How Much Does It Cost To Build A Healthcare App like ‘Epocrates’?

With this rapidly evolving condition in the world, the
healthcare industry is going under tremendous pressure and demand as well. After the impact of COVID-19 all
over the globe, people would have wanted to visit doctors and hospitals, but the terror of virus infection
is holding a lot of them in their houses. Hence, the demand for a Healthcare App and online healthcare
assistance is rapidly increasing. Healthcare Companies are now expanding their market as well by following
numerous tactics and strategies.

Introduction

Personalized healthcare assistance is slowly becoming the
need of the hour. In
this respect, healthcare apps can do wonders. From an Entrepreneurial point of view, health apps are going
to be a great business opportunity while considering the current world scenario. However, there are many
competing apps in the market like Kareo, Appointik, Medscape, Epocrates, and many more.

Still, there are a good number of opportunities to create
your own online medicine app. Such healthcare apps can provide an excellent platform to all the users and
the doctors who cannot personally visit clients for medical assistance. Healthcare technology can allow
every patient to reach their preferred doctor in no time without the fear of being contaminated with the
COVID-19 virus.
It will be a good business opportunity for those who look forward to building
healthcare apps and providing doctor assistance to patients. With this, you might have started thinking
about how the app can be built and what would be the cost of making a medical app. But, don’t stress
yourself.
In this blog, we will discuss how the healthcare app can be built and its
required development cost. Let us take a look further over the cost to build a healthcare app like
Epocrates.

How Healthcare Apps like Epocrates, Prescribez Work?

As we all know, healthcare apps are nothing but a bridge between the doctor and the patient. Here, patients
can look for their preferred doctor as per their requirements and can fix the appointments without
physically visiting the doctor’s clinic or hospital.

So, if any patients are looking for a good Dentist, Dermatologist, Gynecologist, ENT Specialist, Physician,
Pediatrician, Child Specialist, or any other specialist doctor nearby or in the city, then they can
instantly go for a healthcare app like Epocrates and look for their requirements.
These types of medical apps will help every individual to connect with doctors and fix the appointments.
The appointments can be fixed only with the certified and verified doctors of the chosen location. Epocrates
Healthcare app is working effectively in the USA. It is very well taken forward with the trend of healthcare
apps and making people more dependable over the app usage and covering the great amount of market as
well.
The healthcare apps like Epocrates can offer numerous facilities to its users like Book Doctors, Book
Diagnostic Labs for tests, View Information & Details of Clinic, get the Doctors & Diagnostic Labs
fees, Check out Doctors & Diagnostic Labs Review, and many other informative details.

Such features and facilities in any health app can make it a success and an incredible platform for the
users to interact with doctors as they get their queries sorted while booking a hassle-free appointment as
well.

Key Features Healthcare App like Epocrates can Offer

Healthcare technology is evolving, and within a short period of time, it is evolving tremendously. Hence,
healthcare apps and
healthcare companies have a lot to offer to their users or customers. Let us take a look over key features
the health apps can offer efficiently and effectively to their users.

• The mobile app for patients requires a quick and easy process of Login and
  Registration.
• The option tabs like Doctors, Spas, and Diagnostic Labs should be properly
  visible and easy to find for all types of users.
• Users/Patients can easily access all of his/her previous doctor’s
  appointments.
• The Patient can even upload his/her medical history documents to get the
  proper diagnosis from the respective doctor.
• The health app should provide the list of prescriptions given to the patient
  during the consultation.
• The users should be allowed to ask health-related questions to doctors without
  any extra charge.
• Allow easy search in the app based on Area, Doctor, Availability, and the type
  of Treatment or Specialist Doctor.
• Health App provides the user/patient to look into their preferred doctor’s
  qualification, experience, consultation charge, and feedback of the previous patients.
• The Online Medicine Apps can also have the facility to provide paid private
  online consultation sessions with the doctor.
• The Mobile Apps for patients can also have a dedicated reading and educational
  section for all its users, which provides exclusive health articles and tips by the health
  experts.
• Medical Apps also provide the service to make medicine orders online.
• The user should be allowed to cancel the appointment.
• The user can share the healthcare app with others through different
  modes.
• The healthcare app should allow the registered doctors to check the status of
  the appointments made by the patients.
• The doctors can edit their profiles on the requirement.
• Medical apps allow doctors to check each of their patient’s records and
  medical history.
• The doctors can also check their Total Earnings and Transaction History made
  through the app.
• The evolution of healthcare technology requires to have an add-on feature in
  the app to provide a live-chatting facility as well.
• The online payment facility is a must to allow advanced appointments through
  the medical app.
• It should provide a GPS or Map facility to guide patients to reach the
  location of the hospital or clinic without any hassle.

