Your Complete Guide to Doctor Appointment App Development

According to estimates, the losses caused by missed appointments cost the US healthcare system $150 billion annually. The fast-evolving mHealth app market is expected to reach an astounding $57.57 billion by 2026.

Statistics show the main challenges and problems that can be resolved through doctor appointment booking app development. 

• 65% of patients experience challenges when communicating with healthcare providers
• 94% of individuals choose healthcare providers who offer online appointment scheduling
• 68% of patients already book, change, or cancel appointments online
• $200 is the average potential loss caused by an unused time slot
• 30% is the average no-show rate in the USA
• $150B is the average annual cost of missed visits in the USA

GUIDE ON DEVELOPING A DOCTOR APPOINTMENT APP

The doctor appointment booking app development needs software engineers to develop a feature-rich solution using diverse technologies to enable the core functionality, described below.

Need custom appointment app?

The seven-step instruction will guide you in building a hospital appointment application with the required feature set.

1. Project Requirements Elicitation

For starters, it’s crucial to understand the needs of your patients that can be met with doctor appointment booking app development. At this stage, you should:

• explore the market
• prepare a product vision
• define supported platforms
• conduct competitors’ search and analysis
• identify the list of features to develop
• define business goals and outline models

Create a plan for developing a book doctor appointment app development by preparing a backlog of tasks. It foresees the opportunity for developers to follow a detailed plan to follow and features of an online doctor appointment system.

Hire business analysis expert

2. UI/UX Design

Create a prototype using a UI/UX design to build a doctor appointment app that enables top user experience (UX). In order to achieve the top user experience, it’s advisable to analyze project documentation thoroughly.

3. Tech Stack Selection

For starters, it’s necessary to understand what platform should be supported before beginning the doctor appointment booking app development. The top platforms an app may support are:

The tech stack for developing a doctor appointment app may include: 

• Front-end development: Angular, ReactJS;
• Back-end development: Node.js, PHP, Phyton;
• Database: Postgres, MySQL, MongoDB;
• Mobile development: Android – Java, iOS – Swift;
• Multiple payment modes: Braintree, PayPal, Stripe;
• Map integration and user location tracking: Google Maps API, MapKit, CoreLocation;
• Push notifications: Push.io;
• In-app calling and messaging: Twilio;
• Cloud environment: Google, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure.

4. Team Set or Vendor Selection

The two options to develop a doctor appointment app are as follows.

Hire a software development vendor

Explore doctor appointment mobile app development companies and hire the best vendor to create a new application from scratch. According to the software development outsourcing guide, it’s advisable to:

• explore reviews and ratings
• examine completed projects
• check a company’s workflow
• interview previous clients or request references

Involve a team of in-house employees

Find and hire IT specialists with the required tech skills. The involved specialist should be managed to create and release increments on time. Software engineers can be sourced by:

• running a recruiting campaign
• drawing tech experts from an external vendor

Hire CodeIT developers to create a perfect team set:

5. Doctor Appointment App Development

Onboard a doctor appointment app development company or hire software engineers for a project. In order to create an environment for effective management of all the processes, it’s recommended to configure:

• communication tools
• project management tool
• choose a project management methodology

6. Testing

Conduct manual and automated testing to detect bugs and possible security issues. The exposed bugs should be documented. Software engineers fix detected bugs using the reports they receive from quality assurance (QA) engineers.

7. App Release and Maintenance

Product release is the last stage of the doctor appointment mobile app development. The way an application is released depends on supported platforms.

• Desktop. A dedicated application that can be uploaded on desktops.
• Web app. An app is uploaded to a configured server to make it available on the web.
• Mobile. Android and iOS applications are submitted to Google Play or AppStore.

Also, it’s necessary to maintain a doctor appointment app by troubleshooting unforeseen issues and managing infrastructure.

Hire a well-arranged team to build an app successfully

DOCTOR APPOINTMENT APP FEATURES

The online medicine booking apps include three types according to user roles:

Let’s dive into detailed descriptions of features essential for each type.

Patient App

The main features of a patient app can be segmented into booking, profile management, and more advanced functionality.

