Do you ever think that scheduling doctor’s appointments is more difficult than training for a marathon? The process alone may give anyone the willies, what with negotiating backed-up phone lines, waiting on hold, and playing voicemail tag.
One area where technology has made significant strides is in doctor appointments. Now, if you have trending mobile app ideas in your brain, then you need to build a doctor appointment app to become the next industry leader.
The size of the doctor appointment scheduling apps market was $8.5 billion in 2023, and it’s expected to reach $13.49 billion by 2030. This shows that it is the right time to invest in doctor appointment app development. If you are also someone looking to develop a doctor scheduling app, then this blog will help you.
In this blog, we will explore the steps to build a doctor appointment app, features, costs, monetization model.
So, let’s begin!
What is a Doctor Appointment App?
As the name suggests, a doctor appointment app or system is a digital healthcare app that lets doctors set up meeting times based on patients’ availability and lets people make an appointment with a doctor.
The goal of these apps is to make it easier for people to find and visit with a book doctor appointment app. It should make them feel better and give them better access to healthcare.
You need an on demand app development solution that can be used to keep track of all the doctors’ plans if you want to help them get online and get customers.
Future Predictions & Projections of Doctor Appointment Service
- By 2024, the Online Doctor Consultations market should have brought in $9.46 billion.
- With a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.02% from 2024 to 2029, the market is estimated to be worth US $11.52bn by 2029.
- The size of the medical appointment scheduling apps market was US $8.5 billion in 2023, and it’s expected to reach US $13.49 billion by 2030.
- In 2024, 1.58% of people will be users, and by 2029, 1.75% are likely to be users.
Source: Statista
- We expect the average income per user (ARPU) to be US$77.32.
- Compared to the rest of the world, the United States will bring in the most money ($2,391,000,000 in 2024).
How Does Doctor Appointment App Work?
In fact, every telemedicine app is different in how it works and what functions it has. However, we have figured out a very common app flow for doctor on-demand app development that lets you consult a doctor online.
-
Create an Account
Users first download the app for booking doctor appointments and sign up with their phone number or email address.
-
Search for a Doctor
Now they use the search bar to look for doctors by name, specialty, or region.
-
View Doctor Profiles
After that, they can look at each doctor’s credentials, experience, and reviews from past patients.
-
Schedule an Appointment
After this is done, users can choose a good date and time from the doctor’s schedule.
-
Manage Appointments
Finally, users or doctors can see their future appointments, change or cancel them if necessary, and get reminders.
Steps To Develop a Doctor Appointment App
If you want your app to be ready for thousands or even millions of people, you need to make sure it can grow and never fails. That’s why you shouldn’t do things one at a time. Make sure that all of the steps you take to make a doctor appointment app work together so that the final product is the pride of your practice.
1. Get Your Doctor Database Ready
If you think about it, making an on-demand doctor app is more like a healthcare app. But first validate it with an IT consulting services provider before you build a doctor appointment app.
In the eyes of the user, what you provide is a market, and doctors are the goods. And the person who uses it orders something by making doctor appointments.
Making sure you have the goods is the first thing you need to do. Do you have a list of doctors that you can use if you are working with a certain clinic? Are APIs going to let you get to it? You can move on to the next step after this one is done.
2. Verify a Prototype
Once you’ve chosen the data sources for the app, the next thing you need to do to develop a doctor appointment booking app is prototype. You need to make the app’s screens look good and use a clickthrough demo to test its features.
Always keep in mind that the comments from your medical staff and test users should drive UI/UI changes. Make sure to hire a skilled Android app development services provider to check the growth of the online doctor consultation app. At this point, you will need a tool for testing.
3. Work on UI/UX Design
When designers make interfaces for different types of virtual doctor appointment app users, they need to keep these main needs in mind:
- The design of the customer site should be easy to use.
- All EHR-related information should be easy to find and up to date in the doctors’ site.
- Make sure you meet the needs of your front desk staff to build a doctor appointment app that can handle routine tasks.
Now that you have the sample of the app, you can start the real development process.
4. Develop Your App’s Backend
The Hybrid mobile app development team works in short cycles called “iterations.” They hold regular meetings to keep you fully informed about the writing process. That way, it will be easy to keep track of the project’s progress and make all the necessary calls at the right time.
Because you’ll have to code both the web and mobile versions of your doctor booking app, you should do it at the same time to save yourself a lot of time later on. Your healthcare app development team will not only code the website for arranging medical staff, but they will also make APIs that will let the app to make doctor appointments connect to medical information.
Cross-platform development tools will help you make the most of your money if you want to make apps for doctor appointments that work on both Android and iOS.
5. Ensure HIPPA Compliance of Doctor Appointment App
Your doctor on-demand app development company makes sure that when you build a doctor appointment app is HIPAA-compliant before they start working on it.
To do this, a safe mobile app design that follows HIPAA rules must be built so that sensitive patient information doesn’t get out to people who shouldn’t have it.
