Why incorporating clinician perspectives in your health app development is a great idea

6 min read

You think you've got a clear idea of your product, so you don't see how a clinician could help you develop your app. Yet there are many advantages to having such help, and at several stages of development.

Even if you, or a member of your team, have experienced a health problem, and have (perhaps) seen what is glaringly missing as an option to help those who also suffer from it, this will still be a fairly unique and isolated experience and perception.

A healthcare professional, on the other hand, will be confronted in his or her practice with a large number of patients experiencing a given health condition. This is where, in addition to their expertise, their experience can become vital to your product.

At every stage of development

The clinician can be involved in most stages of a project. No matter what stage your development has reached, you can integrate the professional into your team to improve your product.

Ideation and requirements

The professional can:

• during an initial brainstorming session, help identify the medical intent of the planned app, the clinical objectives and/or the potential intended users;

• give his or her opinion on the medical problem in question, its impact on patients' lives, its scope, different therapeutic approaches, etc;

• identify the weaknesses of the healthcare system in relation to the problem;

• offer opinions or obtain feedback from patients on existing apps that represent the competition;

• define with you the possible functionalities, as well as the most useful ones, or those that can be transformed into digital therapy;

• help establish a logical, user-friendly navigation and/or progression flow.

Design and implementation

The clinician will be able to:

• offer his opinion and frequent feedback on the interface and user experience, as well as on the app's layout and ease of navigation;

• at your request, obtain feedback from patients with different levels of digital literacy.

User testing

The professional could help you organize a beta testing phase, enabling you to test the app "in real life", as well as to get an idea of how it performs in the clinical environment, to report unexpected events or uses, and to get ideas for future improvements.

Clinical validation

First of all, before or during implementation, the clinician can help you identify the most up-to-date standards or guidelines related to the problem the app will address. This is the first step in ensuring clinical value.

If you wish, some professionals with research experience can then help you prepare a clinical protocol, and then carry out a study, to prove different aspects of your app: acceptability or feasibility, clinical efficacy or proof of cost-benefit.

If necessary, the clinician can also help you recruit participants who suffer from the targeted health problem.

To find out more about research and studies related to health apps, you can read this other article Why health app research matters.

Security and confidentiality

Healthcare professionals are immersed full-time in the confidentiality of patient information. Whether on paper or in the electronic tools they use everyday, they must also ensure the security of this same information at all times. They can therefore be well placed to advise you in this area, or to support you in your efforts to meet the requirements of certain regulations, if you so wish.

Post-marketing

Here, in addition to conducting studies, a healthcare professional will be able to help you monitor and obtain feedback from users, during the actual, larger-scale use of your app.

Training and support

The clinician who has been involved in some of the above elements during development will be particularly well placed not only to recommend your app to colleagues who can then discuss it with their clientele, but also to possibly offer training to professionals who would like to know how to recommend your app.

The clinician could also help write documentation, or a tutorial, for users, support the training of staff who will provide user support, or even train some patients who could be "champion users" for your app. The latter could then be encouraged to share their experience on social networks.

This visibility, coming from independent users, could be invaluable, so don't overlook training or support for early adopters. As you know only too well, bad first reviews can do a lot of damage to an app, even before it has had time to prove itself.

Continuous improvement

As you also know, work on an app is never finished, as long as it lives on! Feedback loops are important, including feedback from users, but also from professionals who might recommend your app. These two groups will quickly identify elements that could be improved, and new elements that could enhance your app, and that would be particularly useful to them on a clinical level.

That's all well and good, but can it be profitable?

First of all, by defining your business objectives, target users and the right functionalities from the outset, you can significantly reduce the number of iterations and development time, and thus cut development costs. You'll also benefit from a faster time-to-market, and could outpace the competition by arriving earlier.

If the app that goes into production is also easy to use, even for users with low levels of digital literacy, and is scientifically rigorous, you'll quickly win over users, and professionals to recommend it. You could improve your brand reputation in the healthcare sector. There are big gains to be made here too.

As with software quality, it will even be possible to reduce maintenance and support costs thanks to the problems that will be avoided.

If you go the regulatory route, or conduct a clinical study, you'll be making a major leap forward: in terms of reputation and/or of proof that you've designed and offer an effective and safe product. You could even demonstrate that the use of your app may be less expensive than the traditional option, while being more readily available.

If you choose wisely, and take full advantage of their knowledge and experience, it's likely that involving a healthcare professional in the development of your health app will translate into savings and improved profitability!

Are you convinced?

You may not be, and that's normal. Not all apps will lend themselves equally well to the involvement of a clinician; they will certainly benefit to varying degrees. But at least you'll have started or advanced your thinking on the subject, so you can eventually make the best decision for your team and your product.

At TherAppX, we're in contact with organizations that want to offer or suggest healthcare apps to their customers. Although development teams are always confident that they've created a great product, we're finding a certain level of dissatisfaction with the range of apps currently on the market. One obvious solution to this problem is to involve a professional in the development of a healthcare app.

If you'd like to find out more, or get help in developing an app that stands out from the crowd in terms of relevance, user-friendliness and even clinical effectiveness, the TherAppX team is always on hand to lend a hand!

Did you know?

If you're aiming to achieve an ISO standard, you should know that one of the criteria of ISO82304-2 is precisely the involvement of a clinician in development.

Indeed, the standard explains that the expertise of healthcare professionals must be used to better understand needs, risks, different contexts and current healthcare interventions. This better understanding should be used during app development.

In addition, it states that if the app will be marketed in different countries, consideration should be given to involving healthcare professionals for each of the targeted locations, as contexts and interventions may differ from one country to another.

If you're considering obtaining this seal of approval, you may be interested in this article. If, afterwards, you'd like to discuss the matter with a member of the TherAppX team, we'd be delighted to do so!