According to reports, there are over 318,000 health apps available in different app stores worldwide. Almost 200 health apps are added daily, meaning the number of available health apps will continue to increase rapidly in the years to come.
Healthcare apps don’t only benefit the healthcare industry–they also make patients’ lives more convenient and hassle-free. In fact, with the right healthcare app everyone across the globe will find it easier to achieve and maintain optimal health.
Here are six reasons why patients need a healthcare app:
1. Immediate Access to Care
Traditionally, patients have to visit a doctor personally even for minor issues. This can be inconvenient, especially for those living in rural areas or those who have hectic schedules.
Thanks to healthcare apps, you can now have immediate access to care regardless of your location or schedule. Healthcare apps allow you to ask questions to your doctor via chats, calls, and video calls, so you don’t have to visit them personally.
Additionally, you can schedule appointments directly through a healthcare app. This enables you to schedule appointments within minutes, making appointment scheduling more efficient and saving you plenty of time!
2. Hassle-Free Payments
Being in a long line to pay for your medical and hospital bills is time-consuming and stressful. You’d probably wish to lay down and rest rather than wait to settle your bills.
With healthcare apps, you’ll no longer have to wait in long queues to make payments. Most healthcare apps offer secured payment gateways to help patients make instant payments in less than a minute. With this feature, you can pay using your credit or debit card or connect to your insurer after a few taps or clicks.
3. Receive Alerts
Taking prescribed medicine is essential for improving overall health and well-being, but when you have too many things on your plate, it’s easy to forget to take your medicine.
Healthcare apps can now send reminders and notifications to alert patients about their medications. This will ensure that you get to take the right prescription at the right time.
Additionally, you can set healthcare apps to send you alerts for your upcoming appointments with a specialist. This will help reduce stress and give you better control of your schedule, as you won’t have to worry about forgetting or missing appointments.
4. Encourages Healthy Lifestyle
Many people want to live a healthy lifestyle, but that can be difficult to navigate. If you have gone this road before and failed, a healthcare app can help.
Patients need healthcare apps because they encourage a healthy lifestyle. Since these apps record everything about your health, they can use that information to record the ideal diet, exercise, and sleeping schedule for you. Some apps even provide personalised health product recommendations to help you improve your lifestyle.
Additionally, healthcare apps track your progress, so you’ll know where you’re at in achieving your health goals. You can use this data to stay motivated long-term.
5. Cost-Effective
Without health insurance, an in-person appointment with a doctor usually costs about $150 to $450, excluding laboratory fees and medicines. Paying for medical bills can cause financial stress, especially for patients living paycheck to paycheck.
Using healthcare apps is cost-effective as it helps cut down medical bills. For less than $100 a year, you can use all features available on a healthcare app, like teleconsultation with doctors. This will make your bank account happy as you don’t have to pay a huge amount of money just to see a doctor.
6. Easier Access to Medical Reports
Your doctor keeps detailed and accurate records about your health—from your current health status to the findings of your latest lab tests. However, accessing them can be inconvenient as you need to book an appointment and visit your doctor personally.
This problem becomes non-existent when you use healthcare apps. All health information recorded is stored in one database and can be accessed anytime, anywhere. Because of this, patients can get an online report about their health status through the app and have the document sent to their emails.
Pick the Best App
There are plenty of healthcare apps available today, so compare options to see which one suits your lifestyle and health goals. Healthcare apps offer tons of benefits to patients, which is why using one is definitely worth it!