Consulting Partners Can Help Build Your Health Tech App

Developing a great mobile app in-house can be extremely difficult. Specific skills and knowledge are required to build an app that people want to integrate into their daily lives. IT departments may be able to piece an app together, but elements like UX can fall to the wayside. Therefore, a mobile app development agency is a necessity. 

Before approaching a potential partner, ensure that your vision is clear. This will help guide your choice of agency. Identify your audience and their pain points, whether this is healthcare professionals or patients. This will outline your goal, so ensure your potential partner aligns with this. 

Now that you understand your aims, it’s time to find a suitable partner. 

Previous Experience in Digital Health 

Find an agency that has experience in building healthcare apps, or similar. Their understanding of the industry can aid your app development. They are likely to have knowledge of the mobile healthcare app industry that you may not have considered.

Make use of references and testimonials. Ask potential candidates to put you in touch with current or previous employers. Take note of the relevance of previous developments to your own. These testimonials can help you identify skills within a partner agency that are specifically related to your app. 

However, avoid rejecting agencies that have built apps that aren’t exactly identical to your own. Innovation is important, and their wider knowledge of app development is useful. Whilst potential partners should have experience in healthcare, inspiration can be taken from apps in other industries too. This is particularly true when your app will be handling a large customer base.

Long Term Relationship

You will be working with your chosen partner for a long time. Your relationship doesn’t end once the app goes live. 

Updates and maintenance will be required to keep your solution running smoothly. It will also need to stay up to date with operating system updates. You will also need to stay ahead of changes within the digital health industry, as new tech becomes available.

For this reason, you need to ensure you can envision a long-term relationship with any partner. They should have a good understanding of your aims and vision for your app. Consider whether your goals align with each other. 

They should also be up to date with the IT industry, as it evolves and new technologies become available. This ensures that your partnership will move forward with the latest updates.

Budget

It can be easy to just pick the cheapest option when budgets are strict. However, try to avoid being driven by prices. As with most things in life, you get what you pay for. 

An agency that promises to deliver your work on time, at a cheaper rate, this should be a red flag. Choose a partner that suits your budget, but ultimately prioritises quality. You want to avoid paying someone else to fix a poor job. 

It is also likely that those operating at cheaper rates will take longer to complete the work. You might end up spending just as much for their slower production time. 

If you’re unsure on budget, gather a few quotes to get an idea of what you should expect to pay. Then ensure a potential partner fits all the other categories well. Budget should be a consideration, but not guide your choice completely. 

Security

In the healthcare industry, privacy and security is paramount. You need to comply with healthcare and privacy regulations. Healthcare data is sensitive, and your partner should acknowledge this. 

Privacy is also increasingly important to your users. Issues with security will quickly lose credibility and users trust. In the healthcare industry, that is hard to rebuild. In the competitive world of apps, it would be difficult to get a second chance from users. 

Your potential partner should have experience in dealing with cybersecurity issues. Their previous work should be structurally sound. They should have the capacity to deal with any problems quickly and confidently. Protecting user data is a priority. 

Take the opportunity to ask them about previous cases with cybersecurity issues. Discuss how they were resolved. You need to feel confident with their understanding of privacy regulations.

Compliance Expertise 

Digital health is one of the most exciting spaces in tech today but it’s also one of the most highly regulated. The best health tech app development partners have extensive expertise in regulations like HIPAA, GDPR and others. They should have an internal team of experts whom you can leverage and who oversee development to ensure compliance.  

Knowledge of Microservices 

Microservices architectures are one of the most exciting new approaches to app development. Without getting into too much detail, microservices allow software to easily and securely connect to lots of other data sources. They offer improved security, development speed and even compliance. The best health tech app development agencies will be experts in microservices. 

Follow the Sun Development 

“Follow the sun” is the gold standard for development. The approach requires teams across the globe. When the day ends for one team they hand it off to the next. This approach not only means 3 or more “people days” or work can be delivered in 24 hours but it also improves quality. When developers need to hand off code, it must be clean and well organized. 

The Perfect Health Tech Development Partner

Your partner should align with all of the above requirements. However, as with any relationship, there needs to be trust. 

You need to trust that your partner can work well with your company, and deliver to expectations. They should understand your company goals, and be familiar with what you do. 

In a similar vein, your partner needs to be able to trust you. They need to know that you will provide them with all the necessary support and information. You need to be clear and concise with your requirements and expectations. 

Ensure that your company is on the same page about your app first. A partnership is a two-way street. You need to be prepared to fulfill your side of the agreement too. Ultimately, a strong relationship will produce better results.

Vertrical is an expert digital health development partner for the most ambitious global health tech companies. We are experts in the newest technologies and compliance requirements. Get in touch to see how we can help you scale your software today.