Last Updated | September 2, 2024
Do you love to use mobile phones? Well, who doesn’t? Statista revealed that the average US citizen spends more than 4 hours on the phone, checking their phone 144 times daily. Whether we accept it or not, our current times are all about digitalization–from ordering a quick meal or a cute dress to tracking your menstrual cycle to booking a call with your doctor, it’s everywhere.
Healthcare is going through transfiguration, and Agile technology has swamped healthcare with opportunities. mHealth or mobile health applications cater to care dynamics, from doctor on-call to remote patient monitoring. They are the core of convenience for care providers and patients, enabling connected healthcare.
Today, everyone carries a mobile device everywhere. Mobile applications have often saved lives by alerting people of abnormal cardiac rhythms or low blood oxygen levels. Almost 70% of Americans agree that they’ve used healthcare mobile apps for patients in one way or another.
With a wide range of healthcare options, mhealth apps for patients can do much more than you can imagine. Why don’t we look at them comprehensively and see how they can help you?
Overview about mHealth
Mhealth applications are an avenue to provide advanced and integrated healthcare and make it more efficient, user-centric, and accessible. As medical technology evolves, solving problems to make healthcare delivery the potential is undeniable.
Healthcare applications have evolved over the years and gained momentum. The usage of such apps is directly proportional to the users on the internet.
Moreover, combining mobile apps and healthcare provides an opportunity to improve population health through virtual care options. This is a prime factor for the growth of mHealth technology. 80% of healthcare agencies use mHealth apps in one form or another. Most healthcare organizations confirm their data efficiency has increased by adopting a mobile medical application and actively looking for ways to make one.
Different Types of mHealth Apps
The domain of mHealth applications is vast and ever-growing. They offer a wide range of healthcare and well-being services. In this section, we’ve covered different types of mHealth apps. Here is a list of mhealth apps in various categories. This mhealth apps list details the multiple ways mobile healthcare is changing the world.
1. Fitness and Wellness Apps
Fitness and wellness are broader categories in mHealth apps. These mhealth applications examples help users maintain their overall health and well-being by monitoring vitals and activities like walking, trekking, and diet for stamina and strength.
Exercise and Workout Apps
These mhealth examples are designed to achieve fitness goals by tracking users’ workouts, cycling, swimming, and everyday activities. Helping them build a healthier and balanced life by showing them their achievements, plans, and motivational reminders
Nutrition and Diet Apps
The world of nutrition and diet has various features for everyone. These apps help people with goals like building muscles, managing specific dietary needs (allergies, intolerances, etc.), improving overall health and nutrition, and developing mindful eating habits.
Nutrition and diet apps have options, too, such as calorie tracking, food logging and scanning, meal planning and recipe suggestions, or nutritional analysis and insights. These apps have audiences from all age groups and walks of life to improve their health.
2. Health Tracking Apps
In today’s fast-paced world, tracking and managing health is a task, and mobile apps used for mHealth are here to save the day. These mobile apps healthcare monitor health by tracking and acting as a central point to analyze health on several metrics.
Tech giants also have their health tracking apps, including Apple Health, Google Fit, and Samsung Health, to provide an integrated system. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that every developer in the healthcare industry has thought of building an app like Apple Health or searched for information on how to develop an Apple Watch app on Google.
Activity Trackers
Activity trackers are usually used as wristbands or smart watches for real-time tracking. In many scenarios, these trackers act as life savers. The smartwatch market was valued at USD 3.67 billion in 2022 and is expected to reach USD 8.41 billion by 2027.
Here’s how activity trackers help. On a flight from Birmingham to Verona, a woman in her 70s suffered shortness of breath. The doctor on board borrowed a smartwatch and accessed its blood oxygen function to assess the patient’s oxygen level. This eventually saved her life.
Sleep Tracking Apps
Sleep tracking apps provide insights into your sleeping patterns and improve overall sleep quality. Numerous apps are available that work with smartwatches with unique features and strengths to enhance your sleep.
These apps usually track sleep stages, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and sleep trends, offering personalized sleep insights and tips.
Mental Health Apps
With the drastic growth in mental health issues, the need for counselors and therapists has increased. Technology solved the problem of the scarcity of psychologists by answering the question of how to develop a mental health app. These mhealth apps for mental health are accessible, convenient tools that cost-effectively offer support.
MHealth apps for mental health serve as an umbrella and have various applications encompassing various well-being features. From severe conditions like suicidal thoughts to mindfulness, these apps help in leading a well-balanced life with unique and personalized features.
Meditation and Relaxation Apps
Anxiety and stress are now common issues, and meditation and relaxation apps focus on cultivating inner peace. Encouraging users to incorporate breathing exercises, mindfulness practices, and calming music or nature sounds for stress management. These apps help with focus and concentration issues, stress relief, and emotional regulation for personal growth.
Mood Tracking Apps
Chemical reactions in our brains derive moods. We cannot control unpleasant events, but mood-tracking apps can capture the reasons. These apps record emotions and moods throughout the day and identify the triggers and patterns. Understanding emotions and developing strategies to manage them.
