Web Application

Imagine a first-time mother with a sick child in the middle of the night in a small town. The closest ER is in the neighboring town. What if we tell you she could consult a doctor from her home, get a prescription, and arrange medicine delivery? That’s what Healthcare web applications can do, in this case – save lives.

The healthcare industry is quickly transforming with digitalization. 58.5% of adults already use the internet to look for medical information online. A Rockhealth survey revealed that 80% of surveyors received care using telemedicine at least once in 2022. No wonder why 90% of physicians in the US use telemedicine solutions to offer care.

If you’re here, you’re already considering offering digital healthcare services. Healthcare web development is complex with strict compliance and handling of sensitive patient data. Plus, there are numerous considerations on the development side, including the approach, features to include, and cost considerations. This article draws from Anglara’s long-standing expertise to address all the above aspects and more. 

Why Invest in Healthcare Web Development

If you aren’t already convinced to pursue healthcare web development to offer your medical services, we have solid reasons to get you on board. Plus, understanding the reasons behind your investment in healthcare web app development is crucial for making informed decisions.

A healthcare web app is an internet-based application designed to provide users with seamless access to medical services and information. The global digital healthcare market was valued at $180.2 billion in 2023, and its growth shows no signs of slowing down. 

Deloitte suggests a “digital transformation” of the healthcare industry with interoperable data, development and incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI), and secure platforms for better patient care and focus on preventive measures. Experts predict the market to grow to $549.7 billion by 2028, growing at a CAGR of 25%, the potential in this sector is enormous.

Healthcare web apps, as part of this digital revolution, include various types such as: 

• Mobile health (mHealth) apps
• Electronic health records (EHRs)
• Electronic medical records (EMRs)
• Wearable devices
• Telehealth and telemedicine solutions 

We’ve created a concise table of benefits that healthcare web development can provide its users:

Trends In Healthcare Web Development 

Keeping up with the latest trends is crucial for ensuring that your healthcare web app remains relevant and effective. The primary goal is to deliver a user-friendly experience that adds value to patients. Here are some key trends we’ve noticed in healthcare web development:

Data visualization

What it means: Data visualization involves presenting complex medical data—such as test results, treatment progress, and patient metrics—in a visually appealing and easily understandable format.

Why it is trending: Clear and informative data visualization allows patients and healthcare providers to interpret critical information with ease. It improves user engagement by providing a more intuitive understanding of health data, leading to better patient outcomes.

Tips from Anglara:  

• Focus on displaying only the most relevant information to avoid overwhelming users.
• Keep the visualizations simple, clean, and easy to read.
• Utilize established visualization tools and techniques rather than attempting to reinvent the wheel.
• Always include descriptions to clarify the data being presented.
• Ensure that the contrast in charts and graphs is high enough to be easily distinguishable.

Web Accessibility

What it means: Web accessibility allows your healthcare web application to be used effectively by people with disabilities. This involves implementing features like size-adjustable text, voice readers, transcripts for audio content, and alt text for images.

Why it is trending: Accessible web app broadens user base and complies with legal requirements, such as the ADA in the U.S. It also enhances the overall user experience, ensuring that all patients, regardless of ability, can access and benefit from your healthcare services.

Tips from Anglara:  

• Adhere to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) to meet the needs of your target audience.
• Optimize the design for mobile devices to ensure accessibility across different platforms.
• Use bright, high-contrast colors judiciously to improve readability for users with visual impairments.

Use bright colors

What it means: The strategic use of color in your web app’s design can significantly impact user engagement and conversion rates. Bright colors, when used correctly, can draw attention to key elements without overwhelming the user.

Why it is trending: Colors influence the emotional response of users, making your app more engaging and easier to navigate. High-contrast, well-chosen colors help readability and guide users intuitively through your app’s features.

Tips from Anglara:  

• Limit your color palette to 2-3 main colors to maintain a cohesive design.
• Avoid overly high contrast levels, which can make the app visually jarring, and aim for balance in your color choices.

AI and ML 

What it means: Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML) technologies can create intelligent, data-driven healthcare web applications that improve decision-making, enhance diagnostic accuracy, and personalize patient care.

Why it is trending: By analyzing medical conditions and identifying patterns, AI and ML assist doctors in diagnosing health problems more accurately and selecting appropriate treatments. These technologies enable real-time, informed decision-making, leading to better patient outcomes.

Tips from Anglara:  

• Integrate AI and ML to provide actionable insights from patient data, allowing for more precise and personalized care.
• Use AI/ML to automate routine tasks, freeing up healthcare providers to focus on more complex and critical aspects of patient care.

