How does the e-prescribing Software benefit Pharmacy Management?

Professional pharmacy services are crucial for the individuals of any region. Such services, however, come with certain limitations as pharmacists encounter several challenges that hinder their smooth functioning.

The challenges faced by the pharmacy community are:

• A highly competitive market as well as high customer expectations
• Macroeconomic impacts
• Managing and distributing medicines and handling expiry dates, drug shortages, etc.
• Operational challenges: Efficient handling of prescription medicines, insurance coverage, and managing medicine prices.
• The need for complying with a host of stringent laws and regulations

Patients, too, find the traditional methods of obtaining medication quite hassle-prone. Moreover, medical organizations following the traditional approach end up spending loads of effort and time in medication prescribing and other related formalities.

However, the advent of pharmacy software systems such as e-prescribing software has helped pharmacists to successfully address the aforementioned challenges. Now, several questions are likely to crop up:

What is e-prescribing software?

How does this type of software function?

How does it prove beneficial in the efficient handling and management of pharmacy operations?

Well, this post answers them all and provides some useful insights on how the e-prescribing software eliminates the myriad challenges faced by doctors, patients, and pharmacists.

But before we dive deeper let’s take a sneak peek into the pharmacy management system!

What is a Pharmacy Management System and how does it function?

A Pharmacy management system also referred to as a pharmacy information system stores data and offers functions for systematically organizing and maintaining different processes related to pharmacies. Such a system can be either an independent one meant for specific use by a pharmaceutical company or a part of the hospital management system. Mostly, pharmacies are integrated into the CPOE (Computer Physician Order Entry) system of a healthcare facility.

Pharmacy management system software provides solutions that enable pharmacists to effectively dispense medicines, control as well as manage their stock, and choose the appropriate over-the-counter medication as per the patients’ needs. Check out its most notable contributions:

• Streamlines drug inventory management and allow effective inventory tracking
• Optimizes pharmaceutical product supply
• Ensures that prescriptions are correctly matched with suggested medication and dosage
• Assists in managing prices
• Automates data entry and the processing of customers’ insurance claims
• Supports clinical decision making
• Enables effective patient care due to its features that allow continual assessment and follow-ups.
• Helps pharmacists in formulating as well as implementing strategies for scaling up their business and improving patient care.

The pharmacy management system consists of various types of software solutions like e-prescribing software, workflow management software, inventory management software, IVR (Interactive Voice Response) systems. Out of these, e-prescribing software is one of the most indispensable pharmacy software systems.

Let’s understand e-prescribing software in more detail!

The Role of e-prescribing Software in Pharmacy Management

E-Prescription software is used by practitioners for electronically generating a prescription and then sending it to the pharmacy chosen by the patient. This software can utilize EHR data for creating and transmitting prescriptions, and also plays an important role in establishing a transparent coordination/interaction between the pharmacies, medical bodies, and patients. Therefore, it not only eases out pharmacy management but also results in enhanced patient satisfaction.

Features

• Free delivery of medicines as per the prescription on the same day regardless of the time and the patients’ location.
• Tracking medication as well as refilling of medicines
• Private interaction with pharmacists via communication functionalities like text messaging.
• The facility of obtaining and managing medication using smartphones
• Co-ordination of patients with their doctors and pharmacists
• Integration with prominent insurance providers
• Collection of real-time feedbacks for identifying the areas of improvement

Advantages

Enhances Productivity in Medical Facilities

Healthcare facilities that still follow the traditional prescribing approach have to allocate resources as well as devote a considerable amount of time for clarifying prescriptions and other pharmaceutical issues. But, the e-prescribing software eases things out by automating important processes like authorization process, medicine renewal/refills, etc., and hence eliminates the need for faxes or callbacks. As a result, the medical body has to hire lesser resources and the healthcare staff finds more time to attend other core medical functions.

Simplifies Pharmacy Management

The e-prescribing software acts like a smart assistant that simplifies pharmacy management. Here are some instances.

• Predictive inventory tools make sure that a pharmacy never runs out of medicines
• Pharmacies save time on account of faster dispensing of medicines

Improves the quality of Patient Care and ensures Patient Safety

Check out how e-prescribing software improves patient safety and allows practitioners and medical organizations to deliver better-quality patient care.

• There are lesser errors concerning medication/dosage due to the absence of glitches created by illegible handwritten prescriptions and oral miscommunications, thereby improving accuracy.
• The warning systems alert doctors if a prescription interferes with another ongoing treatment system and informs them about patient drug allergies, current/past medical history, previous drug interactions, etc. This eases out medication management and prevents adverse medication effects.
• Doctors can track the number of controlled substance prescriptions received by the patients. This practice prevents over-prescribing and rules out patient safety threats.
• Practitioners can identify potential drug abuse by monitoring how often a patient is filling prescriptions for controlled substances.
• Clinicians can follow up with patients who have missed out on filling prescriptions and get them back on track.
• Some e-prescription software solutions even display the generic medicines that are more likely to be covered by the insurance policy of patients so that the practitioner can prescribe accordingly.

