Our client, based out of Japan, is a platform that works on the concept of Telemedicine services. It aims to offer remote healthcare, medical services, advice, and connecting various medical institutions to patients, with modern technologies. Users can obtain recommendations from the doctors on the type of medical treatment that will be suitable for their medical problems. Plus, they can also avail the facilities of getting recommendations on over-the-counter medicines and drugs according to their symptoms. It is an automated inquiry system where symptoms and causes are matched to recommend the suitable medication. Other medical companies, hospitals, and nursing homes for the elderly can also avail of such consultation facilities.
The most critical obstacle company was facing was due to the healthcare industry of Japan. They were not able to connect their services with many private medical institutions, local hospitals, and other pharmacies in their area. The idea of Telemedicine was still new to the country and in its initial stages. Apart from remote health services, they were also facing challenges regarding organic search rankings. Another challenge was also surfacing regarding empowering the older adults to efficiently provide the medical services without much hassle of waiting in long queues in hospitals and pharmacies. Plus, the medical fees also considerably increased over the past few years due to the increase in premiums. Hence, the company found it difficult to thrive in such conditions.
Additionally, since there has been an advent of many new health technologies and new drugs, their prices have also increased. Most hospitals were also not operational at night, which aggravated the situation more while dealing with emergencies. Hence, the company wanted a solution that can streamline the entire health service system, and increases their search rankings too.
Our client needed a foolproof technical and digital solution that can solve any hassle regarding connecting everyone from doctors, medical institutes, and other users on a single platform. The professional solution they needed included everything from data analysis, gathering all the requirements, developing an intuitive and customer-centric design. For this, they needed a mobile application and a mobile web app that can carry out operations and load quickly across all the devices.
It was significant to realize the importance of creating balance between integration of organization’s capabilities and leveraging data. They wanted to address two critical areas that included safeguarding their health services and delivering high-quality patient-doctor interactions. So, we suggested them designing an interface in such a way that users can easily access it to present their problems with accuracy. This way, they can provide seamless user experience and simultaneously transform the communication between doctors and patients. Hence, we proposed an automated platform of Telemedicine, that can decrease time spent in solving the problems of patients, and deliver them remote services without the need to physically visit the doctors.
Analysis and requirement gathering consisted of figuring out a precise way for consolidating, organizing, and positioning all the types of content needed for developing the solution. Since it would be an informational database, they also required to establish a system that would cater to any person who lands on it. Their goal was to provide easy access to whatever a user, a doctor, a vendor, or an institution intends to find. Plus, they also needed a robust solution that is capable of being at par with the rapidly changing technologies.
After analyzing all their needs, we proposed a solution that would enable them to deliver consumer-focused resources and utilities from the dashboard itself. Our initial strategy for developing a Telemedicine platform started with wireframes that consisted of a transformed navigation system to organize the app flow.
Admin Dashboard: Our solution started with the most primary objective of developing a dashboard for administrators from where they can manage all the content through intuitive controls. These controls include listing out all the doctors who have applied and have qualified based on a manual process. They can create the list of best doctors for which admins also get a percentage of the consultation fee. Admin can manage all the diseases that have to be included, and the questions needed to be asked the users. Users can leave feedback for the doctors that is handled by admins.
Mobile App for Users: It comprised a solution from us where patients can reach out to the doctors from their mobile phones anytime, anywhere, 24 x 7. The administrative dashboard that controlled all such functions integrated all the doctors from the country. The mobile app is for both Android and Apple platforms that users can utilize for consulting a doctor. Within the app, a bot will guide them to their suitable doctors by asking the user some questions regarding their disease or symptoms. Plus, they can also choose doctors based on four different categories named: Favorite doctor, Nearby doctor, Specialist doctor, and Family doctor. Based on their selection, doctors can send them prescriptions and advice for treatment. According to the severity of illness, users can choose a suitable payment plan. All of this results in saving costs of visiting a doctor in a clinic or hospital.
Mobile App for Doctors: We also developed a mobile app for the doctors for both platforms that doctors can utilize to keep track of the number of patients they have contacted to date. They can directly contact the users who have reached out, check their answers and symptoms, and prescribe and recommend treatment based on their age.
After analyzing the potential of the healthcare market in the country, we decided to take a user-centric approach for the solution that started with user research. Since, the hospitals aren’t open at night and there is always a long queue - our first thought was to implement Telemedicine. It consisted of defining the needs, behaviors, and expectations and then developing functional integration accordingly. To gather the content, we considered many facets, like user interest and demographics. The admin dashboard that is the leading portal for managing everything was written in the PHP programming language. We chose this language because we have years of experience in it, and our developers have gained extreme expertise and finesse. Plus, it provides an easy to edit content management system that drives more quality traffic through existing services.
Our process also included designing enhanced filters for the different categories of doctors under the “mobile-first” narrative. We decided to have such an operation because of the growing importance of performance and speed as the two most determining aspects of organic search. Since users are now searching more on their smartphones and tablets, a mobile web app is the need of the hour. It can automatically adjust its content as per the design of any device, making it compatible with anything.
Such type of digital solutions prove to be helpful for utility providers where accessibility is the prime concern. Lastly, we transformed all the wireframes into full-fledged designs and finally into a software application. We conducted load tests, maintenance procedures, and prepared it for regular security upgrades regarding usability and compliance before launching the product.
Our client saw a considerable difference in the traffic they used to get earlier. Since people now have a great alternative to consult a doctor from the comfort of their homes, they are searching and downloading their apps more. The most significant jump they saw was regarding the non-emergency cases like Cold and fever, Headaches – as such matters are witnessing the highest number of doctor consultations now. Even the sessions, users, and page views have shown an increase of almost 3% - 4%. The most critical difference they witnessed was the rise in organic search traffic, with nearly 35% since the app and mobile web launched.
With Telemedicine in the picture, the company is also bringing significant relief by providing free consultation services to the users who want preventive measures to stay safe from the recent massacre of COVID-19 that hit the world. The doctors are increasingly applying for the qualification to be listed in the app, and the number of consultations also reached the thousands mark per day. One of their long time users recently left feedback regarding the change in the user experience. He said, “I have been quite frustrated with my continuous headaches and cold, and I used to take a lot of painkillers for that. But ever since I consulted a doctor from this app, I have been taking only the required medicine, and that has made a huge difference.”
Remote consultations via digital one-on-one dialogues can prove a lot beneficial in times of crisis when it becomes challenging visiting doctors personally. Our solutions keep focusing on the same area while continuously developing better measures to improve and upgrade it.