Creating an App for Remote Patient Monitoring: When You Need It?

Since the world has been on hold for two years, remote healthcare solutions are in high demand. Remote patient monitoring (RPM) technologies, spurred by pandemic lockdowns, have transformed a specialist sector into a major industry with huge potential and growing competition.

Learn about the most common RPM products, build your own home monitoring app, and get valuable insights into the product's logic.

5 Distinct Categories for Remote Patient Monitoring

IoT Medical Apps

It is important to think about the whole system, including the app and any linked medical sensors or other Internet of Things devices, while discussing such items.

How does this system work? The patient has a Bluetooth glucometer, for example. The telehealth app receives the data automatically once the device measures the patient's sugar levels, processes it, and then delivers the results back to the patient with an explanation of the findings.

An additional implementation of this kind of technology may be a smart pillbox that monitors the patient's medication use and alerts them via a smartphone app when they are about to miss a dose. Furthermore, the app can notify the doctor of intake regimen changes. For instance, a telemedicine app development company can help you design robust features, ensuring timely reminders and seamless data exchange.

Questionnaire Apps

Commonly used for keeping tabs on symptoms, questionnaire apps provide users with a set of questions tailored to their specific health issue. After the user enters their responses, the app either gives them insights into their present condition or instantly sends a report to a doctor, who may then utilize it to make an informed suggestion.

Products for Communication

Without ever setting foot in a medical facility, users may now consult with a doctor and get online suggestions using these applications. Similar to popular applications like Skype and Zoom, telemedicine communication apps serve the healthcare industry's specific demands while providing more features than mass-market alternatives.

In this case, these applications may include a plethora of other capabilities beyond just video/audio/text chat, such as appointment management, digital queuing, invoicing service, e-prescriptions, and more.

mHealth Apps

When people talk about "mHealth," they usually mean any telemedicine tools that help spread the word about medical treatment and patient records. Apps that monitor fluid intake are one example; approved solutions used by healthcare facilities to enhance on-site medical services are another.

Many different functions are addressed by mHealth solutions. These functions include teaching, raising health awareness, collecting and analyzing medical data, aiding in the treatment of chronic diseases, etc.

Solutions for Precision Medicine

This group differs somewhat from the others since precision medicine applications are reserved entirely for academic study.

To provide healthcare providers insight into public health, these solutions gather and analyze health data of a certain demographic without enabling any contact between patients and physicians.

Developers still require users' agreement when utilizing their medical information for reasons outside individual treatment, even though precision medicine applications often anonymize patients' data.

Steps in Creating a Remote Monitoring App

1. Determine What Issue Will Be Addressed

Researching the target population and their problems is the first step in developing any remote monitoring program. While it may seem obvious, remember that you are entering a market where numerous products compete to engage customers' attention. Some of those applications may use features similar to your future products.

So, to succeed, you need to zero in on the exact issue your target market is facing. You then craft a USP that demonstrates to buyers 1) how your product can solve that problem and 2) how it stands out from the competitors.

2. Meet All Requirements and Industry Standards

Because RPM applications collect and handle sensitive data, they must adhere to all regulations imposed on the healthcare sector. If your RPM software isn't industry-standard, your organization might be fined \$50,000 in the US.

So, make sure your software respects FDA, ISO 27001, and IEC 62304 security rules. Your product may also need data security certifications depending on its operational (healthcare institution) or geographical (country/region) location.

3. Develop a user interface and user experience keeping the user in mind.

Remember that the average user isn't tech-smart when you're making an app or piece of software for remote patient monitoring; making sure your interface is easy to understand and use should be a top priority.

Keep the interface simple by omitting extraneous details and components. Reducing the number of steps needed to complete a job reduces cognitive burden.

Visually impaired users should be able to use your RPM product. To accomplish this, utilize big, easy-to-read buttons and other visually attractive user interface components (this will also aid the elderly).

4. Create a Minimum Viable Product (MVP)

You may test the waters with early adopters (first users) and a low budget by building a minimal viable product (MVP) initially, rather than a full-fledged solution. Get customer input on your remote monitoring app as soon as possible so you can see whether it has promise for the future.

Since most businesses have limited development resources, this method is particularly useful for them. In a competitive market, where 20% of firms are immediately outcompeted, this is the only option to avoid failure (Cb Insights). In addition, minimum viable products (MVPs) are a common tool for companies to pitch to investors and expand their businesses.

5. Deploy and test

You must test your RPM product thoroughly to make sure it is reliable, bug-free, and up to market standards before releasing it to the public. The following are some of the most typical steps and verification techniques used in testing:

By carrying out its intended tasks, functional testing guarantees that the program satisfies all specifications.
Through usability testing, we check that the app's UI is easy to use and that it follows all relevant guidelines.
Screen resolutions, element responsiveness, page orientation, and other predetermined technical characteristics are checked during user interface (UI) testing to guarantee that the app's UI is compatible with these requirements.
The stability of the app's operation on various devices is guaranteed via compatibility testing.
Performance testing involves evaluating how well the app handles various kinds of load and use cases.

Once you've finished testing, it's time to release your app to the app stores.

6. Continue Working on Updates

Soon after your app launches, you may begin to gather customer feedback, plan for future upgrades, and improve the product's functionality. Assuming your app continues to be available on the market, this will need continuous facilitation.

We advise planning ahead for app maintenance and assembling a development team that can provide continuous application support services if you're using a health monitoring app.

Methods for Making an Effective RPM (Remote Patient Monitoring) App

Remote patient monitoring (RPM) applications allow doctors to follow important patient data in real-time and respond quickly, changing contemporary healthcare. For a successful RPM solution, consider these key elements.

Data collection

Think of things like weight, heart rate, and blood pressure as examples of metrics you may measure. Then, figure out how you'll collect that data, whether it's via external data providers, built-in platform capabilities like HealthKit or GoogleFit, or Bluetooth/Wi-Fi devices.

Data collection

Connecting your app to the hospital's EHR system via a secure API ensures safe delivery of health data to the doctor.

Patient engagement

Create an attractive, simple interface (dashboards, charts) that users will want to use often and will keep them engaged.

Patient-Doctor Interaction

Facilitate patient-provider contact by integrating various means of electronic communication (live chat, audio, video calls, etc.).

Notifications

Include important warnings for major changes in monitored vitals, prescription consumption, and approaching appointments.

Payment Gateway

If your RPM app offers premium services, make it easy for customers to pay without leaving the app by integrating a payment gateway. This may be anything from credit cards to PayPal, Stripe, Apple Pay, and more.

How Darly Solutions Can Assist

Having completed sixty or more MedTech projects, Darly Solutions has extensive knowledge in the field. Using a tailored healthcare technology stack, they provide full-cycle software development. By drawing on this expertise, Darly Solutions offers dependable, secure, and efficient solutions for deploying RPM applications.