How To Develop a Telemedicine App in 2025?

Posted in Telemedicine

Telehealth apps have rapidly evolved from being optional add-ons to essential tools for modern healthcare delivery. The COVID-19 pandemic accelerated this change, triggering a 154% spike in virtual visits in early 2020, and the demand hasn’t slowed. Today, up to 80% of patients prefer telemedicine for routine care, from prescriptions to follow-ups. For organizations seeking to expand care access, enhance efficiency, and remain competitive, now is the ideal time to invest in telemedicine application development. This guide walks through how to develop a telemedicine app in 2025 in 5 easy steps.

How to Develop Custom Telemedicine App/Platform?

Step 1: Pick a Platform

Before you start telemedicine app design, you need to decide where your telemedicine app will live. Your choice depends on who you’re trying to reach, what devices they use, and what your app needs to do.

Mobile: iPhone (iOS) or Android?

Many telemedicine companies start with iPhones first. Why? iPhone users often spend more on apps and expect a high-quality experience. 

Building for both iPhone and Android reaches the most people. A tool like React Native lets you build one app that works on both. This saves time and money, making it a smart way to start your telemedicine app.

Desktop: Computer App or Website?

A website dashboard is super important for doctors and nurses. They need it to manage appointments, patient records, and video calls from their computers. Patients who don’t use mobile apps might also need to access services through a web browser.

You can even turn your website into a full virtual healthcare platform. This is how popular apps like Slack work. It ensures your app runs well on Mac, Windows, and Linux computers. Also, make sure your website works well on mobile phones too. Some patients might not download an app but still want quick access through their phone’s browser.

SaaS (Subscription Service) vs. Custom Build

• SaaS telemedicine platforms let you launch quickly. You usually pay a monthly fee. But these platforms offer limited changes. You might only be able to add your logo or app name. Things like how the app looks, how it works, and what other tools it connects to usually stay the same. This limits how unique your app can be.
• Custom-built telemedicine apps give you full control. You decide on every feature, how it looks, and how users experience it. While they cost more at first, they grow better with your business. They also let you meet your exact business needs.

Plus, a virtual healthcare platform can connect with your existing systems. They can also follow healthcare rules like HIPAA better, especially when you use technologies like TURN servers and WebRTC for video calls.

Step 2: Design the Perfect Telehealth App

The design step is to ensure that users find it easy to use and make a comeback. This includes both User Experience (UX) and User Interface (UI) design. 

User Experience Design (UX)

Many technically sound virtual healthcare platforms fail because they’re not easy to use. Designing for telemedicine means understanding how both patients and doctors behave and what they need. 

You’ll need to design:

• A backend for providers to manage schedules, appointments, and patient info. This makes their work smooth.
• A frontend for patients to book appointments, see prescriptions, and join video calls. This makes getting care easy.

Keep the sign-up process short, no more than three screens during telemedicine application development. Use simple words, this makes the app easy for everyone to use, no matter their age or education. 

Once you have basic layouts (wireframes), get feedback from groups of users. Change your design based on their ideas. Keep doing this until your app is easy to use for everyone.

User Interface Design (UI)

After you’ve got the UX layouts approved, it’s time to add the visual elements to the telemedicine application development. Think of colors, fonts, icons, and buttons. These elements turn your functional design into something that looks good and feels right.

UI choices affect how users interact with the app. Your color scheme should match your brand, but also be easy to see. Buttons and other elements should be sized and placed according to phone usability rules.

Once the UI is done, create a working model (prototype). Do more user tests to make sure it’s easy to use before you start building the app. This helps avoid costly changes later.

Step 3: Choose Tools (APIs) for Your App

A telemedicine app needs many parts to work together seamlessly: video calls, chat, scheduling, alerts, and encryption. Instead of building these from scratch, use proven APIs (Application Programming Interfaces) and SDKs (Software Development Kits). These are ready-made tools that save you time and ensure reliability.