Patient App Feature	How It Works
Easy login	Due to the sensitivity of health-related data, the app should provide an easy but secure login with various options (a phone number, email, Google account, etc.).
User profile	Patient profiles should mandate personal information and an option of permitting access to data for the doctor.
Appointment booking	Patient-oriented scheduling should provide easy-to-see slots containing all the necessary information on doctors’ availability alongside options for booking time, days, dates, cancellation policies, etc.
Notification	Notification badges help you stay aware of important updates and information.
In-app chat	Using an option in the app menu, patients get in touch with the medical professional and consult on steps toward an instant solution to their problem or an actual appointment.
Find your doctor	Integrating easy-to-navigate maps will direct your patients in spotting doctor offices or clinics hassle-free. With the more advanced functionality, the app can offer the patients to build a route from their location to the nearest clinic.
In-app payment	An in-app payment system enables instant access to service and streamlines billing. Automatic payment for consultations is vital for proper functioning.
Review and rate access	Easy access to rating systems and the option to make comments can facilitate scheduling and assist in patient engagement with the app.
Ask your doctor	Being able to ask simple health-related questions or check on disease symptoms at early stages may be a game changer for medical service providers and patients alike and serve as an effective means of taking preventive measures in healthcare.
Preferences	Save patients’ favorite health providers in one place for facilitating booking next time.
Search radius	Users should have an additional option for searching for trusted GPs, dentists, etc. Within a set radius in case of necessity to make an actual visit.
Health trackers	Offer reminders and alert patients on taking medications and refilling prescriptions.
Insurance cards and treatment history management	The app can provide an option to add patient private and public health insurance numbers to eliminate the hassle of carrying documents. Additionally, scanning and saving patient medical records can be available.

Build a doctor appointment app with a custom feature-set

Doctor App

The must-have features of an online doctor appointment system.

Doctor App Feature	How It Works
Login and sign up	Doctors can easily sign up for social media apps and fill in their accounts.
Doctor profile	Doctors should have the option to create a module implying frequent updates. The critical data within the profile includes the doctor’s specialty, clinic location, photo gallery, and review columns alongside real-time analytics for doctors’ convenience in managing their medical practice.
Check on appointment status	The app should have an appointment status tab and a fully-functioning appointment email, phone, or app reminders to prevent missed appointments.
Edition of booking slots	There should be built-in functionality, preferably intuitive and graphic-rich, for operations on a functional calendar and managing appointment booking.
Accept/reject booking	To optimize booking, doctors should have the option of providing instant feedback when it comes to scheduling and accepting or rejecting booking requests.
In-app chat	Patients expect doctors to be available on HD-video functioning platforms with audio and chat integration access.
Online prescription	Doctors should be able to prescribe a needed medicine directly in the app. It will streamline the process, and patients can order prescriptions from preferred pharmacies.
Availability	Doctors can set custom availability schedules by selecting working hours, breaks, weekends, days off, etc.
Treatment history	Medical staff can access electronic medical records to check the treatment history of patients.
eBilling	Medical staff can specify offered services to compose bills automatically, allowing patients to make payments online.

Admin Panel

The admin panel foresees the opportunity for hospitals to manage doctors, patients, ads, appointments, etc. 

Admin Panel Feature	How It Works
Secure login	Admin users can use login credentials or social media profiles to sign in to a dashboard.
Patient profile management	The opportunity to update the information specified in the patients’ profiles.
Doctor profile management	The opportunity to update the information specified in the doctors’ profiles.
Appointments management	Admin users can create new appointments and update, postpone, or cancel the existing appointments.
Reports	The dashboard analyzes defined metrics and composes detailed reports.
Approval for a doctor profile	Requests submitted by doctors are reviewed and approved/denied by admin users.
Ads management	Admin users can launch advertising campaigns to promote medical services.

HOW TO MONETIZE YOUR DOCTOR APPOINTMENT APP

By embracing potentially huge audiences, apps to make a doctor appointment have myriad opportunities in terms of monetization. In particular, monetization of doctor appointment solutions includes but is not limited to the following options:

• Providing a subscription-based model of access
• Offering online paid consultations
• Giving third-party organizations or clinics permission to access your doctor’s on-demand app
• Displaying ads for clinics or pharmacies
• Offering extra on-demand services, including paid offerings for enterprises
• Offering paid service for urgent bookings
• Enabling consumers to access paid memberships with the option of unlocking premium services
• Charging commissions based on doctors’ fees

GOT AN IDEA FOR YOUR OWN APP?