Make sure that the people working on the app know all about the rules and regulations that apply to healthcare and how to keep the app safe.
6. Test & Launch Your Doctor Appointment App
The QA team makes sure the app works as planned by testing it on a number of different systems and devices. This includes checking the app’s usefulness, usability, security, and speed, as well as making sure it follows rules like HIPAA.
The healthcare app development company will work closely with the testing team to fix any problems that are found and make changes and improvements as needed.
The app is ready to go live once all of the tests are over and any changes that need to be made have been made. In this case, the online doctor appointment app is uploaded to the right app stores, like the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, so users can download it.
Key Features of Doctor Appointment App Development
It’s important to carefully choose each feature when you develop a doctor appointment app. First, let’s quickly go over the best features to build a doctor appointment app.
1. Reviews
You can request that people share their thoughts on their experience with a certain doctor during their appointment. You can make a rating system for doctors based on this feedback. Review and rating scores are useful to integrate when you develop an app like ZocDoc. In addition, they encourage doctors to give good care.
2. Reminders
Both doctors and patients should be able to be reminded of upcoming visits. It helps experts keep track of their schedules and cut down on people who don’t show up. This is also helpful for people because it helps them remember their meetings.
3. Telemedicine
When you develop a telemedicine app like Teladoc, users can set up a place for health monitoring with the ability to make appointments and give people the choice of whether to go to the doctor’s office or call through your app.
4. Electronic Health Records
By adding health data to your doctor finder app, you can make a place for doctors to work. A doctor can make notes during the visit and send them to the patient to build a doctor appointment app.
5. Prescriptions
One more way that your doctor making appointment app can be made better is by adding electronic medications. Patients can get scripts sent to local pharmacies, which is an example of a place where patients can use this electronic ticket to buy prescription drugs.
6. Health Tips
The iOS app development company can make your doctor online appointment app even better by giving people health tips. Think about it: your doctor appointment android app could help people not only make doctor’s appointments but also learn something good for their health.
7. Map and Navigation
Your app for making appointments can also help people find their way to offices that aren’t online. Customers may also want to use this feature because it is helpful to be able to see the address and route in the same app as the visit information.
8. Medical Records
Being open and honest with your patients is always a good idea. Let them know how their treatments are going and see their test results. You could even add an upload button so they can send medical scans to their doctors.
9. Payments
It’s very helpful to let people pay ahead of time for their appointments and services. Adding a payment gateway feature to your online appointment doctor app can help lower the number of people who don’t show up for their meetings, since paid bookings almost never miss.
Best Doctor Appointment Apps In the Market
You can get a better idea of what to expect from an on-demand doctor consultation app by looking at the below doctor appointment booking apps.
Top Doctor Consultation Apps | Available Platform | Downloads | Ratings |
ZocDoc | Android | iOS | 1M+ | 4.8 |
Practo | Android | iOS | 10M+ | 4.5 |
MFine | Android | iOS | 5M+ | 4.6 |
Doctolib | Android | iOS | 10M+ | 4.4 |
How to Add Trust To the Doctor Consultation App?
When it comes to medical apps, trust is very important. The following things can help you give your people more reliable services.
1. App Security
You have to follow international rules like GDPR when you build an app like Doctolib, which is the top standard for data security in the IT business.
2. Regulatory Compliance
The doctor appointment booking app development is still a part of medical care, and it has to follow the rules in your area. Talk to an expert about the rules to be sure.
3. Privacy
When we talk about medicine, it has to be there. In addition to keeping data safe when you develop a healthcare app, you can let people make private profiles so they know that no one else will be able to see their health records.
4. Proof of Doctor Qualification
It might be something that people have to have. It will help people trust the doctors and your app if you ask them to upload their grades and/or medical licenses.
Challenges & Solution of Doctor Consultation App Development
Even though digital solutions have made it easy to make doctor appointment apps for mobile devices, there are still some problems that need to be fixed.
1. Challenge: Regulatory Compliance
When making apps for doctor appointments, one of the hardest things for developers is making sure that the apps follow the law when it comes to collecting, storing, and using data. In the US, for instance, an app for doctors appointments should be in line with HIPAA.
Solution: It’s important to choose a mobile app development company that can follow all the appropriate healthcare laws and rules.
2. Challenge: Security
These days, everyone is worried about security. When you build a doctor appointment app, it’s very important to make sure that patients’ personal information, like medical records, contact information, and so on, stays safe.
Solution: You should think about stronger security steps like encryption, two-factor login, and service providers you can trust that know how to keep healthcare data safe.
3. Challenge: Proof of Doctor Qualification
Also, it can be hard to tell if the doctors on the list are prepared to give the right kind of help.
Solution: To make sure that only qualified professionals are listed, use some kind of proof process or background check whenever you can in doctor on-demand app development solutions.
4. Challenge: User Experience
One of the most important things to do when you build a doctor appointment app is to figure out how to make a healthcare tool that gives users the best experience possible. Besides that, it can be hard.