Adds to the Convenience Quotient of Patients

Patients enjoy a better pharmacy experience with lesser/nil wait times and reduced steps for procuring medication. Furthermore, the doorstep delivery of medicines employing the e-prescription software has simplified the task of obtaining medicines for senior citizens, patients with less mobility, and those residing in remote locations. Besides, the software tallies prescribed drugs and pharmacy invoices and then authorizes a specific insurance claim in favour of patients.

Concluding Words:

E-prescribing is one of the most essential components of the pharmaceutical management healthcare software and all the stakeholders of the healthcare industry should leverage its amazing benefits!

For assistance regarding the creation of impeccable e-prescribing software, or revamping your existing pharmaceutical software, reach out to Biz4Solutions, a distinguished software firm that excels in delivering high-end Healthcare app development services in U.S.A. and India.

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What are the key Advantages of building Web Apps with Node.js?

In the year 2009, Ryan Dahl, an American software engineer, created Node.js. The open-source project of Node.js was sponsored by a cloud computing and hosting company named Joyent. It was instantly recognized to be the most exciting technology then and gathered quite a lot of attention in 2017. Since then, its demand has kept multiplying. Later, this thriving technology was being used by LinkedIn for its backend development and even adopted by a host of Tech Leaders like Walmart, Uber, eBay, Netflix, etc.

In this blog, you will get a glimpse of what is Node.js along with its generic and technical advantages. So, let’s get started.

What is Node.js?

Node.js is an open-source, event-driven JavaScript runtime environment that does not execute the code on the browser, but rather outside it. It is a cross-platform framework that helps developers to use it for server-side scripting and also for writing command-line tools. Thus during web application development, server and client-side scripts can be written using a single JavaScript language. Its package ecosystem is admired to be one of the largest open-source libraries worldwide and is indisputably popular. It uses the V8 JavaScript engine of Chrome for code execution. It is used for architecting scalable server-side and networking apps. It enables event-driven programming for the faster development of apps.

Node.js is primarily being used for web app development and to build networking programs like web servers. The creation of web apps is extremely easy, and efficient yet cost-effective with this amazing technology. Nodejs web app development is extensively being chosen for real-time apps, and data-intensive apps requiring scalability and speed of operation.

Potential Benefits of Node.js Web App Development

Fullstack JS Technology Stack

Node.js is a powerful name in the industry with over 368,985,988 downloads and about 750 new contributors, according to the Node-by-numbers report in 2018. It has 836,000 libraries in its rich ecosystem and almost 1000 new libraries are added to it every week. While using this technology, the Node.js developers can leverage the robust features of full-stack JavaScript development like:

• code sharing and reusability as the same language used in frontend and backend
• a plethora of free tools
• elevated efficiency and reduced overall costs
• better developer productivity
• High-speed functioning for faster time-to-market
• simplified knowledge sharing within a team

Top-level Performance

The apps built using Node.js offer high performance for several reasons as mentioned below:

• js can handle requests asynchronously.
• Its event-driven and single-threaded architecture allows the processing of several concurrent requests without the congestion of RAM. Although single-threaded language Node.js in the background uses multiple threads to execute asynchronous code.
• Its non-blocking event-loop mechanism ensures code execution in a way that enhances overall performance.
• Since it is written in C++ and based on Google Chrome’s V8 engine, it splits the JS functions into machine codes making the code implementation faster and effective.
• Google invests heavily in Node.js for providing excellent support for new-age JavaScript features.
• Google introduced the V8 benchmark suite for supporting Node.js with better compilers, faster execution, security patchworks, etc.

Highly Scalable and Customizable

Node.js is considered a viable solution for the scalability of the apps. It offers high scalability in horizontal as well as vertical directions. To scale the apps horizontally, extra nodes can be added to the existing system. To scale the apps vertically, additional resources can be added to the single nodes. Likewise,

• it provides features like cluster module
• non-blocking i/o operations facilitate the server to process requests smoothly
• enables balancing of loads on multiple CPU cores
• Developers get better flexibility as it enables them to leverage micro-services architecture.

Also, Node.js is known for providing customizable solutions. Rapidly growing enterprises that are willing to explore diverse dimensions can leverage this technology with ease. This is so due to the built-in API that can be leveraged for developing DNS and HTTP servers and JSON that simplifies the data exchange between web and client servers.

Mild Learning Curve and Easy Adaptability

Node.js is nothing but JavaScript. Since JavaScript is popular amongst the developer’s community, learning and adopting Node.js both in frontend development and backend development is much easier. Learning other Node.js use-cases is easier for beginners too. Writing code in Node.js takes lesser time.

Community-driven

This is an ever-evolving technology backed up by the active support of millions of expert developers and JavaScript programmers across the globe. You will find a large number of ready-made and simple solutions, codes, libraries, registries, modules, etc. on GitHub. Consequently, any issues can be resolved easily with the help of this vibrant community.

On the other hand, IBM supports this technology and has shown extra interest in sponsoring the project for making it a full-fledged ecosystem. Other Tech Giants like Google, Facebook, Amazon, etc. also have extended their support by making crucial contributions to it.