Chatbots

What it means: Chatbots are AI-powered tools that can interact with users in real time, providing answers to common questions, scheduling appointments, and offering support.

Why it is trending: Chatbots make the patient experience better by offering quick, round-the-clock assistance. They can handle routine inquiries and tasks, reducing the workload on healthcare staff and ensuring that patients get the information they need promptly.

Tips from Anglara:  

• Implement chatbots that are capable of handling a wide range of queries in a conversational, human-like manner.
• Ensure that chatbots are integrated seamlessly into your app to provide consistent and reliable support.
• Regularly update and train your chatbot systems to improve their accuracy and user satisfaction.

Challenges and Best Practices In Healthcare Web Development 

No web development project comes without challenges. However, healthcare web development is complex due to stringent compliance needs and a diverse user base. Here are some common challenges that we, at Anglara have combatted successfully: 

Data Security

Problem: Keeping patient data secure is one of the most significant challenges in healthcare web development. Sensitive health information, if compromised, can lead to severe financial and reputational damage. The shift to electronic health records (EHRs), increased use of mobile devices, and cloud-based solutions have expanded the attack surface for cybercriminals.

Solution: To mitigate these risks, healthcare organizations should implement robust data encryption methods, both for data at rest and in transit. Regular updates and patch management are crucial to protect against known vulnerabilities. Multi-factor authentication (MFA) and role-based access controls can help ensure that only authorized personnel can access sensitive information. Additionally, organizations should establish a strong incident response plan and conduct regular security training to keep staff aware of the latest threats and security practices.

User Adoption

Problem: Even the most secure and well-designed healthcare web app can fail if it doesn’t achieve user adoption. Healthcare providers and patients may resist new technologies due to perceived complexity, lack of familiarity, or concerns about data privacy. Low adoption rates can render an app ineffective and undermine its intended benefits.

Solution: To encourage user adoption, healthcare web development should prioritize user-friendly interfaces and seamless integration with existing workflows. At Anglara, we provide comprehensive training and support for healthcare providers during the transition. 

For patients, healthcare providers must focus on clear communication about the benefits and security measures in place to build trust. Incorporating feedback mechanisms and iterating on the app’s design based on user input can also drive higher adoption rates over time.

Scalability

Problem: As healthcare organizations grow or experience sudden increases in demand, as we strive for our clients with our projects, their healthcare web applications must be able to keep up. Scalability issues can lead to performance bottlenecks, system downtime, and compromised user experiences, especially during peak times such as public health emergencies.

Solution: To ensure scalability, your healthcare app developer should build on a flexible architecture that supports cloud-based scaling. This allows the web application to handle increased traffic without sacrificing performance. At Anglara, we also implement load balancing and optimize database queries to further enhance the app’s ability to scale. 

P.S.: You will face these challenges with time, but the right healthcare web developer will anticipate them. We always push for regularly testing the system performance under different scenarios to identify potential issues before they affect users.

Choosing Features of Your Healthcare Web Application

Have you used MyChart’s web application? It’s the top healthcare web application with a 4.4 rating on G2 and is used by more than 190 million patients.

The reason behind MyChart’s popularity is its comprehensive feature set that makes it an all-in-one platform where users can view their medications, test results, upcoming appointments, and even manage their medical bills. 

The web application also facilitates secure communication with healthcare providers, enabling patients to schedule appointments, request prescription refills, and engage in telehealth consultations—all from a single interface. 

Well, that right there is a good selection of features to include in your healthcare web design, offering simplified healthcare management for both patients and providers. 

After over six years of experience and watching various healthcare web development trends come and go, we’ve made a list of seven evergreen features your healthcare web application should consider.

• User profiles – Give users access to a centralized repository for personal contact information, medical history, details about previous visits to doctors, and any concerns raised by the patient. 
• Appointment scheduling and management – This allows users to quickly access a doctor’s calendar, select an available time slot, and get doctors to confirm these appointments directly through the app. 
• Doctor profiles enabled by search and filter – Let users search for and select the best doctor for their treatment, filtered by criteria such as rating, specialization, experience, and service type.
• Online payment systems – Include online payment systems that facilitate quick and hassle-free payments for services through gateways like PayPal, Google Pay, Stripe, and credit cards.
• Patient portals – Provide users with 24/7 access to their health data, medical advice, appointment scheduling, and other forms of assistance.
• Notifications and Alerts – Send automated reminders and alerts for upcoming appointments, medication schedules, and other critical health-related activities with notifications and alerts.
• Online Consultation – Enable patients to connect with healthcare providers through video calls, chat, or voice calls for real-time medical advice without needing to visit a healthcare facility.

