How do you build an app for the healthcare marketplace?

The need for online healthcare marketplaces has significantly increased in the past few years, particularly during the coronavirus epidemic. Enabling medical providers–hospitals, pharmacies, individual experts, etc.–to deliver services via the internet, and doctor appointment booking platforms contribute to increased efficiency and improved customer satisfaction.

Analysts found that 52.2 per cent of healthcare marketplace professionals work a minimum of 10 hours a week scheduling and confirming appointments. Some require up to 30 hours a week. Deloitte discovered that patients can save nearly two hours when they visit a doctor online as opposed to physical visits.

Through healthcare marketplace apps such as Zocdoc patients can easily make an appointment, buy procedures, and speak with the specialists required, which may comprise paediatricians, doctors and allergists as well as ophthalmologists dentists, psychologists, and others. According to a survey conducted by Doctolib, 80 per cent of people and 74 per cent of doctors plan to keep using video consultations even after the conclusion of COVID-19.

Thus, healthcare marketplace development offers a fantastic chance to earn a profit. To be successful it is vital to develop features to solve the concerns of users and optimize the system’s monetization by collaborating with a reputable medical app development company.

This article explains how to create a platform for software like Zocdoc that includes timelines as well as cost estimates. Learn how Zocdoc can benefit its users, and what strategies it uses to make money.

How can Zocdoc make money from an online healthcare marketplace?

In 2007, Zocdoc has been an American online healthcare marketplace company that lets patients book appointments with doctors and get medical attention. As of today, Zocdoc has raised around $376 million through 10 rounds of financing. At the time of writing, February 20, 2021, Zocdoc is valued post-money at $1-$10 billion.

The app for healthcare today is used by millions of users across the USA which allows them to locate local doctors according to reviews from patients and search for medical professionals by the symptoms they have, and also receive reminders of appointments.

Zocdoc can also let customers look up their health insurance plans to locate specialists that meet the criteria. In the hopes of offering online consultations for COVID-19, Zocdoc launched an online health service in May 2020.

At present, there is an online marketplace that is accessible via the website and mobile application, which can be downloaded through Google Play, the App Store, or Google Play.

In terms of a pricing model, Zocdoc’s system provides medical professionals with a scheduling platform to pay for subscriptions. In the year 2019, Zocdoc decided to change the way it monetizes its markets, charging a referral fee per customer instead of a flat subscription.

In the end, the company has managed to grow the amount of healthcare marketplace service providers by 50%, and also generate significantly more revenues. Additionally, Zocdoc allows doctors to make appointments available on the platform.

Design of an online health marketplace

To create a healthcare market app that exceeds the expectations of its users and improves satisfaction, you must develop a user-friendly interface. SWEOR states that 88 per cent of customers are not eager to visit the website following a negative experience. This is why it is essential to concentrate on this phase and collaborate with a trustworthy UI/UX design agency.

Software experts will assist you to develop a user interface that is simple to use and a smooth navigation system to ensure that both clients and vendors can locate what they need. If you are planning to launch the healthcare marketplace site make sure that the design is fluid across all devices and screens including smartphones.

Statista reports that 54.8 per cent of all global web traffic came via mobile devices, excluding tablets, in the first quarter of 2021. When you achieve sameness, you’ll draw more customers and increase customer engagement.

The development of a marketplace for healthcare apps 

An online marketplace for healthcare that connects clinicians and patients comprises two modules or apps. For instance, to address the particular business requirements of medical professionals it is better to build a web-based application that allows doctors to manage their schedules as well as appointments. To provide value to your customers and clients, you must create a mobile or web-based application.

Let’s take a look at the top priorities for both sides.

Tips for medical personnel

1. Registration and authorization

Medical professionals must be able to sign up and authenticate on an online marketplace. Once they have signed up doctors can add details about their services, interact with patients, schedule of their patients, and track the payment.

To stop fraud and improve confidence, the process of registration must include verification of healthcare experts in all aspects, from their credentials to the details of their banking accounts. For instance, you could ask them to submit specific documents and certificates that show they have the appropriate knowledge and qualifications to provide medical services.

To enforce security and comply with different regulations–i.e., HIPAA, GDPR, etc., you should activate two-factor authentication.

2. Doctor Profile of Doctor

A profile is a crucial element of a marketplace for healthcare applications like Zocdoc which typically contains the most basic information about a physician that includes names, addresses, photograph addresses, locations, specialization education, certificates and affiliations. The profile should also include information such as reviews from users or ratings as well as the types of appointments, whether in person or video, made by a doctor.