Other Technical Advantages

Caching Advantage and Less Loading Time: It supports quick caching of modules which reduces re-execution of code and task workload of the Node.js developers. It helps the end-users to access the web pages within a fraction of microseconds reducing the wait times.

JSON Support: Node.js can use JSON format seamlessly without converting it into binary models. This makes it a lightweight and extensible environment as compared to other frameworks.

Event-based Model: It is an event-based model having a non-blocking, asynchronous, and single-threaded nature. This helps make apps having real-time and event-based features like online gaming, video conferences, chatting functionality, etc.

Unit Testing: Node.js supports unit testing out of the box i.e. testing individual components in isolation. It allows using any JavaScript unit testing frameworks like Jasmin for testing the Node.js code.

REST API Support: Building RESTful API is possible with the use of Node.js.

Final Verdict:

We have looked at the crucial advantages offered by Node.js. Every web application development company and developer can leverage it with ease. This technology has some demerits as well, like instability in API, immaturity of tooling, heavy computing tasks, call-back hell issues, lack of experienced professionals, etc. But its advantages outsmart its pitfalls. However, countless business enterprises have welcomed web app development for their projects in Node.js. For any assistance regarding Nodejs web app Development, reach out to Biz4Solutions, a highly experienced offshore software Development Company offering high-end Node js app development services.

With this, we come to the end of this blog.

Hope this blog has enlightened you about this amazing technology! If you have any other advantages to let us know, please share your thoughts in the comment section.

You may even mail us at sales.enquiry@biz4solutions.com

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Game-changing On-Demand App Ideas for 2021!

Modern-era consumers demand high-end products/services instantly! They are constantly on the lookout for easy-to-use, speedy, and convenient mobile app solutions. And, on-demand apps perfectly complement this customer requirement.

So, what are on-demand apps? Well, on-demand apps refer to mobile/web solutions using which customers can avail of real-time services or purchase products. These solutions are either a marketplace/platform that enables various businesses to publish their offerings or a dedicated app developed by a single business enterprise/brand for boosting their revenue generation.

Several businesses and aggregators have embarked to explore the potential of the on-demand economy, resulting in a highly competitive market. Therefore, your on-demand app idea needs to be novel and unique. This post enlists the popular on-demand app ideas and provides insights into some fresh new ideas that can be employed for your next on-demand app creation project.

Trending On-Demand App Ideas with Noteworthy Examples

 

Healthcare Services

Ever since the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, people are reluctant to visit hospitals or pharmacies to avoid crowded spaces and waiting in long queues. However, on-demand mobile apps have brought these services to their doorsteps and people have embraced this new concept wholeheartedly.

There are several categories of Healthcare on-demand apps each catering to a specific sub-domain of the healthcare sector. The services offered by healthcare apps include online doctor consultation, maintaining a fitness regime, obtaining information related to common diseases, hiring professional nurses, collection of laboratory test samples from residence, acquiring doorstep deliveries of medicines, etc.

Doctor-on-demand/Telemedicine apps

Such apps come with features such as online appointment scheduling, secured/encrypted messaging, video calling, ePrescriptions, EMR/EHR integration, and online payment gateways. These apps allow users to avail 24X7 online doctor-consultation services for obtaining basic diagnosis and guidance and most importantly, such services can be accessed using smartphones, from any location.

Noteworthy examples: PlushCare, TelaDoc, and Lemonaid.

Medicine Delivery

On-demand medicine delivery apps prove highly beneficial to patients who require purchasing or refilling of medicines and obtaining other medical products such as testing kits, asthma pumps, medicinal cannabis products, etc. Users upload their prescription and then the pharmacy owner checks the availability of the desired medicines and provides doorstep delivery.

Noteworthy examples: PharmEasy.

Grocery/Food Delivery

The consumers’ lifestyle, as well as shopping behaviour, underwent a drastic transformation over the past couple of years. Today, consumers prefer online ordering and home delivery of restaurant food, groceries, utilities, and most other products needed in their day-to-day lives.

Grocery delivery apps connect consumers with grocery vendors, local stores, and supermarkets. Such apps not only prove convenient to the users but also help businesses to accelerate sales and expand their customer base.

Noteworthy examples: Beelivery, Walmart Grocery, Peapod, FreshDirect, Instacart, and Big Basket.

With an online food delivery app, food-loving consumers enjoy the advantage of choosing from countless varieties of cuisines. Providers, too, can reach out to more customers.

Noteworthy examples: UberEats, Grubhub, Zomato, Postmates, and DoorDash.

Travel and Transportation Services

Vehicle Booking/Renting Apps

Apps that allow users to book cabs, bus tickets, car rentals, shared rides, e-scooters, and e-bicycles are in vogue these days. Many of these apps come with engaging features that include a GPS navigator for live tracking, a real-time traffic checking facility, etc. and some of them even do not charge any additional fee for rescheduling/cancellation of rides.

Noteworthy examples: Careem, Uber, Lyft, BlaBla Car, and Via.