Functionalities and Features Affecting the Cost of Making a Medical App

The development cost of a healthcare app relies on the number of functionalities and features added to the
application. The advanced features and good user experience in the medical app will only retain the user for
a long time otherwise, the user will pick another option.
Therefore, not only the presentation matters but also the advanced functionalities and the key features
are very important for a medical app to survive in the competitive market. Firstly, we learn about the
functionalities and the features of the Online Medical App, which can affect the overall healthcare
app development costs.

Functionalities that can Affect the Development Cost of a Healthcare App

1. 1. The Platform of the Application
      The healthcare app can be developed into two different platforms i.e.,
      iOS-based or Android-based, or both. It solely depends upon you and the audience you are focusing
      on. However, the cost of developing medical apps would be higher for Android than for the iOS-based
      platform.

1. 1. Size of the Application:
      The bigger the size of the health app, the higher the development cost will
      be. The size of the application can be determined by the variety of features added to the
      application. Further in the blog, we will learn about the various features required in the online
      medicine app.

1. 1. Design of the Application:
      The design of the application decides the attraction of the user. The core
      objective of designing an application is to provide a brilliant user interface, great user
      experience, and engagement. Any developing company or developer must design an appropriate and
      catchy user interface. The more designed and beautiful the app appears, the higher will be the cost
      of making a medical app.

1. Administration Panel:
   
   The features are accessed by the admin or the owner of the healthcare app. It includes proper management of
   data, detailed analytics of the app activity, detailed report for the doctor, customer, and labs. The
   feature required by the Admin is one of the major responsible factors to analyze the development cost of a
   healthcare app.

Features that can affect the Development Cost of a Healthcare App

The cost to make a medical app or an online medicine app for booking appointments can be estimated on the
following basic and advanced features.

Basic Features

1. 1. Dashboard for Patients:The patients should be
      facilitated in the healthcare app to do the advanced search with respect to the appropriate doctor
      based on their ailment. Apart from that, the patient can also directly filter the doctor based on it
      and other desired specifications. The medical app should only not include appointment fixing but
      also re-scheduling or cancellation of the appointment with the doctors. Also, users should be able
      to give ratings and feedback to the doctors based on their experience.

1. Dashboard for Doctors:The doctors should provide detailed
   information in their profile, which includes work experience, speciality, educational background, medical
   registration, available working hours, consultation fees, and other required details as well. The doctors
   then can easily manage their appointments, paperless prescriptions, patient reports, payment details, and so
   on through the healthcare app.

Advanced Features

1. 1. Sign-up/LoginNew
      and existing users have to Sign-up and Login respectively by providing the required information.
      Apart from that, implementing Social Media Sign-in is an advanced feature as it requires a
      handsome amount of time in associating social media in the app. Hence, this feature also
      contributes to defining the cost of making a medical app.

1. 1. GeolocationGeo-Location is a very effective and valuable feature for both the
      patients and doctors. It helps doctors and patients to access each other’s location via google
      map’s geolocation feature.

1. 1. Multi-Language SupportA healthcare app is used by a variety of people who follow different
      languages. Hence, the online medicine app requires the feature of multi-language support.
      The multi-language feature is quite typical to add, so it is
      also one of the features which add something in the development cost of a healthcare app.

1. 1. Payment
      GatewaysPayment gateways are a must
      for the healthcare app, as it requires online payment while looking for any assistance or facility.
      The higher the number of payment gateways you want to add to your app, the higher the cost of making
      a medical app. Source: RawPixel Website
   2. Push NotificationThe Push Notification feature
      will allow the Admin to send customized messages or notifications to its users. This will help users
      to be informed about any upcoming events related to various offers, the new addition of a doctor or
      specialist, and any other relevant information.

1. 1. In-App WalletLike Payment Gateways, the In-app
      Wallet facilitates users to make easy and instant payments. As a result, this advanced feature will
      definitely contribute to enhancing the healthcare app development costs.

1. 1. SearchThe
      search feature helps users to easily lookout for Doctors, Labs, Clinics, Hospitals, Medicines, and
      other relevant searches for the healthcare app. A requirement and basic feature for any app require
      a decent amount of time to design. This addition of features adds to the development cost of a
      healthcare app. Source: RawPixel Website
   2. Online Medicine PurchaseThe user should be
      allowed to order prescribed medicines online at a reasonable discounted offer, and do the home
      delivery of the ordered medicines. This additional feature of online medicine purchase will
      definitely add a handsome amount of expense in your budget for the online medicine app.

1. 1. OTP LoginOTP Login is a feature to enhance the
      security of the app and the user data while minimizing the chances of fraudulent transactions.
      Patients will receive a “One Time Password” (OTP) on their registered mobile number and have to
      enter the code to log in to their account. This is usually through mobile apps every time a user
      logins into a new device. Yet still, this additional and advanced feature will add a lot to the
      development cost of a healthcare app in your budget.

1. Promo Code/Referral CodeThis feature will help in
   increasing the reachability of your healthcare app, like Epocrates. The user can share the referral code to
   their acquaintances, which they have to use at the time of sign up. As a result, when the new user will
   complete their first transaction, both of them will get some monetary rewards.