3. Schedule management

Medical professionals must be able to create edit and view the upcoming schedules in calendars. The app for healthcare marketplaces will automatically review the work times of health professionals and adjust the schedule to suit both parties.

When developing a platform for software such as Zocdoc it is essential to avoid any unintended irregularities in doctors’ schedules in the event of unexpected events happen.

For instance, if a doctor is unable to schedule a video or in-person visit because of an illness, the system will instantly notify patients by email, SMS or in-app messages–and provide appointments with other health specialists.

Learn the process we used to implement this feature when they created an online marketplace for healthcare services for the UK technology company.

4. Communication via the internet with patients

Audio and video conference is an essential elements of a doctor’s appointment scheduling app. With this feature, doctors can make virtual visits as well as consult patients online. A company that develops software for healthcare will be able to enable chats using text messages where medical experts can share health information such as diagnosis reports treatment plans, as well as suggestions.

To deliver this feature, it’s possible to integrate third-party applications which can reduce costs and the time to market. For instance, software engineers can utilize Firebase to include chats.

To provide videos for consultation, engineers could make use of Twilio which is a cloud-based communication platform as a service that is also utilized by Zocdoc. Patients must certainly have access to these capabilities.

5. Management of reports

When creating a healthcare marketplace application such as Zocdoc it is vital to make it possible to manage reports. Doctors must be able to access patient details such as clinical records, and personal notes and also communicate medical information with clients. Furthermore, you should allow medical professionals to review the previous communication history with patients.

6. Administrator panel 

for doctors and marketplace owners, which functions as an app With an administrator panel healthcare professionals will be able to control appointments and reports and keep track of patient information and also examine and review patient health checks as well as hospital records. With this feature health professionals can monitor payments and see their earnings for different periods.

With an admin panel, healthcare marketplace owners can include doctors on the platform, and manage reviews, users, and commissions.

7. Data access control based on role and encryption of data

Healthcare providers must protect data privacy and ensure that they comply with security laws, like GDPR (Europe) and HIPAA (USA). Because the online marketplace for healthcare marketplace handles sensitive health data – patient personal data, medical documents, treatment plans, etc.–it is vital to guard against malware, hacker attacks virus, hacker attacks, and other threats.

To accomplish this market development teams must implement features like role-based access control (RBAC) and encryption of data. With RBAC engineers, they will be able to allow authorized users to determine who initiated which changes and will also stop unneeded modifications to health information.

Patient-friendly features

1. Registration and authorization

After signing up through the platform, clients can access medical services online as well as access the capabilities. When developing an online marketplace for healthcare it is essential to authorize users in different methods to ensure ease of use.

In particular, you can enable signing in/up using Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, and email. To enable this service online healthcare marketplace developers should integrate the app using APIs of third-party applications. Additionally, developers should use two-factor authentication to improve security.

Take a look at the list of services from third parties you can integrate your healthcare marketplace application with.

2. Doctor lookup

Doctor search is a crucial element of an online health marketplace. To ensure that users have a seamless experience, it is recommended to include as many categories and filters as you can to ensure  that customers can locate the right specialists within a matter of minutes.

Additionally, you can let users look up clinics based on symptoms and medical procedures which can help increase satisfaction with your patients. Learn how our engineers created this feature to create an online appointment with a doctor application.

3. Booking an appointment

This feature lets patients check available times on a calendar that is integrated into an app for healthcare and make appointments online.

4. Notifications

An app for booking appointments with a doctor will automatically notify patients to inform them about appointment changes and remind them to take their medicine or see a doctor.

To reduce costs and save time, while preserving quality, it’s a good idea to connect an online healthcare marketplace with an API that is a third party such as Firebase. This means that software developers will not have to create this feature completely from starting from scratch.

5. Online payment

If you are building a marketplace for healthcare marketplace such as Zocdoc it is essential to offer different payment options to meet the needs of users. The best method to achieve this is to connect the software platform that has a payment gateway, for example, Stripe, PayPal, or Braintree to allow the processing of transactions and authorisation.

As an intermediary between customers and doctors, the solution can be used as a means of verifying the patient’s details and access to funds. With one payment gateway, you can access various possibilities.

For instance, Braintree supports transactions via PayPal, Venmo, numerous debit and credit cards as well as electronic wallets (i.e., Google Pay, Apple Pay, Samsung Pay) and banking directs (iDeal, Trustly, Bancontact and GiroPay and many more. ).

It is important to note that the most popular payment gateways secure information by offering features like 3D Secure, AVS (Address Verification System), and CVV (card verification code verification).

Brisk Logic integrates with different gateways, including Stripe, PayPal, Braintree, Amazon Pay, Square, 2Checkout, and Authorize.net. Find out how to select the best payment option for a marketplace online in just five steps.