Trucking and Delivery Apps

This On-Demand category offers services like all-in-one trucking, livestock transportation, dump truck functioning/delivery, airline transport, healthcare-sector transportation, marine shipping, etc.

Noteworthy examples: FreightBro, Uber Freight, GoShare, Convoy, BlackBuck, and Transfix (U.S.A.).

Fuel Delivery

Individuals traveling to other cities in their own vehicles often encounter the challenge of running out of fuel in the middle of their journey. And, things get more complicated if they are not aware of how far the nearest available gas station is from their current location. In such situations, an on-demand fuel delivery app would be a huge sigh of relief.

Such an app allows users to obtain fuel delivery regardless of their location. For accessing fuel delivery services, users need to execute the following steps:

• Download the application
• Register themselves in the app
• Grant location-related permissions
• Book fuel service
• Enter the location whenever services are needed at a different location

Once, all the aforesaid prerequisites are fulfilled, a fuel truck will reach your current location and fill your vehicle with fuel while adhering to all safety standards.

Noteworthy examples: Cafu, Booster, and Filld.

Entertainment/Video Streaming Service

The whopping success of Netflix clearly indicates the current trend of ditching TV broadcasts and resorting to on-demand service apps for entertainment. On-demand video streaming apps enables one to watch movies, entertainment series, as well as live concerts/shows happening at any corner of the globe, irrespective of the time and location of viewers. Such apps charge a yearly/monthly subscription from viewers.

Noteworthy examples: Amazon Prime, Netflix, YouTube Red, and Hulu.

Vehicle Repair

Modern individuals prefer to travel around countries in their own vehicles and frequently encounter car-related issues at locations where no garage or repair services are available. An on-demand car repair/mechanics app can easily resolve this inconvenience by successfully bridging the gap between the car owner and the mechanics. It’s high time businesses should capitalize on this demand by targeting the traveler community. Your app is bound to hit success if you add distinct functionalities for attracting the targeted audience, make your services available in remote areas, and ensure that you rope in skilled mechanics.

Plumbing Services

Plumbing issues are commonplace in every household but the procedure to get a professional plumber is a hassle-prone and time-consuming process. This is because hiring plumbers involve lengthy processes of paper invoices and then making several calls to the plumber for obtaining prompt services. An on-demand plumbing app addresses this issue effectively as the app owners build a network, connecting plumbers to the people who need plumbing services. The app users can effortlessly identify the desirable plumber as well as schedule an in-person visit for fixing the problem.

Apps belonging to this niche are fewer in comparison to other domains. So, architecting a plumbing app will provide you a competitive edge, and more so if you integrate additional novel features like calculating information about water flow/pipes, reviewing various systems to ensure more productive and accurate outcomes.

Tutoring and Training Services

Online teaching-learning and on-demand training sessions via mobile apps have gained momentum lately and this trend is to stay in the coming years as well. The services that can be provided under this on-demand app category are online educational coaching for school/college/university students, grooming for competitive exams, corporate training, and many more.

Tour/Travel Guide

Travel restrictions add to the difficulties of visiting tourists. Hence, an on-demand app providing travel guidance would be a breather. These apps provide an entire travel plan to users including an online route guide for getting to the location or a specific site, hotel and sightseeing recommendations, and food joint suggestions.

Freelance Services

On-demand freelance service apps help businesses and entrepreneurs to easily find the desired professional – programmer, writer, designer, marketer, etc. – for executing short-term/long-term tasks.

Noteworthy examples: AceBy, Task Rabbit, Upwork, and Fiverr.

Other Notable Services

Other notable services offered by the on-demand app development market are as follows:

• Housekeeping services: in-house cleaning, lawn mowing, and snow removal
• Beautician/salon services from the comfort of one’s home
• Alcohol delivery, flower delivery, and courier delivery
• Fitness and workout
• Dog walking, pet care, baby-sitting, and laundry

Bottom Line

The market demand for on-demand applications is picking up at a fast pace. Hence, it’s a golden opportunity for businesses to capitalize on this demand by crafting an outstanding and distinct on-demand app. Biz4Solutions, a highly experienced software firm providing top-grade on-demand app development services to global clients, will help you in your app development journey.

Smarten Hospital Operations with the all-inclusive Healthcare Management System by Biz4Solutions!

Biz4Solutions, a distinguished software firm delivering high-end Healthcare mobile app development services, has announced the launch of an all-inclusive Healthcare Management System (HMS) for hospitals. It is a top-grade digital healthcare solution that facilitates the efficient functioning of large as well as small-scale healthcare bodies and individual medical practices.

On the launch of this product, Mr. Jayant Kaduskar, Chief Technology Officer and Co-Founder said, “Currently, many of the healthcare organizations face challenges in the operational processes like managing and maintaining manual records of the patients, scheduling patient appointments, co-ordination between physicians, staff and patients, collection, storage and monitoring of health records, billing and claims management processes, the security of sensitive medical data, etc.”