Solution: Using the agile method is a good way to get around this. Continuous teamwork between developers, partners, and users will give you the ideas you need to make an app for booking doctor’s appointments that is easy for people to use.
Cost To Build A Doctor Appointment App
Now comes the main part which every business owner has before investing in mobile app development. So, “what is the doctor on-demand app development cost?”. Well, to answer this, you need to share your project requirement which entails the features and complexity of your app.
But but but… we can provide a rough estimate to build a doctor appointment app which lies between $10000-$25000. Let’s be more specific with the below table of cost to build a doctor appointment app.
App Complexity | Cost Estimation |
Simple Doctor Appointment App | $10000-$15000 |
Medium Doctor Appointment App | $15000-$20000 |
Complex | $25000+ |
Apart from this, you calculate the doctor appointment mobile app development cost with the below formula:
Total Doctor Appointment App Development Cost = Hourly Developer’s Rate * Development Time
Besides, you can also avail the mobile app maintenance services to timely update your doctor appointment app. Now you know the cost to develop a doctor appointment app, it is time for the doctor appointment app development solutions.
Why Is It Vital To Fix Budget For Your Doctor Scheduling App?
Now that you know the cost to develop a doctor appointment app, let’s talk about how important it is to set a budget for the process. Setting a budget helps you understand the whole planning process and take the right steps to build your app schedule doctor appointment. That’s why you should remember these things before you start working on the growth of your business:
1. Helps Identify the Actual Needs
The price you set to develop a health checkup app helps you think about what the end users want, so you can give them what they need right now. This will make it easy for you to understand what features your app to book doctor appointments needs and help you make the right choices.
2. Aids in Market Research
As soon as you think about your budget, you have to go out and do a lot of study on the market to find out what the going rates are.
3. You Need the MVP
That meeting with the funders will only happen if you have a minimum viable product. To figure out how much and how long an MVP app development will take, you need to have a budget before you build a doctor appointment app.
4. Need to Save for Marketing
It would be silly to think that your work and costs will end when the app is finished. The production process has a few steps left. The big challenge is getting the app out there, selling it, and getting it to the right people.
You can figure out the cost to make an on-demand appointment scheduling app for doctors, but what really matters is to know the cost to keep the app running after the app has been made.
How To Monetize Your Doctor Appointment App?
It’s clear that if you spend money to build a doctor appointment app, you want to make money from it. You can use the following monetization strategies:
1. In-app Purchase
The best monetization model is a subscription-based business plan. A subscription model focused on data that requires doctors to pay for access to patient medical records is one option you can suggest to them, in addition to the others.
2. Freemium Model
As it allows users to test a product for free before committing, software companies find great success with the freemium model. Handle the free trial for your medical appointment app like myAster or other to eliminate the requirement for “money back guarantees” because there is no upfront cost.
3. Pay Per Consultation
You can bill the doctor or other specialists based on the consultation they provide. Under this model, each doctor consultation is paid for by the patient. Based on the intricacy of the consultation and the level of skill of the physician, this charge may be fixed or variable.
4. Subscription or Membership Model
With this strategy, you can make money from your app each time a doctor or patient signs up as a member or subscribes. You may receive payment each month. For doctors to pay you money to publish their profile on your app and use its premium features, you can develop a subscription-based business plan.
5. Franchising
If there are too many people in your local market, you can relocate abroad or to another market. You may give the franchise to a medical institution. This is one way that you can make money.
Let’s Create A Doctor Appointment App!
To make an online method for making doctor appointments, you’ll need a team you can trust to help you all the way through.
A medical scheduling app makes it much less likely for a patient to not show up, improves customer happiness, and automates administrative tasks that take a lot of time.
Are you ready to build a doctor appointment app for planning doctor visits? Dev Technosys, the leading AI development services provider, can come up with a solution that is just right for you! Get in touch with us and let’s figure out the first steps.
FAQs
Q1. How Long Does It Take To Build A Doctor Appointment App?
The time to make a doctor appointment app is not always the same. It can be minimum 2 months and max it can take 7-8 months for a complex app.
Q2. How Much Does It Cost To Build A Doctor Appointment App?
The cost to doctor consultation app will be between $10000–$25000 depending on your project complexity. You can consult with a doctor appointment app development company about the actual cost.
Q3. What Are the Benefits of Doctor Appointment App Development?
When you build app for booking doctor appointments, you will get many benefits:
- Time & Cost Savings
- Increased Convenience
- Improved Communication
- Fills Appointment Gaps
- Data Analytics
Q4. What Features To Add In Doctor Appointment App?
When you create a doctor appointment app like Doctolib, you must add the below features:
- Payments
- Reminders
- Patient profile
- Appointment booking
- Doctor profile
- Electronic prescriptions
- Notification
- Reviews
Q5. What Are the Best Doctor Appointment Apps?
Here are the best app for doctor appointment that you check out:
- ZocDoc
- Practo
- MFine
- Doctolib
- TelaDoc