Steps Involved In Healthcare Web Development 

Developing a healthcare web application is a complex process requiring a structured approach to ensure the final product meets the needs of both healthcare providers and patients. At Anglara, we follow a systematic five-step process to guide our development, ensuring that each phase is thoroughly planned and executed.

Market research and discovery

The first step in developing a healthcare web application is to conduct thorough market research and discovery. This phase is crucial for understanding the target audience and identifying the specific problems that your solution will address. 

At Anglara, we emphasize the importance of understanding user needs and behaviors, which is why our first step includes:

• Defining and analyzing the target audience
• User analysis and researching pain points
• Market and competitor analysis
• Planning functionality with preliminary healthcare web design layout
• Estimating project time and budget

Design and prototyping

Once the initial research is complete, the next step is to design and prototype the application. This phase involves prioritizing the essential features of the healthcare web development project and building a design prototype with all the functionalities selected for the app. Our healthcare app developer focuses on:

• Designing the user experience
• Addressing key functional questions
• Testing with real users

Development and testing

After design and prototype development, a healthcare web app developer should have initial user feedback to build on. The actual coding and building of the application happens now. Healthcare web development is divided into two parts: frontend and backend development. 

Choosing the right technologies for frontend and backend development is the key to the efficiency of the project and the performance of the final product. The choice of programming languages, frameworks, and databases often depends on the specific requirements of the healthcare web application, ensuring high performance and scalability.

Focus on:

• Consistency of design and its intuitiveness: You must guide users effortlessly through the application, minimizing cognitive load.
• Rigorous testing: Testing is vital to ensure the app is secure and ready for launch. At Anglara, we conduct functional, integration, security, and accessibility tests to mitigate risks and ensure compatibility with other software and hardware.

Compliance checks

Healthcare applications must comply with strict regulatory standards to protect patient information. Make sure your healthcare web application checks the relevant regulations, such as HIPAA, GDPR, and NIST. 

Compliance in healthcare web development projects involves:

• Data protection and privacy: We prioritize the security of patient data through encryption and regular backups. For instance, when developing an app for a U.S. clinic, we can ensure full HIPAA compliance by using compliant third-party providers and implementing robust data encryption measures.
• Adhering to global standards: Whether the app is for the U.S., UK, or Indian markets, we ensure that it meets all necessary legal requirements, providing peace of mind for both patients and healthcare providers.

Note: Give your healthcare app developer a heads-up on the compliance requirements before you start your healthcare web application development.

Launch and Post-Launch Strategy

The final step is launching the application and ensuring that it integrates smoothly into the users’ workflows. However, the launch is just the beginning of our services as a healthcare web development provider. At Anglara, we emphasize the importance of:

• Onboarding and training: We provide onboarding features and training materials to help users, including patients, doctors, and medical staff, get acquainted with the new software or progressive web app. 
• Continuous improvement: Post-launch, we actively seek user feedback to inform future updates and improvements. We offer ongoing maintenance and support to ensure the app remains functional and secure over time.

Cost Considerations For Healthcare Web Development 

There’s a burning question for all who plan on a healthcare web development project – how much does it cost?

We know you’re eager to know the potential costs, but sorry to say there’s no one-size-fits-all answer. The cost of healthcare web development can vary significantly depending on factors like:

• Complexity: The more complex the app, the higher the cost. 
• Third-Party integration: Each integration requires additional development, testing, and sometimes licensing fees.
• Choice of features: Custom features and a unique, user-friendly healthcare web design will add to the overall cost. 
• Geographical location of the development team: The cost of development varies greatly depending on where your healthcare web development team is located. 

Outsourcing to a healthcare web design and development company in the USA will generally cost more than working with a team based in India. You’ll know there’s a lot to gain at much more to gain at a much more affordable price when we draw out an estimate for you after discussing your specific needs with our healthcare web development team. Contact us to discuss your project and get a personalized cost estimate.

Conclusion

As you’ve seen, developing a healthcare web app involves meticulous planning, adherence to strict regulations, and a clear understanding of your users’ needs. From initial market research to the final launch, every step is crucial in creating a healthcare web application that not only meets compliance standards but also improves patient care and provider efficiency.

At Anglara, we’re dedicated to turning your vision into reality with our comprehensive end-to-end web app development services. Whether you’re at the initial concept stage or ready to build on an existing platform, our team is here to guide you through each phase with expertise and precision. Fill out our consultation form to discuss how we can drive your healthcare web development project to success.