How to Make an Appointment Booking App Like Practo in Your Budget?

How Practo Came Into Existence?

There is an interesting story behind this app. The founder of the Practo, Shashank ND recalls the incident that happened back in 2008, where he wanted to enquire about a doctor before getting his father operated on. He then realized the intensity of the situation and along with his business partner and classmate Abhinav Lal, started this medical health app named Practo in Bangalore.

This internet-based medical service providing app facilitates information related to doctors based on patient’s health issues. The results are further filtered out with respect to the city, location, availability, and consultation fee. When you log in to this online doctor consultation app, you can enquire details about the practitioner/doctor ranging from their expertise to fees and qualification.

The app in today’s time has registered more than 10 million patients over the platform. The company has also expanded its horizons with “Health Hour”. It is an initiative that comes with the collaboration of doctors for attending online video appointments and consultations. With a video consultation facility in this pandemic situation, Practo is undoubtedly leaping success.

Why Make an App like Practo?

The world is getting digitally smart each day. Each second, the latest technologies and trends are getting diverged in our basic lifestyle. Health and medical apps are also one of them. As we all are facing an unfortunate situation of the pandemic, this online doctor consultation app is basically a boon to those who are thinking of making profits with healthcare app development.

Practo is a service-based informative platform that makes it accessible for both the doctors and patients to connect with each other easily. The doctors can list their services, and patients can simply browse and select doctors to fix their appointment. Practo being an appointment booking app, works to fix time slots and maintain the medical history of the patients. 

The apps like Practo are time-saving, informative, and eliminate the risk of going to the hospitals and clinics in such a sensitive time or otherwise. If we check upon the facts and stats to acknowledge the former statement, here are some as follows.

1. 43% of Millennials Prefer Using  Patient Portals from Their Smartphone.

This generation is a generation of phones. People have heavy work schedules and prefer comfortable living. According to mobius.md, millennials find it very convenient to book and enquire about appointments over the medical phone apps. These online doctor consultation apps provide them hassle-free processes and make them feel safe. 

2. With the Fast Growth, Mhealth App Market Is Expected to Reach $111 Billion by 2025

According to studies and researches by mobius.md, people today are more responsive towards healthcare and modernization. It is an estimate for the US market to witness a 50 billion dollar rise by 2025 and reach by 111 billion dollars. 

3. Out of 100 Health Apps, There Are Only 15 Related to Medical.

It was a finding by Business Insider which is great news for people who are thinking of developing a healthcare app like Practo.  Though, people being health conscious also gives you a big advantage to develop health tracking apps. But appointment booking apps are very few in today’s time. This means they have more chances of growth and dominance due to less competition in the market.

4. In a Survey, 42% of Users Admitted to Choose Online Appointment Booking Rather than Booking via Phone.

Research by Patientpop.com states that online appointments are easier to make as compared to phones because of automated procedures. Where on the phone, the person has to himself make a call and enquire. The online appointment booking app does this all with a simple tap of your fingertips. 

Now, as we have discussed facts about why making an app like Practo would be profitable. Let us put light on some reasons why online doctor consultation apps are in demand.

• Safe to Use

In this pandemic situation where people are working from homes and following social distancing norms, apps like Practo are bliss. They cut the procedure of physical visits to the clinics/hospitals and book appointments online. It eliminates the risk of exposure to unwanted viruses and bacterias. 

• Time-Saving

As the appointment booking app cuts the process of physical visits, there are no such things as waiting. You can book the particular time slot, and then go and get the consultation without any hassles. Moreover, the moment you ask for an appointment, a particular time slot is provided without any wait.

• Convenient

Schedule, reschedule, or cancel. You can do anything you want at your convenience. Simply do it at the reach of your fingertips without much of a bother. It is done in a minute’s time and is highly user friendly.

• Insightful

In appointment booking apps, one not only books the consultation but learns a lot about the doctor/practitioner. They can get full information about their qualification, practice experience, consultation fee, contact details, and also learn about the reviews they got from other patients. It is like knowing the doctor before they know us.

• Smart Service

Once the person fills in the information, they do not need to carry the reports all along. The data already gets collected at the backend of the app. The doctor can easily fetch the information from the resource to consult and prescribe the patient accordingly. It eliminates the human error of forgetting the reports or details required by a doctor.

10 Salient Features of Practo to Consider While Making an App

To make an app like Practo, you need to learn what are the features and USPs that help in gaining user base and reachability. Let us have a look at them as follows-

1. Easy App Onboarding

The portal should allow easy logging and signing up for the app. With the help of email addresses, mobile numbers, or through social media platforms- Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. Simply filling in the details should lead to app logging. 

2. Convenient Doctor Selection

Practo has a big database of 20,000 plus verified doctors across India, Singapore, Philippines, USA, and Malaysia. The patients can choose the doctor and book an appointment as per the former’s time availability. The user can also choose and select a doctor based on geographical location for feasible physical visits.

