Telemedicine App Development

For us, this project became a great example of telemedicine app development we’re really proud of. At its core was the idea of getting timely medical consultations in the most convenient way for patients. Mbicycle became the one to take this idea further and build a fully featured mobile solution around it.

The client needed qualified experts to develop a robust mobile app with extensive functionality for providing medical consultations from scratch. We were lucky to work with the client on their previous project, that’s why they hired the iOS development team from Mbicycle to work closely ​with their designer and a project manager.

Our main challenge was to give users a number of valid features to get qualified and relevant medical consultations in line with their symptoms. However, with a prior successful experience in medical app development, we had a clear action plan for this project. We signed an NDA with the client and got into gear.

Our dedicated work over the course of the next few months resulted in a full-fledged solution for people looking to get online medical consultations at a convenient schedule.

The Core Functionality

When we agreed on the app design with our client, we started development. Using iOS UIKit, we created a profile form for new users where they could add their personal parameters, contact details, insurance program, family members, and preferred payment method.

Then we added the consultation request functionality using PushKit to notify users of an incoming call, CallKit to display the native call screen, and WebRTC to transmit audio/video directly during the call. When sending requests users could specify their symptoms, add a payment card, and choose an audio or video type of call.

As the next step, we implemented an in-app calendar that allowed patients to choose a convenient date and time for their consultations, view medical reports from past consultations, and adjust reminders about upcoming advice with medical specialists. After an online consultation is approved, it’s automatically added to a user’s calendar with an adjustable reminder.

For secure and swift online payments right in the app, we’ve integrated the Stripe service.

The Extended Feature Set

After the main functionality was developed, our team additionally enhanced it with a few supplementary options increasing the overall user experience.

To provide medical experts with more detailed information on their patients, we extended the user profile field. Users could additionally specify their bad habits, past and chronic diseases, allergies, etc. That helped eliminate the need for such questions during a consultation and spare more time for doctors to focus directly on patients’ current symptoms.

We also extended the app with an interactive map of different clinics and their available experts. Patients can sort these clinics by ratings or their specialists’ qualifications.

Another important feature we’ve added was getting valid electronic prescriptions from medical experts online. Thus, during an online consultation, a medical specialist can write out an electronic prescription and send it to a patient as an attached file. With this file, patients can go to the nearest pharmacy and buy prescribed medicine.

In order to prevent overuse, this feature was available only in online mode. Thus, when patients used their prescriptions at the pharmacy, the server received and synchronized this data, and the application displayed up-to-date information about the available limit of electronic prescriptions.

Taking the original client’s idea — providing online medical consultations — further, we have delivered a handy and robust app that allowed patients to:

• Plan the specific date and time of their remote consultations
• Specify their current symptoms
• Get notifications about their scheduled calls with medical experts
• Locate different clinics and available experts on the interactive map, sort them by ratings and qualifications, and choose the right specialist according to their needs
• Get electronic prescriptions online, which can be further used at pharmacies
• Make secure and fast online payments within the app
• Arrange online consultations for every family member using a single account

We’re proud of being a part of this project. We sincerely believe that with timely and qualified medical consultations patients have higher chances to prevent any complications and stay healthy.