Here are some popular options:

• VSee SDK: This tool is fully HIPAA compliant (meaning it follows strict healthcare privacy rules). It has built-in video for phones and computers and is easy to set up. But it’s expensive and not open-source, which means less flexibility.
• VIDYO: Offers video, chat, and screen sharing. It supports calls with many people. However, it’s not very customizable and is better for big business uses.
• WebRTC: This is free and open-source. It handles real-time video and audio and can be changed a lot. But it needs more setup and ongoing work.
• OpenTok (Vonage): Built on WebRTC with extra features. It’s also HIPAA compliant and works on iPhone, Android, and Windows. But it doesn’t work on Mac computers, which could be a drawback.
• Twilio: This is powerful and has many features. It supports video, audio, text chat, and even fax. It works with both iPhone and Android apps, offers encryption, and is HIPAA compliant. It’s great for both new companies and big projects because it’s so flexible and strong.
• Acuity Scheduling: This tool helps with booking appointments and is HIPAA compliant. It connects easily with video call tools. You’ll need a paid plan for a BAA (Business Associate Agreement), which is crucial for meeting rules.

Step 4: Test Your Telemedicine App

Start with code reviews and unit testing after each small piece of development work. This checks if individual parts are working correctly. At the same time, your quality assurance (QA) team should test the app manually on different devices and systems. This helps find problems that automated tests might miss.

Before launching, do these tests:

• Regression testing: Make sure old features still work after you add new ones or make updates.
• Stress testing: See how the app performs when many people use it at once. This ensures it won’t crash under pressure.
• Security testing: Check that patient data is safe and that the app follows HIPAA rules. This protects sensitive information.

Step 5: Launch and Maintain Your App

Once your app is built and tested, submit it to the Apple App Store and Google Play. For your web version, launch it on a secure, HIPAA-compliant server.

But launching isn’t the end. Telemedicine apps need constant updates. Phone systems like iOS and Android release new versions often, which can affect how your app works. You’ll need to release regular updates to fix issues and add new features to keep your app stable and competitive.

Maintenance tasks include:

• Checking uptime and server performance: Make sure your app is always available.
• Testing on new phone operating systems: Ensure it keeps working as phones update.
• Updating security tools (encryption libraries): Stay ahead of new threats.
• Keeping up with new healthcare rules: Make sure your app always follows the law.
• Getting user feedback and making changes: Improve your app based on what users want and need.

Telemedicine App Development Services By Folio3 Digital Health 

Folio3 Digital Health offers expert telemedicine app development services that yield solutions specifically fitting your business goals and clinical workflows. Whether you want to expand your offerings (such as online visits and remote patient management) or integrate telemedicine into your existing systems, our healthcare integrations are secure, interoperable, and built to scale with you. The development team ensures full HIPAA compliance and adheres to HL7 and FHIR protocols for the secure exchange of protected data across healthcare systems.

Conclusion

In 2025, the need to develop a virtual medical app has become increasingly urgent, as patients demand convenience, security, and real-time access to care. Whether you are exploring how to create a telemedicine app, refining your telemedicine app design, or planning full-scale telemedicine application development, success pivots around a thoughtful platform selection, seamless API integration, HIPAA compliance, and user-friendly design. Knowing what is needed to create a telemedicine app, from choosing the right tech stack to continuous testing and maintenance, ensures you deliver a solution that not only works across iOS and Android but also meets evolving industry standards.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I develop a virtual medical app?

Creating a virtual medical app means first deciding its main purpose and features for users, while strictly following rules for patient privacy and data security. Next, build the secure parts that users see and interact with, and the hidden systems that manage video calls and patient records. Then, test everything thoroughly to ensure it’s safe and works well before launching and continuously improving it.

How to build a telemedicine app for the U.S. healthcare industry?

Here’s how to build a telemedicine platform in 5 easy steps: 

• Step 1: Pick a platform (like phone or computer) – This is the first big choice that shapes your whole app.
• Step 2: Design the perfect telehealth app – How easy your app is to use makes a huge difference.
• Step 3: Choose tools (APIs) to add to your app – These are the technical building blocks for your platform.
• Step 4: Test your telemedicine app – Make sure it works perfectly, is safe, and does what it should.
• Step 5: Launch and maintain your app – Getting it out there is just the start; keeping it updated.

What are the best practices for telemedicine app design?

Telemedicine app design prioritizes intuitive, user-friendly interfaces for diverse users, ensuring accessibility and clear communication even under stress. It requires sturdy security and strict HIPAA compliance to protect sensitive patient data.

How to create a telemedicine app that works across iOS and Android?

To create a telemedicine app that works on both iOS and Android, you’ll primarily leverage cross-platform development frameworks like Flutter or React Native. This involves writing a single codebase that compiles into native applications for both operating systems, significantly reducing development time and costs.

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