Healthcare SaaS: Top 6 Patient and Industry-Assisting Apps in 2024
The healthcare industry is an intricate web of doctors, patients, insurance providers, hospitals, and healthcare networks.
In order to provide high-quality care, these entities rely on interoperable software systems, mobile apps, and other innovations to securely access patient data.
Moreover, providers increasingly rely on custom healthcare software solutions to ensure personalized care for their patients.
What specific applications are patients and practitioners pursuing for accurate and high-quality health services? This article explores the top six healthcare industry trends in 2024.
6 Most Popular Types of Healthcare Apps Driving the Industry in 2024
Statista forecasts that the digital health market’s revenue will hit $171.9 billion in 2024. It also projected an 8.49% compound annual growth rate for the sector, bringing the market volume to $258.3 billion by 2029.
Of its three sub-sectors, the highest revenue is forecasted for digital treatment and care ($103.8 billion), followed by digital fitness and well-being ($58.64 billion), and online doctor consultations ($9.46 billion).
Six types of healthcare applications primarily drive this growth.
1. Electronic health record (EHR) software
EHRs contain a patient’s demographic information and medical history, including doctor’s visits, diagnoses, allergies, immunizations, medications, lab results, and radiology reports. Multiple providers or large healthcare organizations use EHRs. In contrast, single providers maintain electronic medical reports or EMRs for tracking health data.
2. Appointment scheduling solutions
This patient management software is a necessary customer success tool as it skips making phone calls to the clinic, hospital, or health maintenance organization. This app type typically integrates with a calendar and EHR system, preventing double-booking. It can also send reminders and tally the number of patients received within any timeframe. A healthcare SaaS firm can design appointment schedulers to include data forms, which patients or their carers can fill out before visits.
3. Telemedicine and remote patient monitoring (RPM) platforms
Telemedicine connects patients with doctors via video calls or secure messaging systems. This functionality promotes convenient consultations and remote monitoring for those far away or who have traveling difficulties. They include senior citizens, post-surgery patients, and those with chronic conditions. Besides facilitating virtual checkups, telemedicine tools can also handle patient billing, insurance payments, and claims.
This type of healthcare software allows off-site collection of vital signs, such as heart rate, blood pressure, blood sugar levels, oxygen saturation, and weight. As a result, healthcare providers can identify potential issues before they worsen, provide guidance, and adjust treatment plans.
The number of online doctor consultation users worldwide has leaped to over 116 million in 2024 from 57 million in 2019. In the US, most online consults were for prescription refills, minor illnesses, and mental health issues.
4. e-Prescription apps
e-Prescription apps offer more convenient data access for everyone involved in the prescription process. When integrated with EHRs, doctors can view their patient’s medical history and check for interactions between medications. Then, they can use the app to generate a medication list, dosage, intake frequency, and other details from anywhere. This software also allows medical specialists or health providers to renew prescriptions.
Electronic inputs make these apps less prone to tampering and errors due to illegible handwriting that characterizes traditional doctor’s notes. At the same time, custom healthcare software solutions can conveniently transmit prescriptions to a selected pharmacy, while a look-up feature can show the nearest supplier where particular drugs are available. These apps can also feature settings to remind patients when to take their meds.
When scaled up to an enterprise level, these apps are known as Electronic Medication Administration Record systems or eMAR, used in clinics and hospitals. A custom software development can incorporate e-prescription and billing features into telemedicine tools to ease the prescription process.
5. Clinical trial management (CTM) and medical research software
CTM platforms assist researchers with patient recruitment, electronic data capture, randomization tools, and communication with trial participants. Beyond storing and organizing clinical trial data, these solutions can allow the exchange of findings with colleagues within a network or worldwide, accelerating the development of new treatments and therapies. Drug manufacturers, government bodies, and sponsoring institutions can work with a software development company in the USA to create healthcare applications with secure data-sharing options.
6. Reporting and analytics solutions
Healthcare analytics uses data mining to extract insights on single or multiple patients using statistics, database management techniques, and machine learning or artificial intelligence. Data analysis tools allow doctors to give more precise diagnosis and treatment options when used with imaging software to interpret X-ray, MRI, and CT scan results.
Some medical diagnosis apps help users check their symptoms and determine whether they must consult their health provider. Similarly, fitness apps—many of which have been built into wearable gadgets—can analyze physical well-being by tracking food choices, exercises completed, or sleep hours. When combined with genomics, advanced analytics help tailor medicine and treatment plans to a patient’s unique disease condition and preferences.
For clinical trials, analytics enable researchers and policymakers to examine large volumes of data to evaluate treatment effectiveness, decide on best practice guidelines, anticipate patient needs, or predict treatment outcomes. Analytics software for healthcare can also benefit hospitals when harnessed to spot prevalent or potential problems in staff productivity or equipment use. Moreover, health providers and insurers can tap analytics to save money by detecting fraudulent claims while protecting patients from false diagnoses and other suspicious activities.
Enhance Telehealth Delivery with Custom Healthcare SaaS
The benefits of healthcare apps and the speed at which they’re achieved can only hasten their public adoption. The trend—which boomed during the pandemic—provides the momentum to narrow the gap between addressing patients’ urgent needs and fulfilling commercial priorities.
Having worked with healthcare providers of varying sizes, our team at Taazaa understands how the sector values regulatory compliance for mobile apps and web-based systems. We design software for interoperability, traceability, and scalability. If you need a custom application, our healthcare solution development team is ready to help. Contact us today.