Technology & Development team involved in Developing Mobile Apps for
Patients

After analyzing all the required features and the functionalities involved in the healthcare app, now it’s
time to look for the appropriate technology required to develop the app. The required and chosen technology
as well as the hired developers team or agency plays an important role in analyzing the development cost of
a healthcare app.

Source: RawPixel
Website

Required Technology on which the Healthcare App can be Built ->

• Real-time Analytics: IBM, Apache Flink, Cisco, Spark, Hadoop.
• Online Payment System: PayPal, Stripe, Braintree, or E-Wallet.
• Push Notifications: Twilio, push.io.
• Cloud Environment: Google, Azure, and AWS.
• SMS, Voice, and Phone Verification: Twilio and Nexmo.
• Database: MongoDB, HBase, MailChimp Integration.

Development Team who is building the Medical Apps ->

• Freelancers:
  Freelancers are a group of people hired individually to work on a single project.
  Looking for a qualified freelancer would be a very tedious task, and producing quality work from them would
  be a more difficult job for you.
  With freelancers, it might be possible that you can save a few bucks but without a guarantee of the quality
  of the product and timely delivery. On the other hand, it can also be a possibility that you do high
  expenses and still didn’t get satisfactory results. Source: RawPixel Website
• Agencies:
  Development Agencies can help you in accurately building your dream project. Looking for
  a responsible and experienced development agency will take you some time but definitely produce a
  high-quality product. Going with a small team or a big team of experienced developers will depend on your
  budget. But they make sure to produce a high-quality product and fulfil your requirements while keeping the
  deadline in mind. The development prices of these types of apps will definitely vary from agency to agency.
  But, it is solely up to you, whom to choose. Whether you go for the quality and timely work or you go for a
  cheaper budget.

Required Time and Development Cost of a Healthcare App like Epocrates

Building mobile apps for patients requires dealing with a great number of individuals to schedule medical
appointments with the aid of smartphones. These smart mobile healthcare apps are the most convenient way to
find a doctor, have a consultation, and get feedback.

Source: RawPixel Website

Based on various formats, the cost of making a medical app as Epocrates varies. The development cost of
Android apps is comparatively higher than the iOS-based applications considering that the size of the
application also plays an important role in determining the development cost of a healthcare app.
It is quite challenging to put the exact figure required in healthcare app development costs because of
the numerous subjective determinants. So, here we take a range of prices that will help you get an idea of
the medical app development and  budget.

1. MVP Development

A Minimum Viable Product Development for the healthcare app will be a feasible option at the initial level.
It is more than the basic version of the online medicine app. Though developing a basic version of a
healthcare app will not be a fruitful idea, it would be just a waste of time and expenses.

The benefit of going with the concept of MVP development is that
it can be directly introduced to the users in the market and can take feedback as well.

As it is a working model, you can easily update the medical app and enhance its features at frequent
intervals. This will let you introduce your product without waiting for a longer period of time, and
meanwhile, it will also help you build your market presence as well.

So, the overall cost required to build the MVP of a healthcare app like Epocrates will be about $15,000
to $30,000. The range of the budget is so much because of the variation in labor costs in different
countries. In western countries, you might have to bear maximum expense whereas, in India, you can get the
same quality product at a lower expense.

The MVP of healthcare apps will get available under an efficient team of developers in a time period of
about 2-3 months. However, the time period also varies as it solely depends on the skill of developers and
the team size working on the project.

Source: ImedicalApps Website

2. Highly Complex App

Building a highly complex and quality healthcare app is a good option and attracts a good number of users.
Though it might require a good marketing strategy as the final quality product needs to attract users in a
short period of time. Comparatively, the complex medical app requires more time to build than MVP. So, it
will give a lot of time in advance to do the marketing and promotion, and at the same time, build a good
hype among future users.

The cost required to build a Highly Complex healthcare app like Epocrates will be about $30,000 to
$40,000. It might also be more than this amount, which solely depends on your requirement, and the
complexity of the healthcare app as well as the expense will also vary from country to country.

The overall time required to build the final and highly complex health app would be about 4-6 months. The
overall time duration may also vary over the level of app complexity, and on the experience and team size of
the development agency or company.

The Budget division for Healthcare App Development is as follows:

After all such details, it may now give you the idea that finding the average cost is not only that matters
but the building of app with quality of features and functionalities along with maintaining a proper budget.
So first, finalize the medical app idea appropriately and then discuss it with a good developer or agency.
It can adequately guide you in the specific budget on how you can get a good app along with the required and
essential features.

Source: RawPixel Website

Summing Up:

If you are having such a business idea to enter into the
healthcare business or any other business ideas you have in mind, then we can surely provide you with an
excellent platform to reach your destination. For any assistance or business guidance, you can contact us at
any time anywhere. We are here to assist you and ensure that we introduce your business plan to the market.
Take a look over other success stories, which will definitely ease your decision as well as save
time.