According to Statista, “The mobile health industry is expected to continue to grow in the coming years and is predicted to reach a total market size of almost 60 billion dollars by 2020”.
For a healthcare provider, developing a mobile app means getting more control over patients’ medication management and needs which in turn, allows offering safer & better care.
Here we are discussing about features that can be a part of mHealth app to offer an effective support.
Medicine identifier: A medicine identifying feature can help the patient to know the name of the medicine and will tell the patient what those pills are for. It often happens we get a faded prescription, a bottle of syrup with an improper label or a single tablet in medicine box and we get curious to know what those medicines are. This feature will sure to help a lot.
One option is to let a patient manually input the medicine characteristics, such as type, size, shape, color, and composition (if available). The app will then runs a search through its database to show a list of medications with similar characteristics.
The other option is a more user-friendly app feature on which works on complex image analysis algorithms, the app will ask to take a picture of a pill and then will search for a similar data in its database.
Medication planner: Digital scheduling of medication is another important feature to add. And for security purpose, the initial medication plan should be created by a health professional. Then, it can be shared to any patient’s mobile device while free right free to edit for a doctor.
Medication reminder: It happens most of the time the patient has to take more than two medications, in that case, it is difficult to remember the time and the schedule. Such patients will get the benefit from the reminder features which will send notifications that show the name of the medicine and also the dosage.
Renewing prescription: This feature saves a lot of time and effort of both the patients and healthcare professionals. The patient will get a notification about the prescription expiring. And he will get a form to fill for a prescription renewal. The doctor will receive the form and they can also send the new prescription or approve the same old over the app itself.
Well, these are some common yet trending mobile app features to add on the patient-related mHealth app; additionally, drug interaction checker, medication price and store locating are some other booming features.