When the healthcare industry was stumbling post the Covid-19 outbreak, a solution that helped to keep it together was telemedicine apps. It helped to bridge the gap between doctors, patients, and healthcare services by ensuring that everybody would receive the care they require irrespective of time and location. To many people, remote consultation was no less than a divine miracle! It helped them see doctors while the world was under strict lockdown measures.
If you look back at the road the healthcare industry has travelled through, you will see that technological innovations were at the helm of every step of progress. In the case of telemedicine app development as well, what has made it truly remarkable and beneficial is the technologies associated with it. In a way, the technologies are the lifeblood of these applications. So what are the technological implementations in telemedicine app development? Let us take a look.
Technologies Used in Telemedicine Apps
A telemedicine app ecosystem includes a patient app, a doctor app, and an admin panel. All three are integral components of the ecosystem and are backed up by relevant technologies. In this section, we will discuss these technologies that help the healthcare industry achieve quality goals.
Blockchain
In the healthcare sector, the privacy of information has a crucial role. It can either make or break a system. Patients will be hesitant in indulging sensitive data if they are not assured of the security of the telemedicine platform. Thanks to Blockchain, any concerns on this aspect can be completely eliminated. Blockchain ensures that the patients' healthcare records will be stored with maximum protection and will not leak out. It further helps to optimize the supply chain activities related to pharmaceutical products, clinic trials, etc.
Artificial Intelligence
If I am asked to name a technology that has revolutionized the healthcare industry, it is artificial intelligence and machine learning. The potential that it offers is beyond description. This technology has completely transformed the way doctors conduct a diagnosis. In telemedicine apps, AI has a significant role to play in ensuring accurate and quality diagnoses.
With the aid of artificial intelligence and machine learning, predictive analysis and medical image diagnosis are seeing new light. AI-powered apps make use of patients' information, medical history, symptoms, medication history, etc., to develop diagnoses quickly and precisely. It can be of huge help to doctors to come to conclusions in real-time.
Data Analytics
Data is important. But when it is not handled properly, it becomes useless and may even turn out to be a headache. That's why data analysis is among the important telemedicine app features. It will ensure that all the available data is analyzed and meaningful insights are derived from them. Further, these insights are modelled in such a way that doctors can use them to obtain references that will aid their diagnosis. Data analytics enables telemedicine apps to harness the power of data and scale heights of efficiency.
Chatbots
In a physical healthcare arrangement, what most people dread is the long waiting time they have to put up with to consult doctors. First, there is the queue for booking appointments, then waiting for your slot to consult, followed by the queue for buying medications. Invariably, a major chunk of a day will be required if you want to consult a doctor. However, with telemedicine apps, this waiting time will no longer be a concern.
Chatbots ensure that they are available whenever you need them. For example, do you want to book an appointment, get guidance for your medication, or check your symptoms? Telemedicine apps let you talk to chatbots that are AI-powered and will answer your questions effectively. And it doesn't matter where you are located or what time it is; you can always rely on chatbots to be there for you.
Internet of Things (IoT)
Ensuring proper care for people with chronic illnesses and elderly members of a family has been a challenge to everyone. To and fro travel to consult physicians at regular intervals may not always be feasible or possible for most people. Telemedicine apps have truly become saviours in that aspect. Apps that provide remote monitoring help to tackle this issue quite effectively.
And what is the technology that is behind this amazing concept? The Internet of Things! This connected ecosystem ensures that patients' conditions are monitored at all times and are related to doctors continuously. Patients don't have to make significant efforts; all they need to do is use the wearable kit that doctors provide. These kits will monitor all required vitals and inform necessary persons in case of any emergency or urgent cases.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that virtual healthcare is a part of our reality. With doctor appointment apps, telemedicine apps, remote monitoring apps, etc., the healthcare industry is moving towards a dimension that has not been explored previously. And from the acceptance that this virtual care has received so far from people worldwide, we can say that everyone is embracing it for its convenience and comfort.