Xamarin mHealth App Development

Clarity specializes in HIPAA-Compliant Mobile App development using Xamarin
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Clarity's HIPAA-Compliant Mobile Development

Xamarin Mobile-Health Development

Any device that stores, receives, or transmits protected health information (PHI) between covered entities and their business associates is subject to HIPAA security best practices. This rule also applies to the apps that run on these devices and connect to covered entities. The term mHealth, which is also called m-health or mobile health, refers to the practices of medicine, psychological treatments, and counseling.

Using Wi-Fi connections exposes shared information to interception, so encryption and decryption algorithms are essential for protecting the information that's being transmitted. Apps and devices that provide health and fitness benefits have become extremely popular with mobile device users. This includes 50 million health app downloads for weight loss, 26.5 million for exercise, and 10.5 million for women's health make the value of health apps and their commercial potential impossible to deny [1]. Medical practices and developers can ensure better health while fostering greater patient loyalty and facilitating faster payments for services by developing mHealth apps, but the process raises some interesting development challenges.

Medical app developers must first determine if the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) rules of Privacy, Security, and Breach Notifications apply to a given app. The rules apply to electronic medical records and electronic health records (EMR-EHR) and apps that are capable of storing, receiving, and transmitting this protected information even if the app wasn't designed for that purpose.

Developers need to ask these questions to determine if HIPAA applies:

 
clarity mobile app designed for medical client
  • Who uses the app and for what purpose?
  • Can the app be used to store and transmit health information?
  • What sources will the app access?
  • Does the app identify an individual, PHI, or the user's physical or mental health appointments and services received?
  • Do medical staff members use the app to communicate with patients, other staff and covered entities?

Although developing mHealth applications challenges any eCommerce organization or covered entity that provides medical services, the cost-value benefits of developing user-friendly, secure, and useful HIPAA apps are substantial and increasingly essential for dealing with Medicare/Medicaid, other governmental agencies, business associates, and consumers who demand increasingly sophisticated abilities from their mobile apps.

Two doctors talk about information found on a tablet that contains a HIPAA compliant app.

Uphold PHI Data Security

Protecting patient EMR-EHR is a moral and legal responsibility that every medical facility or healthcare app developer must undertake. Clarity can help protect your business from fines and lawsuits.

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mHealth app developoment isn't easy

Challenges of Developing mHealth Applications

Developing mHealth applications generates unique challenges because patients have many clinical and personal health needs. Each HIPAA-compliant mobile app must interact with health systems and users through multiple points, service providers and medical professionals. All these communications must be in HIPAA compliance while dealing with vast databases of medical information and patient-specific PHIs. Writing the code for these mHealth apps requires different strategies to supplement the traditional coding obligations of creating better graphics and more appealing user interfaces. It also means following HIPAA website requirements with any sites that the medical app interacts with.

PHI data security for Most Communication

Covered Entities Face Challenges Just for Routine Communications

The opportunities for revenue, better health care, and fostering greater health awareness are tremendous. But even simple texting apps and emails that are used among medical staff members and patients must comply with HIPAA best practices and decrypting the communications. Secure apps enable communicating between multiple parties and can provide these kinds of benefits for busy medical practices:

  • Send and receive patient updates while on-the-go
  • Confirm that messages have been read by stakeholders/providers
  • Communicate securely on any device, and receive patient health or fitness data that's transmitted by wearable accessories and clothing sensors
  • Generating automatic logs of app activity and HIPAA logging requirements to ensure that information breaches can be discovered, tracked, and prevented

Find a Versatile Platform

When looking for a platform for your HIPAA-compliant mobile app, it's important to find one that's flexible and versatile. Clarity Ventures is here to talk to you about your many options.

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A doctor looking at an x-ray that makes its way to a HIPAA compliant mobile app
mHealth Usage Statistics

Statistical Overview of mHealth App Development

About 72 percent of physicians use smartphones to access drug information and patient histories, and 63 percent of doctors search for diagnostic and treatment research on tablets [2]. More than 44 percent of physicians discuss patients' cases with staff members on their phones. Medical practices must not only guard communications with patients but also feel free to communicate on their devices with secure apps.

On the development side, most mHealth app developers have only recently entered the market, and there are many HIPAA-compliant mHealth app development opportunities in today's mobile culture and expanded health-awareness environment [3]. This kind of healthcare mobile app development tends to involve IT and eCommerce companies in about 48 percent of published apps, but medical providers also develop apps for their patients and use these apps to monitor patient health get better office efficiency. The total mHealth revenue generated by these applications are projected to reach $13.587 billion in 2016 and almost double that figure to $26.560 billion in 2017 [4]. Statista states that the market will end at over $37 billion in 2019, a more than 42 percent increase in just two years. Simply stated, if you're not with the mHealth program and providing patients and doctors with HIPAA-compliant apps, they might go to a competitor who is.

about 72 percent of physicians use smartphones to access drug information and patient histories, and 63 percent of doctors search for diagnostic and treatment research on tablets ReferralMD
Efficient Coding Standards, Cross-platform Support

Choosing a Platform for Medical App Development

Choosing the right medical app developer involves choosing an option for building browser-based apps and support for native apps for each platform (i.e. iOS, Android, etc.) or cross-development technology. The skills of a company's development team also factor in the choice because platforms have their own coding-language requirements. 

Clarity designed HIPAA mobile app for ACON
People are Constantly on Their Phones

Fostering Greater Usability

Consumers care about their mobile app HIPAA compliance, but they also want apps that connect seamlessly with multiple medical resources and providers while not requiring the users to enter complex codes for every transaction. Customers want user-friendly apps that balance security with usability. If any app doesn't perform up to consumer expectations, people won't use it. The negative ratings for the app will limit downloads at the relevant app store.

 

Multi-platform Support is a Must

Developing Apps for Multiple Devices

Consumers have choices of laptops, smartphones, tablets, desktop computers, e-readers, and medical and fitness devices that include wearable clothing and accessories. Reaching substantial market penetration requires developing apps for, at least, the major three operating systems: Windows, Android, and iOS. Each of these systems market multiple device models, so most mHealth app developers end up making tweaks to support an average of 60 platform versions [5].

HIPAA Security Guidelines & Requirements

Guaranteeing Security and Privacy

Mobile phones for mHealth communication

Key requirements of HIPAA include ensuring device security and privacy of protected health information, determining whether any particular apps falls under HIPAA compliance guidelines, and encouraging users to follow recommended best practices such as password-protecting their devices. HIPAA cloud storage is an issue when medical records are stored in the Cloud for patient and medical staff access from their mobile devices. Apps must encrypt and decrypt information, store data securely, protect information with advanced security protocols, require mandatory logins, and include other built-in inducements for users to follow security best practices.

You'll hear the terms, "at rest" and "in transit" when discussing HIPAA mHealth development. What these mean is the state of the data when it's being either written to disk, which will be "at rest," or is sent up to the doctor patient portal, which the data will be "in transit." Either way, those are both HIPAA compliance regulations.

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