“Bearing in mind this pain area, Biz4Solutions has designed this full-fledged HMS which acts a 360-degree healthcare solution for resolving a plethora of problems mentioned here,” says Mr. Kaduskar.

He further adds, “Also, during these testing times of the COVID-19 pandemic, most healthcare organizations are overly occupied and facing management issues. To cope up with these unforeseen circumstances, Biz4Solutions has launched a robust and highly reliable software solution- the HMS. I am sure it will help and is already helping some of the medical organizations in improving their practice management while offering an enriching patient experience.”

Check out some of the noteworthy benefits of this Healthcare Management System (HMS) for the organizations employing it:

• Accurate data collection and integration - personal information of patients and vitals like weight, height, BMI, temperature, medical history, allergies, behavioral indicators, etc.
• Appointment scheduling and rescheduling wherein practitioners and receptionists can schedule appointments
• Insurance integration/ verification)
• Generation of Billing reports
• Saving medical records digitally in the form of electronic medical records (EMR), for patient vaccinations and so on.
• Ability to monitor child growth
• Automation of several functions such as data-entry and many other administrative tasks
• Payments integration for facilitating instant payments from multiple options
• Sending timely reminders/alert messages to physicians and patients
• Task management for doctors as well as other healthcare staff
• Advanced search filters
• e-Prescriptions
• Seamless patient-doctor communication
• Tracking of data through advanced Dashboards
• Lucrative offers and Promotions for Patients
• HIPAA compliance for ensuring data privacy and security

This HMS is an all-in-one solution that serves diverse purposes and also improves the overall productivity and efficiency of the healthcare facilities. Moreover, it enables smart clinical decision-making and thereby helps in saving countless lives.

This product comes with a huge potential and promises a bright future for healthcare organizations. Please check details of the Healthcare Management System here. Also, you can watch the HMS video here.

Mr. Ashish Rangnekar, CEO- Biz4Solutions LLC, also shares his thoughts. He says, “Developing robust solutions that bring smiles on faces of kids, students, patients, physicians, business owners and many other customers across the world is our sole purpose. Our healthcare product- the HMS is already playing a remarkable role in improving practice management for several hospitals. Biz4Solutions has a rich experience in providing similar transformative healthcare software solutions to medical organizations, other care providers, insurance companies, etc. This is only possible because of smart work done by team Biz4Solutions. Thanks to all employees at Biz4Solutions for taking pride in what you do. You set us apart from the competition and I cannot thank you enough.”

About Biz4Solutions LLC:

Biz4Solutions LLC, established in 2011, is a Texas-based firm having its development center in India. Having a decade-long experience and expertise in providing exceptional healthcare app development services, this company architects high-quality software services for businesses across diverse industrial domains. It also delivers a plethora of web and mobile app healthcare solutions. They are hyper-focused on providing reliable, custom, robust and modern solutions to ensure high customer satisfaction in their projects. Their clients have always appreciated them for their professionalism, on-time delivery and transparency, which reflects in their work.

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Location-based Apps: Best Ideas for Apps based on Location and how to create them!

The power of location-based service apps is rising at a fast pace! Here are some instances!

• The user books a cab and it arrives exactly at their current location even if the address was not entered.
• The user is looking for a dine-in space and a location-based app on their smartphone displays eatery recommendations within close proximity.
• The user receives weather forecasts as well as the latest updates about it.
• Users receive assistance in maintaining safety during a natural disaster or some other emergency.

To sum up, location-based apps not only enable businesses to provide services as per the consumers’ immediate location but also help users in locating a nearby service, place, or person. For, this reason, most of the modern-era applications have embedded the geolocation technology regardless of whether the app user utilizes or ignores it.

This post provides insights on the use cases of location-based apps, suggests some handy app development ideas, and guides through developing an impeccable location-based application.

Location-based apps: Functioning

The location-based service technology uses real-time geodata from smartphones to instantly track the users’ current location and then provide information, advice, or guidance concerning the desired services/sites. Geolocation technologies that broadcast the location information for location-based apps are Wi-Fi, GPS (Global Positioning System), satellite signals, signal strength indication, cell id tower info, etc.

Location-based Apps: Use Cases

Navigation Apps

Apps like Google Maps, Maps.me, and Maze are popular outdoor navigational mapping applications that help travelers to find the best routes and offer step-by-step guidance to reach a location. Maps.me goes one step ahead as it works offline as well.

Amongst the indoor navigational apps; the Purple app assists patients to navigate within the Allina Health Hospital and Sarasota Memorial Hospital while Mapsted helps visitors navigate through huge malls.

Food Delivery, On-demand and Retail Apps

Food delivery apps like Uber Eats, Zomato, Glovo, and GrubHub employ geolocation technology to facilitate effective navigation for delivery staff and allow real-time order tracking by customers.

Uber is one of the shining stars in the on-demand category and has revolutionized the taxi booking experience altogether. This app automatically tracks the users’ current pickup location and sends the cab driver to the venue accordingly. Users are also able to track the drivers’ movement before the cab’s arrival as well as during their ride.

