Despite the fact that governments in many countries all over the world are working on the improvement of the healthcare system, there are still a lot of issues in this sphere. And the main of them is related to the lack of possibility for many people to reach practitioners and to timely get the required help.
In some cases, especially when we are talking about rural and remote regions, it can be explained by the physical distance between the place of living and the nearest medical center. In many other situations, people can get access to healthcare establishments but they need to wait for their appointments for months if not years.
And here is when telemedicine should enter the game. This concept is based on the principle of providing medical services in a remote format by means of modern technologies. One of the key techs in such projects is videoconferencing. But it is also possible to communicate with doctors via phone calls or online chat. Is this approach popular? Definitely yes! In 2022, 52% of adult people in the US who took part in the survey admitted that they used telemedicine services and communicated with healthcare providers via video calls.
To launch a successful telemedicine project, first of all, you need to find a reliable custom healthcare development provider or create your own development team. But what’s next? You can also look at RTLS hospital.
Table of Contents
Clearly set the goals for your project
To begin with, you need to decide on the exact functionality of your application and the services that you will provide to users. For example, you can build a platform that will connect people with therapists for supporting their mental health. Or you can create a platform that will be used by a particular medical center and, as a result, allow users to get practically any possible medical services.
For making such decisions, we recommend you research the market in order to find out what solutions already exist and how users interact with them.
Find a development team and discuss your project
It will be a good idea to establish cooperation with developers who already have expertise in building solutions for the healthcare industry and understand the peculiarities of this sphere. You need to discuss the exact functionality of your app, the tech stack to be used, the roadmap, and the general plan for your project realization.
Analyze the state regulation for telemedicine solutions
All countries have rather strict rules for everything that is related to providing healthcare services. You need to find out all the points related to the certification and licensing of your business. If you are creating a solution for the already existing medical center, then at least it will have the required licenses and you will need to deal only with those questions that are related to delivering medical services at a distance.
If you start a telemedicine business fully from scratch, you will need to obtain all the documents that will allow you to work in the industry.
Decide on how patients will pay for your services
There are several approaches to getting payments for medical services. Patients can pay for their consultations with doctors individually or such services can be covered by their insurance plans. You can choose either only the first option or both.
However, to work with insurance companies you also need to attentively study the rules that are in force in the state where you are going to provide your services. The reimbursement and insurance rules vary in different jurisdictions. That’s why you should be very attentive when you start your business.
Think about privacy and security
Privacy and data security are of great importance when it comes to the healthcare industry. Your app will deal with huge volumes and types of sensitive personal data which means that you should take care of their protection. Depending on the chosen state for launching your telemedicine platform, you need to make sure that it is fully compliant with the HIPAA or GDPR, or other regulations.
Do not forget to promote your solution
Even when you are pretty confident that you are launching an absolutely unique solution that will definitely win the hearts of users, you shouldn’t ignore the necessity to think about its right positioning and marketing.
For a successful start, it is necessary to ensure the required promotion and increase the social awareness and recognition of your brand. People should have the possibility to learn about your app and understand what new opportunities they will get if they decide to use it.
Conclusion
Given the growing interest of patients in getting medical services remotely, it is clear that telemedicine solutions have excellent chances to succeed. And though they can’t fully replace face-to-face consultation and examination, they can greatly facilitate a lot of tasks for patients and doctors. That’s why if you have an idea for launching such a platform, it can be a good time for doing it. However, to achieve the desired business goals you need to think not only about the quality and functionality of your solution but also about all the related aspects, such as regulation, licensing, certification, and others.