How to Develop a Healthcare App and How Much Does It Cost

Usually, it’s the cost of custom development that interests entrepreneurs the most. It takes the time and skills of a whole team of specialists to develop a healthcare app, be it a fitness tracker or an EMR system. Below, you’ll find all you need to know before building a health app, including many aspects that can affect its cost.

Market Overview of
mHealth

In the US alone, practically every 3rd adult has a health app installed on their smartphone. People monitor their health even more commonly than they use banking or educational apps: it’s 62% vs 57 and 30%, respectively. Consumer spending in health and fitness apps is set to exceed $100 million in the 1st quarter of 2022.

From fitness apps and water drinking reminders to medical workflow automation, overall, the mHealth industry has a lot to offer its users. And certainly, there is room for fresh ideas like yours.

What Factors Impact the Cost of a Customized HealthTech Software Development

The cost of healthcare app development may vary many-fold depending on these factors below.

Vendor type

First, it’s always the type of team that influences the cost of medical app development in the core. You have 2 options: hire a team or employ one in staff. Most opt for the first for several reasons: it’s easier, as you get a pre-formed team of developers who work well together, and just cheaper than financing your own staff. Given this, hiring a team, or outsourcing mHealth app development is what we’ll focus on in this post.

Region

Most IT companies that provide outsourcing services have an hourly rate that differs a lot by region. In the US, this rate is the highest of all countries, usually starting at $100-150/hour. In Europe, rates are significantly lower for the competitive quality of development. Thus, when choosing a vendor, don’t limit yourself to the nearest regions: it’s in foreign contractors’ best interest to make the cooperation as convenient for you as it can possibly be.

The functionality of the product

More app features mean more working hours which, in turn, mean higher costs. In the initial stages of your work with the vendor, the business analyst should break down the duration of developing all health app features for you to picture the work scope clearly. To assess the potential of your idea, we suggest starting with a minimum viable product and then building up new features step by step. An MVP is a product capable of solving the problem it’s designed to solve with no extra functionality.

Types of mHealth Apps with Examples

From health monitoring apps for day-to-day use to those for healthcare professionals who have long introduced medical apps in doctor-patient relations.

Medical Workflow

3-4 weeks

Medications tracking, incidents & accidents, drugs management.

EMR/EHR

4-6 weeks

Electronic medical record of patients

CMS standarts

3-4 month

MDS 3.0, OASIS HIPAA 5010, EDI 837

Social component

2-3 month

Collaboration between healthcare professionals and their patients

Medical devices

2-3 month

Integration with custom devices and management of medical trials

Medical mobile apps

4-6 weeks

Apps for fitness, baby trackers, various calendars, calculators, drug handbooks

EMR/EHR

Medical/health records of patients. In a more general meaning, this type of module means automation of any workflow that takes place in the hospital or clinic being automated. The amount of time and money needed for this module is tightly tied in with the daily activities of the facility. If you would like to automate a clinic, provide your mobile application development services company with all the papers and forms you are interested in so that they could "read" your workflow. Usually, an EMR module takes 4-6 weeks worth of work.

Examples: Epic, WebPT, Allscripts

Social component

The social component provides an ability for doctors and patients to communicate. This component is often referred to as software for healthcare professionals and implements appointment scheduling, visit tracking, communication around patients' health, and other similar procedures. This type of medical software mostly depends on graphic design, which means that its estimate starts from 8 weeks.

Examples: Medscape, Dock Health, MDCalc

Medicare & Medicaid standards implementation

This is the most time-consuming type of project. You should be aware that CMS standards usually take 12-16 weeks because of their sophistication and intricacy. At the same time, this type of app for healthcare is the most valuable type as there is a strong need for CMS standards automation in the market. Such medical applications often turn into multi-tenant SaaS systems and start serving multiple medical facilities.

Medical workflow automation

This type of functionality is usually integrated along with the EMR module. The usual workflows are medication tracking, incidents & accidents, drug management, and so on. Medical procedures development usually takes 3-4 weeks. So, on top of EMR, a few weeks should be taken into account for any extra workflow.

Examples: AxisCare, CrelioHealth, WellSky

Medical mobile apps

A huge variety of medical mobile apps - such as apps for fitness, drug handbooks, baby trackers, various calendars and calculators, etc. To assess the work scope of a health mobile app development you should understand whether this app requires a back-end (server-side) development or not. The principle is simple - if the application allows for a few users to communicate, there should be a back-end. If a user is required to log in to the medical care app, a back-end is required. A mobile app with a back-end takes 8-12 weeks to be launched - its estimate depends on the back-end development. If the app allows one to open it and have fun without touching upon other users, your estimate will depend on the graphic design. In this case, it is possible to deliver a nice standalone healthcare app within 4-6 weeks.

Examples: Flo, ZenPlanner, MyFitnessPal

Integration with medical devices

This is completely custom work because so are the devices. The amount of work required depends on the device and your goals. For example, you may want to run a medical trial or deliver supplementary software needed for the everyday use of the device. One way or another, such supplementary medical software will take no less than 8 weeks to launch.

Scope and Cost of Healthcare App

Anadea’s expertise in mobile health app development involves a number of finished projects for medical facilities flow automation and personal use. Below, find the scope and cost for one such project. This example is given for illustrative purposes - to get an estimate for the healthcare application development created with your sketch, address your idea directly to the company with relevant expertise.

How much does it cost to create a healthcare app?

$70,000 - $96,000

How long does it take?

14-20 weeks

What's the scope?

Authentication: Registration, login, logout, password reset.

Scheduler: Work/visit schedule for care workers and clients.

Health data management: Complete health questionnaire(s), receive food supplement recommendations, review results.

Push notifications: View list of notifications received, be notified about new recommendations, reminders, order updates.

Admin panel: Onboarding, Client management, Care workers management, Scheduler management.

Middle Cost of Developing a Healthcare App in the US

Created by a US-based company, a similar app would cost nearly twice as much. More expensive doesn’t necessarily mean better, to which a number of Anadea clients from the US can attest. In this big world, boundaries disappear. Now it’s time to take a wider perspective.

Contact us

Whether you’re looking to build an MVP, create a web design for your site, develop a mobile app or complex IT system - tell us about your project. We will give you a quote and advice.

Send us your request for proposal, and we'll reply with the estimate

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