Retail apps such as IKEA, Target, Walmart utilize this concept to boost the customer experience. GPS is employed to help consumers find the nearest store, select a convenient delivery/pickup location, etc. and Beacons are used for providing in-store navigation.

Location tracking apps

Most Android and iOS devices possess built-in location tracking features so that owners can easily locate their devices when stolen or lost. However, for activating this function, the devices’ GPS feature needs to be turned on.

Geolocation tracking also helps in detecting suspicious activity thereby protecting the users’ data. For instance, Gmail users receive a security alert when they try to log into their account from a different country.

Parents are able to track their child’s whereabouts in real-time using the FootPrints app.

Support Groups and Sponsor Finder, a location-based messaging app, help disabled individuals or the ones with addiction problems to receive timely help during emergencies.

Social Networking Apps

The geolocation functionality facilitates social networking apps users to share their current location, mark it on their posts, mark themselves safe/in trouble during unforeseen situations like natural disasters or terrorist attacks, check into places, and many more.

Foursquare had coined the idea of checking into a location via smartphone devices, a concept that has been copied by several apps, including Yelp and Facebook. Foursquare’s Swarm app allows users to share their location with friends in the contact list, send invites to friends for joining them, and even enables them to locate the contacts available nearby.

Apps such as Snapchat and Instagram, too employ map view to enable geotag-empowered posts and view nearby contacts.

Dating apps, like Tinder, provide pictures of nearby users to customers and helps them to meet them as well.

Local Parties Finder proves handy to travelers searching for night activities.

IoT Apps

Apps and devices employing IoT technology like fitness trackers, and wearables like smartwatches, utilize the location-based approach for improved outcomes. Some instances of this use case include wearables paired with cycling/running apps; pet care apps that employ tags called Paw Scout, apps for family safety, and using GPS-enabled devices such as LugLoc for keeping a vigil on luggage.

Weather Apps

This is a popular category of location-based apps that provide handy information on the weather conditions along with a twenty-four-hour forecast based on the consumers’ current location. ApexWeather, Dark Sky, etc. are some notable examples.

Gaming apps

Gaming apps like Pokemon Go and Scavify leverage the geolocation technology to boost user engagement. Pokemon Go enables players to reconstruct their existing environment while Scavify deals with scavenger hunts.

Fresh New Location-based App Ideas

Geo-Conquesting

This is a novel technique that assists businesses in diverting the attention of competitors’ clients and has been implemented successfully by Dunkin Donuts. Take a look at this instance. Starbucks like most others, helps users to locate the nearest coffee shop and even enables advance ordering such that the order is ready before the users enter the store, thereby saving their time. Dunkin Donuts offers an additional feature. It sends a notification to the users who are about to enter Starbucks/or any other eatery – an ad message with a discount coupon. Isn’t it an intelligent idea to convert your competitors’ customers?

Integration with AR and Smart Devices

Location-based apps when integrated with AR can offer guided tours to travelers across the globe, with all required information flashing on the smartphone screens while moving around.

These apps when paired with smart home devices can automate tasks like automatically switch on lights when someone enters by configuring it programmatically.

Hospitality Apps

Hotel apps implementing geolocation can provide extra features – food menus; on-site navigation; self-check-in/check-out, arrival, or departure; electronic keys, etc.

Targeted Advertising

This ingenious idea is ideal for eCommerce apps and helps businesses in carrying out effective advertising campaigns. But how? Ditch the ongoing practice of conducting surveys and inviting consumers for collecting their requirements. Instead, implement geolocation to find out the customers’ daily schedule and the places frequented by them. Use this information to create a customized ad campaign for customers as per their preferences. For example, the customers who are frequent gym visitors receive ads related to products like weights, tracksuits, gym equipment, etc. whereas the ones who travel quite often receive ads concerning the purchase of travel-related stuff such as travel sacks/pillows and so on.

Customer Reward Points for Store Visits

Restaurants/food joints/cafes may utilize geolocation to identify customer visits to your space even if they miss out on opening your app during their visit and then automatically load reward points to consumers’ accounts for each visit. This move will work wonders to improve customer loyalty.

Location-based App Development Steps

Want to develop a High-end Location-based app for your business? Well, check out these basic steps on how to go ahead with the development:

• Conduct extensive research to identify the market demand for location-based service apps, explore opportunities, and analyze competitors’ strategies.
• Pick the right approach and features - The app should have a robust backend, an interactive UI, and specific functionalities like map integration (Apple/Google/Bind), GPS-co-ordination, location detection (automatically acquiring users’ present location as well as providing nearby options), and advanced route search including personalized driving directions.
• Choose the apt location tracking technology – GPS, Beacons, cellular networks, Wi-Fi, etc.
• Ensure the safety of self-portrait location data and keep your location-based app highly encrypted.
• Hire professional and experienced developers for executing your project.
• Build a location-based prototype sphere, choose a suitable app design, develop, thoroughly test the app through various stages, and then deploy.

Concluding Words:

So, isn’t it a brilliant idea to establish your digital footprints by architecting a unique location-based application? In case of any queries or technical assistance concerning app ideation as well as creation, reach out to Biz4Solutions, a highly experienced Offshore mobile app Development Company in India, catering to global clients across myriad industrial domains.