3. Easy Medical History Check

Once the patient fills in the details, their information should be saved on the app’s backend. The ideal appointment booking app should keep a record of patients’ appointments, reports, last visits details, and upcoming visits along with prescriptions.

One can consider adding the feature of medical reports in the paid versions. 

4. Doctors’ Insights

Practo provides information about thousands of doctors across Asia and USA. The user can easily access their information with a simple search. One can learn about doctor’s expertise, qualification, consultation fees, contact details, and reviews they received from other patients/users. If your app wants to compete with Practo, it needs to have an equivalent database and storage which shares useful insights.

5. Online Consultation

An ideal online doctor consultation app should provide patient facility to get direct consultation from a doctor through online chat, video, or audio call. It cuts the procedure of physical visits, which is a major attraction to people especially in times of COVID19. The features like chatbots, video calls, and conferencing could be added.

6. Convenient Booking

People use apps for comfort. The AI systems of the app should be proficient enough for making appointment bookings easy. This module should be compatible for both patient and doctor panels to adjust the appointments.

7. Health Articles and Features

It is a feature that brings goodwill to the app. Along with details of doctors and appointment bookings, Practo also does knowledge sharing. These health articles help users to keep track of their health for self-care and well-being.

8. Booking Calendar

Develop an app that gives an option to the user to book an appointment as per their availability. Showcase them booking calendars inclusive of dates and time slots. These booking calendars will avoid double booking and hassle-free consultations.

9. Push Notification

People prefer apps that keep sending them reminders, especially if it is a case of a medical appointment. Sending them appointment reminders, discounts, and the latest medical updates increase the chances of customer satisfaction.

10. Easy Payments

Set up a payment gateway that allows easy payments directly to the doctor/clinic. Include wallets and cards as payment methods for booking appointments. This provides a friendly user experience.

6 Smart Tips to Lower the Budget of Practo Like App Development

Now, we have learned about the importance of medical health apps and their important features. Let us dig some more information about its cost for development.

To make an app like Practo (latest version) in today’s time, the average costing happens to be around 40K-50K US dollars. But there is no need to feel disheartened if your budget does not allow that much of expenditure. To make a similar app to Practo, you can start from 20k and go up to 70k US dollars depending on what features you want to include.

Here are smart tips on how to cut the cost and still make an app like Practo 

Tip 1: Reduce Domains of Specialization

For showcasing the specialization of doctors, your app needs to include different databases and categories. This needs more time and complex development at the backend. It requires the essence of heavy development for feeding a big database and information which itself involves cost while fetching. Try to keep the app open for 4-5 specializations or anyone in particular. For example, make apps for physiotherapy or dental problems only.  

Tip 2: Save on Geographical Boundaries

Getting information from the whole world and then processing it to save could be challenging for your pocket and resources when it comes to data collection. You can launch the app area wise and then expand the boundaries with returns and revenues flowing later. 

Tip 3: Include Less Add-ons

Features like blogs, health stories, or food recipes add goodwill to your product. They act as an added advantage to users for better customer satisfaction. When it comes to cost-saving, one can skip these features and plan to add them later in the run.

Tip 4: Save on Panels

To make an app like Practo, you require two panels- Doctor Panel and Patient Panel. Both these panels are required to be filled and operated by respective parties. On the basis of these panels, the doctor and patient can contact and have online video consultation.

Dropping one panel, your app won’t be dynamic but more informative. The information about doctors could be browsed from your app and then appointments could be booked manually. This way your app will be informative and good to go at a low cost in the initial stages. However, you can add the other panel after revenue generation.

Tip 5: Save on Platforms

Practo is an Android and IOS friendly app. Being friendly on both platforms, it needs to be programmed in 2 different ways for each of them. You can start or launch the app over Android (recommended, being the holder of a larger user base) and then launch it over IOS after decent revenues and turnovers.

Tip 6: Focus on Your Core Feature

Well, this is the smart tip for saving your cost and yet be different from the rest of the online doctor consultation apps. You can compromise on other features as stated above but spend some amount on that extra special feature that is still new for your target audience. For example, your app can have a feature of bidding where the users can drop their budget and request for consultation. The doctors receiving the request can then reply and propose their fee. If both agree to one price, the appointment gets booked.

Conclusion

Developing an appointment booking app stands high chances of growth in today’s time. The reason being emerging popularity and less competition gives it the advantage to capture the market easily. 

As we have already discussed the features and what it takes to make an app like Practo. It is pretty clear, the app should have a strong database and be user friendly. If you are planning to develop a health application, try to stress on usability and database of the app. The rest could be altered as per the budget and your present focus. You can also seek counseling from a healthcare application development company that can suggest some smart ways to have an app like Practo but within your budget.