Telemedicine Apps
Telemedicine apps bridge the gap between traditional medical help and technology. They enable virtual consultations with medical professionals from the comfort of home, connect patients with doctors by phone, and fully exploit technological advancements.
This need for telemedicine apps made the healthcare industry aware of patient requirements. It led them to look for how to develop a telemedicine app or find people who would do it for them.
Virtual Consultation Apps
Virtual consultation apps are mobile healthcare applications for Android and iOS that allow patients to consult remotely. These apps connect through video conferencing, audio calls, or messaging, enabling affordable consultation. Virtual consultations became increasingly popular after COVID-19, specifically among general practitioners and patients.
Prescription Management Apps
Prescription mHealth apps for patients offer solutions for managing medication schedules, refills, and adherence. These apps provide medication reminders, alerts for refill requests, educational information about medication, and communication with healthcare providers about medication effects.
3. Chronic Disease Management Apps
Chronic diseases require continuous management; patients often need medical help and constant monitoring. Chronic disease management mHealth apps are digital tools that empower individuals with diabetes, hypertension, asthma, and more. These apps do more than track symptoms; they assist in managing health at all levels.
Diabetes Management Apps
Diabetics need to watch out for their routine and diabetes management apps. Track blood sugar levels and insulin intake and connect to a Bluetooth glucometer for automatic blood sugar tracking and personalized coaching via a connected device. mHealth apps for diabetes have features like recipe suggestions for managing diabetes with customized insights.
Hypertension Management Apps
Hypertension is a common problem, especially among the elderly and middle-aged. These apps connect to a Bluetooth blood pressure monitor to track BP readings, analyze trends, and provide alerts for high readings. Hypertension management apps also guide meditations and exercises to tackle difficult situations.
4. Women’s Health Apps
Women’s mHealth apps are explicitly designed to cater to the particular needs of the female population. From menstrual cycle tracking to pregnancy support and menopause, these apps provide tips and support for all stages. Women’s health apps provide tracking, mental relief, and guidance to navigate different cycles and stages.
Period Tracking Apps
Regarding healthcare mobile app costs, period tracking apps are relatively low and helpful. Their standard features are maintaining period logs, mood swings, cervical mucus, and Identifying ovulation days for conception or contraception needs. They also provide Insights to manage PCOS and find relief through lifestyle adjustments or medication reminders.
Pregnancy Apps
Pregnancy is a very critical stage for a female, and pregnancy apps provide support in all aspects. Pregnancy nutrition and diet, monitoring due dates, fetal development, and weight gain to track the growth. These apps educate on prenatal care, exercise, and common pregnancy concerns.
Medication Reminder Apps
From vitamins to chronic diseases, everyone takes pills as needed, but forgetting is a part of human life. Medication reminder apps give timely reminders to take medications at prescribed times. These apps make it easy to input medication names, dosages, schedules, and durations. Some apps allow scheduling for multiple people to track for your parents or partner.
Pill Reminder Apps
Some pills can’t be missed to avoid adverse health effects. Birth control and insulin are examples of these pills. These mobile health applications allow customization to schedule medication according to prescription. They also help set up personalized reminders for each medication, with timing, frequency, dosage, and notification style options.
Medication Tracker Apps
Medication tracker apps are not just ordinary reminder apps; they track patients’ histories to analyze patterns and generate reports for your doctor. This data helps limit dosage and treatment adherence.
Health Information Apps
Health information apps are medical libraries providing information like a list of mHealth apps, the best mHealth apps, and examples of mHealth apps to deliver accurate information. You can find information in any format, like articles, videos, symptoms, treatments, community discussions, etc.
Remember, these health information applications are not diagnostic tools and should not replace professional consultation. Learning how to develop a healthcare app is easier and more informational as it assists in answering questions we often forget to task or are curious about.
The Rise of mHealth Apps: Exploring 5 Must-Have Features
Benefits of mHealth Apps
Mobile health apps offer various benefits that improve mental and physical well-being. mHealth applications benefit both users and hospitals. Some applications have subscription-based models, which allow users to enhance their user experience and create income streams and brand identities for application owners.
1. Efficient Appointment Scheduling
Mobile apps for hospitals are a convenient option for patients and hospitals to save time and resources when scheduling appointments. Appointment apps provide features like online booking, appointment reminders, and wait time updates, improving access to care with technologically advanced solutions.
2. Medication Adherence
Following a treatment and medication plan religiously leads to improved health outcomes. mHealth offers solutions like medication reminders, pill trackers, and educational resources, which can contribute to better adherence.
3. Public Health Initiatives
Seasonal and viral diseases ignite the question of what medical app development costs are. mHealth applications help prevent the spread of disease by contact tracing and health education campaigns. Helping governments and organizations in vaccination tracking, chronic disease management programs, and mental health support initiatives.
How to Build a mHealth App?
What a mHealth app is is a common question once a healthcare industry professional realizes its importance. First, mobile health applications are more than just applications installed on your mobile phone. The purpose of the mhealth software is to create ease of access for all. If you want to understand how that works, here’s a step-by-step process:
Identify the Root Cause
Identifying the root cause is the key to building mobile health apps for patients and hospitals. Traditional blood pressure machines were not portable; digital machines changed the game. You no longer need a machine today, as mobile devices do everything. In the same manner, the identification of the root cause is crucial.
