Healthcare apps we design and build
Healthcare products rarely fail because of the UI. They fail because a data flow was not thought through, an integration ran long, or clinicians found the app slower than their workaround.
Patient engagement apps
Booking, secure messaging, test results, medication reminders, intake forms and bill pay, connected to an EHR or practice system.
Telehealth and virtual care
Video visits, waiting rooms, pre-visit questionnaires, e-prescribing handoffs and post-visit summaries, built on a video SDK whose vendor will sign the agreements you need.
Remote patient monitoring
Apps that collect readings from Bluetooth devices and wearables, apply thresholds, and surface trends to a care team dashboard with clear escalation rules.
Clinician and care-team tools
Rounding lists, handoff notes, task queues, secure chat and point-of-care reference tools for staff devices, often deployed through MDM rather than the public stores.
Must-have features in a healthcare mobile app
- Strong, low-friction sign-in: OAuth 2.0 with PKCE, biometric unlock for returning users, and sensible session timeouts that differ for patient and staff apps.
- Proxy and caregiver access: parents, guardians and carers often need delegated access with its own consent rules.
- Consent capture and audit trails: record who agreed to what, when, and which version of the terms they saw.
- No PHI in the wrong places: push notifications that say 'You have a new message' rather than a diagnosis, and no health data in analytics events or crash logs.
- Accessibility: large text, VoiceOver and TalkBack support, and plain-language content, because many patients are older or unwell when they use the app.
EHR, FHIR and device integrations
Most modern EHR integration work runs through HL7 FHIR APIs, usually the R4 version, with SMART on FHIR handling app launch and authorization. Large EHR vendors such as Epic and Oracle Health (Cerner) publish FHIR APIs and developer programs, but what you can read or write depends on the vendor, the health system's configuration and the agreements in place. We plan for a sandbox phase, a customer-specific onboarding phase, and time for the health system's own security review.
Wearables and connected devices
On iPhone we read and write data through HealthKit, which requires a clear purpose string and per-data-type permission from the user. On Android, Health Connect is now the main way to access steps, heart rate, sleep and similar data. Medical Bluetooth devices often need vendor SDKs, so we test with real hardware early. Our native iOS engineers and Android specialists handle the platform-specific parts when a cross-platform layer is not enough.
| Integration | Common approach | Planning note |
|---|---|---|
| EHR records | FHIR R4 APIs with SMART on FHIR | Access varies per health system; budget for onboarding reviews |
| Wearable data | HealthKit, Health Connect | Permissions are granular and can be revoked at any time |
| Video visits | Telehealth video SDK | Confirm the vendor will sign a BAA or equivalent |
Privacy and regulation across the US, UK, Canada and Australia
Health data is treated as especially sensitive in every market we serve, but the rules differ. The summary below is a starting point for conversations with your counsel, not legal advice.
| Market | Key frameworks | What it usually means for the app |
|---|---|---|
| United States | HIPAA Privacy and Security Rules; FTC Health Breach Notification Rule for many non-HIPAA apps; state privacy laws | Covered entities and their business associates need BAAs with vendors that touch PHI, including hosting and messaging providers |
| United Kingdom | UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018; NHS Data Security and Protection Toolkit (DSPT); DTAC for NHS digital products | Health data is special category data; organizations with access to NHS patient data or systems generally complete the DSPT |
| Canada | PIPEDA plus provincial health privacy laws such as Ontario's PHIPA | Which law applies depends on the province and who holds the data |
| Australia | Privacy Act 1988 and the Australian Privacy Principles; My Health Records Act where relevant | Health information is sensitive information with stricter consent and disclosure rules |
When an app becomes a medical device
If your app diagnoses, treats or drives clinical decisions, it may be regulated as Software as a Medical Device (SaMD) by the FDA, the MHRA in the UK, Health Canada or the TGA in Australia. Wellness and administrative apps usually are not. Classification affects documentation and release speed, so we ask about it in discovery.
How offshore delivery is set up for health data
Offshore mobile app development in healthcare works when the team's access is designed as carefully as the product. This is the setup we propose by default, adjusted to your policies.
- 1
Separate environments
Development and QA run on synthetic or de-identified data only. Production, and any environment with real PHI, stays in your cloud account with access limited to named people you approve.
- 2
Realistic test data
We generate synthetic patients with tools such as Synthea or seeded FHIR bundles that cover edge cases: pediatric patients, proxies, deceased records, long medication lists.
- 3
Contracts that match data access
If anyone on our side will touch PHI, a BAA or data processing agreement is signed first, and subcontractor terms flow down. If no one needs PHI access, we document that too.
- 4
Device and account hygiene
Managed laptops, SSO with MFA, least-privilege repository access, and offboarding checklists that remove access the same day someone leaves the project.
- 5
Production support
Incidents are triaged with logs that exclude PHI. Where real data must be inspected, an approved person does it under your procedures.
Many healthcare clients start with a dedicated mobile squad so the same people build up domain knowledge and stay on the approved access list.
Common pitfalls in healthcare app projects
- Assuming 'FHIR support' means every resource you need is available and writable at every health system.
- Sending health data to analytics or marketing SDKs that will not sign a BAA, often through automatic event tracking.
- Leaving the clinical safety and SaMD question until a regulator, partner or app reviewer raises it.
- Treating launch as the finish line. OS updates, certificate rotations and EHR API version changes need a plan for ongoing maintenance.
Starting a healthcare project with us
Most engagements begin with a short discovery: we map the data flows, confirm which regulations apply, identify integration partners, and agree on the access model before code is written. For hospital and payer clients with large internal estates, our enterprise mobility approach covers MDM, SSO and internal distribution. When you are ready, send us your brief and we will come back with questions, risks and a phased plan.