With the advent of smartphones, apps have taken up residence in every area of our lives. In most situations we face, our phones are often what we look to for help or information. And this is true when it comes to our health too.

And the healthcare industry is responding to this growing need – Statista has estimated that the overall app development revenue in healthcare alone will rise to a whopping $58.8 billion in 2020.

If you are a healthcare provider, here are some of the ways in which the right mobile app can benefit your patients and revolutionize the way you work:

• Easy Scheduling of Appointments

A patient no longer needs to go through the tedious process of enquiring about doctors’ schedules and making multiple calls to the hospital, just to secure a single appointment. A user can simply log in, select a convenient date and time window, check for availability of doctors, and schedule an appointment with a few clicks, from anywhere!

If that is the patient-facing side of the app, the physician-facing side would help each doctor see his/her upcoming appointments scheduled over the week and plan accordingly.

• Convenient Record-Keeping and Access

From digitized prescriptions to medical images viewable on mobile devices, healthcare apps can help healthcare providers organize patient records in a more streamlined manner. It reduces hours of paperwork and makes it easy to access returning patient information in no time.

With such apps, patients needn’t go from a lab test to a doctor’s consultation carrying physical test results. They can simply share their medical record number and both patients and doctors can view them together on their respective mobile devices. Sharing medical information between doctors in case of a referral or need for the second opinion also becomes extremely convenient.

• Helpful Medical Information Access

When it comes to health advice, googling for information is rarely a good idea, with a lot of unreliable information out there. However, an app providing reliable medical information can come in handy.

Before a patient thinks it is serious enough to visit the hospital, they can simply ask a question through such an app and receive preliminary advice from one or more doctors. Based on the advice received, the patient can decide whether a hospital visit is required.

• Seamless Data Flow Across the Network

There are multiple stakeholders in the complex healthcare network. The patient registers at the front desk meet with one or more physicians in different departments, visits the laboratory for tests, purchases medicines from the pharmacy makes an insurance claim at the insurance desk, and so on.

With mobile technology, it is possible to move patient data from one point to another, greatly improving the efficiency of the process and enhancing the patient experience.

• Reduced Risks of Diagnostic Errors

Advanced health applications powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning can learn from historical data to perform intelligent diagnostics. What’s more, with each new case, they are capable of continuous growth and learning.

Such apps can be of great assistance to physicians, helping them prescribe the right kind of medication and treatment plans. Moreover, with the ability to store and retrieve patient information, diagnostic errors due to insufficient patient history in emergencies can also be avoided.

• Effective Monitoring of Health using IoT

A healthcare app that extends to other wearable devices can have multiple benefits. It enables patients to consistently monitor certain aspects of their health, share them with their physicians, and enable them to receive the right treatment depending on changing bodily signs and symptoms.

Such apps are also shaping a more health-conscious generation of people who work towards better fitness and health.

• Improved Reach of Medical Services

It may not always feasible for well-equipped hospitals to be set up in remote, rural regions. It is, however, possible for medical professionals to reach patients in such regions through mobile applications. Physicians and nurses can inspect the patients remotely using HD cameras. In cases of emergencies when either the patient or the physician is unable to reach the hospital on time, video calling through a hospital app can even save a life!

With mobile technology, it is possible for experts from around the world to collaborate, consult and share medical advice — in real-time!

The benefits of mobile applications do not end here. From setting prescription reminders to sending geolocation-based emergency alerts, the ways in which mobile apps have been leveraged in the healthcare industry are exceptional. With a little thoughtfulness and the right mobile app development partner, you can use mobile technology towards multiple ends.