Choose The Right mHealth Platform.
We have all heard the proverb “one shoe fits all,” but not in healthcare. You might be searching for how much it costs to build a fitness app for your video-based fitness program. However, the audience may be more active on desktop devices, and a website would give better results.
Choosing the right platform is the key to success; you cannot add step-tracking features to web-based applications. Here, thorough research of your audience and clear goals are the parameters.
Hire Ideal App Development Company
Finding a team that matches your requirements is crucial. An ideal company would have worked on similar solutions and be eager to create great ones. To develop a top-notch mHealth app, you need a balance of creative and technical knowledge.
Choose Monetization Model
Making money is the ultimate goal for all apps created. Do the industry research, and if you’re discovering a red ocean, take advantage of the first movers and experiment. Choose a way to earn, like monthly fees, in-app purchases, or even partnerships, to make profits and pave your path to success.
Create an MVP
For this step, the practical approach is to build a basic version of your application, add all the features, and make your dream app. Start with critical features and use feedback to learn and excel.
Test your mHealth App.
Test using various methods, techniques, technologies, and devices to ensure it flows like water before it gets public. Health apps are sensitive. Hence, vetting and testing to meet all regulations is crucial.
Launch and Track Performance
When the stage is set, launch your app. Remember, tracking and continuous monitoring are vital. Take feedback from all, review, and analyze from all aspects to nurture and flourish it. See what people have to say and what they want and give it to them.
Emerging Trends in Mobile Health Apps
The dynamics of mHealth are rapidly evolving, and technologies are being incorporated to advance care. The four key trends that are changing mHealth are:
Social Determinants of Health Integration (SDOH)
mHealth apps are now going beyond tracking individual health data. SDOHs connect with health by merging factors of income, education, and access to health facilities, providing a more in-depth intervention with causes and enabling development by providing the right resources. By addressing SDOH, mHealth apps have the potential to create a more equitable healthcare system.
Voice-Activated Health Assistants
Getting solutions for your health problems just by talking into your phone? Yes! Voice-activated health assistants are making this a reality. These trending AI tools can answer health-related questions, track symptoms, and schedule appointments. Users can control their connected, intelligent inhalers and blood monitoring devices.
These voice-activated health assistants are a relief for older adults, especially those with disabilities. As NLP improves, they are expected to play an even more prominent role in mHealth.
Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (ML)
AI and ML are advanced technologies that help analyze large datasets of health data to identify patterns, predict health risks, and personalize interventions. They assist healthcare professionals by taking over repetitive tasks and assisting in operations like medical imaging to augment their capabilities.
Wearable Technology Integration
Wearable technology integration with top mHealth apps to track users and generate massive amounts of health data. Wearable technology is also enabling remote patient monitoring.
Wearable devices track vital signs and other health data, helping to identify potential problems and allow timely intervention. mHealth solutions are making healthcare more accessible, personalized, and effective.
MHealth Application Development with Folio3 Digital Health
Mobile health applications are the future of healthcare due to their convenience and accessibility. Consider working with Folio3 Digital Health for your mHealth application development. Our team of experienced developers, designers, and marketers will help you go from a sketch or idea to a fully deployed mHealth application. Since every Folio3 Digital Health product is HIPAA-compliant and uses HL7 and FHIR interoperability standards, developing mhealth apps with us is a no-brainer.
Conclusion
mHealth apps are transforming the healthcare game by addressing challenges. They can provide personalized solutions to provide accessible healthcare solutions.
These apps empower individuals to take control of their well-being by monitoring their custom metrics. mHealth apps foster tracking and enhance remote patient monitoring to save costs while maintaining the standard of care.
Integration of technologies with mHealth apps promotes timely intervention and promotes a functional healthcare system. Adopting health apps fosters a future where healthcare is reactive and preventative, ultimately creating a healthier and more connected society.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are mHealth Apps?
mHealth apps can be installed on mobile devices to manage health. Tracking footsteps, appointment reminders, or exercising are mHealth apps examples.
How Many mHealth Apps Are There?
Various apps are available for different aspects of healthcare for all age groups and diversified audiences.
What Do Most mHealth Apps for Clinical Trials Lack?
mHealth apps’ shortcomings include keeping users engaged, making data accessible to manage, and following strict rules for research.
How can mHealth technologies be used to support patient care?
Some health user communities provide support, remotely monitor health, remind about medications, and educate and motivate.
About the Author
Afnan Ali
Afnan Ali is a digital marketing professional with over 5 years of experience. Afnan's expertise lies in crafting comprehensive digital marketing strategies, with a strong foundation in SEO (Search Engine Optimization) as the core. His experience spans various digital marketing channels, including PPC (Pay-Per-Click) advertising, email marketing, Account-Based Marketing (ABM), and social media marketing (SMM). This well-rounded skillset allows Afnan to develop and execute data-driven campaigns that achieve measurable results.