The advantages for doctors include: 

• Digital presence
• Self-promotion
• Expanding the medical practice by growing the patients base
• Providing an enhanced experience to healthcare customers
• Resource-saving
• Time-saving on admin routine and paperwork

The advantages for healthcare service consumers include: 

• Huge reduction in waiting time
• Confidentiality 
• Instant access to the best-rated medical professionals
• 24/7 support 
• Access to multiple options in consulting (by video, text, and audio messaging).
• Cost and time saving

CODEIT — EXPERIENCED DOCTOR APPOINTMENT APP DEVELOPMENT COMPANY

CodeIT is a trusted partner and top-rated doctor appointment mobile app development company. Our team specializes in developing top-tier solutions from scratch. We’ve already created a lot of software solutions for businesses that operate in the healthcare niche, inducing the following:

• HealthSync – Healthcare app for medication management, doctor’s appointments, and symptom tracking.
• Anytime Caring – Australia’s leading peer-to-peer platform that allows independent care workers to connect directly with the aged community.
• TeleTherapy – A telemedicine platform for children with scheduling appointments functionality.

Also, we’ve developed a telemedicine and doctor appointment app from scratch. Let’s learn more about the doctor appointment booking app development process and create features in more detail.

To begin the doctor appointment mobile app development, the CodeIT composed a team consisting of:

• project manager
• UI/UX designer
• Flutter developer
• QA engineer

The team has composed a cross-platform doctor appointment app on different platforms. The mobile application comprises the following features.

• Registration and profile creation
• Smart search
• Doctors’ schedule and appointment creation
• Appointments history
• Detailed information about doctors 
• Option to bookmark doctor profiles
• In-app chat, audio, and video messages

Case study:

EXISTING SOLUTIONS: TOP DOCTOR APPOINTMENT APPS

Among lots of apps providing a streamlined experience for patients to book appointments, there are several key players worth considering as examples of apps meeting consumers’ expectations at best: 

ZocDoc

One of the most popular applications is 24/7 access providers to a full database of medical practices and doctors’ schedules.

The app has an easy-to-navigate menu for guiding the user in the guaranteed booking of an appointment with the relevant healthcare provider. It offers access to honest non-censored reviews of doctors in the database and thoroughly checks on the legitimacy of partnering providers.

Doctor on Demand

It is a recognized runner-up in the market. Being great advocates of preventative care, they mainly focus on wellness, attracting over a million app users. 

The app offers upfront pricing, multi-layered support on mobile, 24/7 availability, and access to the service of more than a thousand boarded physicians on the app panel.

Read also:

HealthTap

A great app highly recognized for achieving deep patient engagement and overall impeccable delivery of service in telemedicine. It offers its users video visits, access to doctors’ profiles, text chats, getting prescriptions, and archiving lab test results. It is a HIPAA-compliant technology of high quality. 

Push Doctor

The app is available on iOS and Android and aims at British healthcare customers. Scheduling and consultation can be set in a minute, even on a weekend or bank holiday. Besides, a user can get a prescription and process it at the nearest pharmacy with an app. On average, appointments cost £30.

Ultimately, the doctor appointment scheduling app can successfully address the issues associated with pain points patients usually have in medical scheduling:

• Spotting the local healthcare providers 
• Identifying pharmaceutical services providers available in the vicinity
• Filtering specialists by majors, ratings and reviews, and by day-to-day availability
• Booking an appointment in online or offline mode

FINAL THOUGHTS — USEFUL INSIGHTS

Digital solutions give healthcare consumers a new level of experience in scheduling doctor appointments, and the market’s high dynamics suggests further growth, which makes the demand for medical booking app development service rise. 

Below are the top doctor appointment app development insights that will help you create a winning app.

• The appointment software market is expected to grow steadily, keeping the compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.1%.
• 82% of patients prefer using mobile phones to make appointments online.
• Automatic reminders help decrease the no-show rate by 29%. 

With CodeIT, which has proved its technical and business expertise by completing projects of similar scope, you will get high-quality healthcare software development service and guaranteed customer satisfaction.

Ready to create a doctor appointment app with many helpful features?