Custom Hospital Apps versus off-the-shelf Solutions: How effectively do they address Healthcare Mobile App Challenges?

Today, several healthcare facilities are leveraging the power of technologically advanced Healthcare mobile solutions to address a wide range of challenges that adversely affect their efficiency and customer services. However, healthcare mobility solutions should be chosen carefully as the medical industry happens to be one of the most sensitive domains and one single error can lead to dire repercussions.

Hospitals/medical bodies planning to digitalize their operations, may choose between these two major categories of Healthcare app software – commercial off-the-shelf healthcare software and custom-made hospital app solutions. Both of these software categories come with their own set of benefits and drawbacks. Hence, it becomes difficult for healthcare providers to pick the right one that will fulfill the requirements of their medical facility and successfully resolve the existing roadblocks.

This post provides insights on the advantages and disadvantages of both approaches as well as the effectiveness of each type of software solution in handling the challenges encountered by the providers who adopt healthcare mobile app solutions.

Custom Hospital apps vs. off-the-shelf products: A Comparison

Off-the-shelf Medical App Solutions

Off-the-shelf medical app solutions refer to the commercial software products that are designed to meet the general market requirements of the healthcare sector. In other words, off-the-shelf healthcare app development provides the simplest and most universal solutions that cater to the broadest list of requirements.

Advantage

• Easy to implement
• Require low initial investment

Disadvantage

• Fail to satisfy specific or complicated business requirements
• Available for competitors as well
• Customization abilities regarding functionality and branding, range from moderate to nil.
• Incur high expenses in due course

Inference: Off-the-shelf healthcare products work best for carrying out standard tasks and less sensitive operations such as appointment scheduling, ePrescriptions, recording therapy, etc. It is also ideal for a low resource/low budget hospital setup, only if there are no chances of expansion in the near future.

Custom Healthcare App Solutions

Custom hospital app solutions are personalized products architected by Healthcare App development companies tailored to satisfy particular requirements and specifications of clients.

Advantage

• Tailor-made to befit specific requirements of a medical entity
• Offer more room for customization other than the specific features desired by clients.
• Highly scalable and flexible
• More resistant to security breaches
• Yields long-term cost savings
• Comes with support and maintenance facilities post product launch
• Promotes business growth

Disadvantage

• Consume more time as well as efforts to develop and implement
• Involve greater initial investment as compared to off-the-shelf counterparts

Inference: These solutions are ideal for large-scale medical bodies with complex, unique, and sensitive needs, with a future possibility of growth or expansion.

Off-the-shelf Products vs. Custom Hospital apps: How effectively do they address Healthcare Challenges?

Take a look at the healthcare app challenges and learn how effectively each approach addresses this challenge.

Challenge # 1: Diverse User Requirements and Objectives

The users of hospital app solutions, unlike those of lifestyle apps, have diverse requirements that depend on the medical category an app is meant for. The objectives of healthcare software catering to various specializations are often different from one another; even if the medical professionals of these specialties work in unison and cater to the same set of patients. For instance, a nurse may have to load the most recent lab test results in the system; while a practitioner may have to show these outcomes to patients and even compare these reports to the previous lab results in a graphical format. And, your Healthcare software system should satisfy such prerequisites.

The developers of off-the-shelf solutions do not integrate such specific functions as this may unnecessarily overload the app’s functionalities, complicate things for general users, and eventually narrow down their targeted audience.

Custom app developers, on the other hand, thoroughly analyze their clients’ business objectives by gathering data on their workflow and identifying the specific goals and needs of a particular group of would-be users. Thus, they are able to figure out every necessary feature or scenario and implement these within the proposed application. As a result, the tailor-made end-product is not only useful and flexible but also easy to comprehend and navigate.

Challenge # 2: Ease of Implementation

Despite the availability of adept software developers proficient in various programming techniques and developer-friendly technologies; implementing software solutions into a hospital body/ medical organization is not a cakewalk. And, developers have to face several hurdles for seamless implementation.

With off-the-shelf products, there isn’t any need to undergo a lengthy and complex implementation process owing to the previous experiences of these readymade solutions. Since most functions are tried and tested, execution becomes quite easy.

Implementing customized products is an uphill task. But, medical solutions that are built using the latest and highly advanced engagement/project execution models simplify the rolling out process and minimize or even zero down the chances of any issues.

Challenge # 3: App Usability

Most off-the-shelf software creators build either multi-purpose apps or solutions that cater to only certain medical requirements. This is because their prime objective is to make their solution attractive and target the maximum number of users possible. So, all the features offered by off-the-shelf solutions may not be useful and some of its modular components may unnecessarily disrupt the normal functioning of the healthcare system of a facility. Furthermore, owing to the limited features of such solutions, several specialists may not find a certain feature they require for a specific case. During such situations, a generalized solution seems useless.