6. Ratings and reviews

To improve confidence in your healthcare market, it’s crucial to let users discover the top doctors based on feedback from patients. With reviews and ratings, patients can look up the comments of other patients and make better-informed choices on choosing a physician.

7. Geolocation

An online marketplace for healthcare can determine the location of its customers to provide them with doctors within their local region. This feature will ensure that patients will be able to schedule an appointment, and also find doctors near their homes.

What is the cost to build an online healthcare marketplace?

The cost of creating an application for a healthcare marketplace such as Zocdoc is determined by the hourly rates charged by software experts that you collaborate as well as the amount of time needed to implement the project. The wages of these experts differ based on the location of the office for the IT service provider.

For instance, software engineering companies located in UK and US typically charge between $50 and $150 an hour. IT companies located in Western Europe ask between $40-$100. The hourly rates of software development firms in Belarus typically range from $20 to $50.

The cost of constructing an online-commerce platform is determined by the country of origin:

• USA, UK — $215,000 to $735,000
• Western Europe — $172,000-$490,000
• Belarus — $86,000-$245,000

Thus, outsourcing IT can be a great way to reduce developing costs 2.5-3 times while also preserving the quality of software.

A stack of technologies of an app for the healthcare market

When creating an online healthcare marketplace it is essential to select the right technology stack that aligns with the business’s specific needs. Utilizing advanced programming tools, libraries, languages and frameworks, healthcare professionals can secure data as well as improve performance and reduce speed to market.

To design a simple user interface, online healthcare marketplace creators can use TypeScript, JavaScript, React and Redux. To ensure steady performance, experts in the field of software can use tools such as Python, Go, and Node.js. In building a serverless system with AWS Lambda, it’s possible to provide reliability, high availability and real-time processing of data. With Elasticsearch software engineers can allow full-text searches using keywords. With AWS Elastic load balancing it is possible to set up automatic scaling of computing resources.

Security and conformity of an online healthcare marketplace

Since the healthcare marketplace is among the industries that are most closely monitored worldwide compliance with different regulations is essential for healthcare professionals. Healthcare facilities need to guarantee the privacy of patient information and safeguard against security risks and also prevent fraud.

Here’s a list of the most crucial standards you must know:

• The healthcare marketplace Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 – The HIPAA is a US federal law designed to protect the health information of patients which includes information that is stored and transmitted in electronic format.
• The law requires medical institutions to safeguard sensitive information from being accessed and disclosed by anyone else as well as to identify potential threats and avoid potential problems. The HIPAA also requires the accuracy and accessibility of health information stored electronically.
• The Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act (HITECH)HITECH – HITECH establishes regulations to improve the application of HIPAA. The law imposes rules to increase the security of patient information as well as electronic medical records.
• The General Data Protection Regulation -implemented in the year 2018 by GDPR, will require businesses to offer EU citizens security and protection of their information (biometric or genetic data etc.) even if they’re not situated in the EU. The GPPR has hefty fines to be paid for violations that could be as high as twenty million euros.
• To safeguard health information Software development companies adhere to the highest standards and use the latest technology. Cloud platforms such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform offer all the tools needed to protect sensitive data. For instance, you can make use of Amazon Cognito or Azure Active Directory to offer role-based data access control.
• With the help of Amazon Detective, software developers can identify vulnerabilities in systems. Through AWS Shield, it is possible to safeguard an app for the healthcare marketplace from attacks of distributed denial of service. To block third parties from gaining access to the data software engineers can use encryption from end to end.
• Additionally, software must be tested for security vulnerabilities before its release. At this point, software experts identify and address any potential security issues.

Why should you choose Brisk Logic to develop a healthcare marketplace application?

 Brisk Logic has been a marketplace online development firm with years of experience creating healthcare marketplace. Since then, we’ve built dozens of marketplaces which have assisted our clients in raising funds and making money. For instance, we’ve built the first marketplace for pharmacies online that connects more than 1,500 sellers with their customers. Check out some of our projects featured here on our webpage.

We offer complete software engineering services that span the entire cycle:

Our software experts will analyze your goals for business, create a technical specification and draw up an outline of your product’s roadmap.

We can assist you in prioritizing features and deciding on appropriate software architecture.

Our team uses a simple layout and fast navigation to provide users have a smooth experience.

To protect sensitive information and to ensure compliance with the law Our developers employ the best security techniques. To ensure that there is no downtime and steady performance, we offer the highest availability and scalability and resilience of software platforms.

If you are planning to launch a health marketplace application Contact our team. We will contact you within one business day and will assist in resolving any problems.