Customization, contrarily, enables fulfilling the unique needs of healthcare specialists and offers the best possible solution. Custom apps are developed as per the needs of the hospital as well as the medical staff and hence, all features are necessary and useful.

Challenge # 4: Incompatibility with the Existing Hospital Systems

A hospital app, when installed, must be compatible with its in-house healthcare systems and existing software devices/systems like EHR systems. This is because if all systems and solutions do not work synchronously, the transfer of information would be erratic and the correct data wouldn’t get updated.

Seamlessly integrating two or more systems/devices with software mobility solutions will be effortless only if they are developed by the same vendor. The reason is each solution created by a different firm has its own set of security measures that hinder syncing with other solutions. Therefore, setting up data exchange becomes challenging or even impossible if all systems are not acquired from the same provider. Although a particular standard known as HL7 (Health Level 7) is universally adopted by medical app solution developers, the discreet nature of some software solutions can undermine this.

For this reason, it’s least likely that a readymade solution will function seamlessly with a hospital’s existing setup unless it is manufactured by the same app development company.

On the contrary, a custom-made solution will be developed keeping in mind the integrations needed. So, whether your in-house healthcare software system is a third-party solution, an off-the-shelf product, or a personalized solution from a different vendor; your custom app service provider will ensure that the new tailor-made product seamlessly integrates and communicates with all the existing medical devices/software systems.

Challenge # 5: Different Document Standards

The modern-era caregivers need to deal with loads of documents. And, the document standards differ as per the organization/region and also change with time. Ready-made solutions are unable to cope up with these standards as they offer limited templates that cater to generalized requirements.

When customized apps are designed for a particular medical entity or a specific department, developers are aware of the fixed number of document categories. Hence, creating templates for all relevant papers as well as implementing them within an app solution becomes easy. Moreover, the standard for all documents is meant for a specific facility and state/region. So, templates do not require extra editing whenever a medical professional needs to fill in it.

Challenge # 6: Use of Algorithms

It’s the latest trend to integrate special algorithms in healthcare app solutions for analyzing data. This approach helps in suggesting medication needed on the basis of an established diagnosis or banning a certain medicine from prescriptions due to its incompatibility with other prescribed medication or patients’ allergy to it.

However, algorithm integration doesn’t function well in the case of off-the-shelf products since an infinite amount of data needs to be processed leading to erratic outcomes.

Custom-made apps involve handling limited and more specific data and so, the predictions made by algorithms are far more accurate in comparison to ready-made solutions.

The Need for Upgradation

Off-the-shelf products mostly offer regular updates, but there are high chances of misses at times. This irregularity in providing up gradations often has an adverse impact on business organizations. However, customized software solutions address this issue successfully. These products are maintained and managed by the software firm that has crafted the solution and hence guarantees regular up gradation and even modification as and when needed.

Final Words:

The custom approach is preferred by medical facilities as they ease out the workflow and provide a competitive advantage. Yet, several enterprises ditch the custom approach and settle for off-the-shelf software solutions to reduce investment expenses, and end up facing certain roadblocks such as uncertainty, security risks, non-alignment of business objectives with the available software features, and many more. So, a tailor-made customized solution would be the perfect pick for your healthcare organization. Even a hybrid approach, a combination of custom solutions and ready-made solutions – may prove beneficial if implemented flawlessly.

All you need to do is partner with skilled healthcare app development services to obtain the desired software integration for your hospital body.

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Enhance App Usability with these Cool UI Design Trends of 2021!

UI design trends are ever-evolving owing to the transformative nature of the software market and the emergence of novel and advanced technologies. The design patterns that were highly popular in the yesteryears are most likely to be replaced by fresh and futuristic styles. Therefore, UI Design Companies, UI design services as well as UI designers must be well versed with the recent market trends to stay competitive.

Modern users enjoy the flexibility to choose from innumerable websites and applications for obtaining the desired service/product. Hence, businesses need to be extra creative, provide enhanced usability and a distinct visual appeal as well as offer new and exciting experiences to grab the attention of their targeted audiences.

Take a quick glance at the distinct and cool UI design trends that are dominating 2021! Adopting the right set of the latest design patterns will not only accelerate your UI designing abilities but also elevate your designing skills to the next level of excellence.

Cool and Exciting UI Design Trends

Glassmorphism Effect

Glassmorphism is the most recent UI design trend and is garnering humongous popularity. Apple’s macOS Big Sur launched in 2020 and Microsoft’s Fluent Design System has adopted such a design pattern.

It refers to a frosted glass effect used for blurring out the background for providing transparency. It possesses a multi-layered approach with floating objects such that the users can see through the layers and can establish the hierarchy within the structure and the depth of the interface. This design functions best when several translucent layers appear on a colorful background. Vivid colors are utilized for highlighting the blurred transparency and a subtle light border is used on the translucent objects. And, for achieving the desired effect, only the fill needs to be transparent and not the whole shape.

Immersive Experience with 3D Designs

Delivering an immersive experience via apps and websites is the trendiest practice of modern times. This is executed by employing 3D designs. The depth, special lighting effects, shadows, and textures offered by 3D designs make it possible for users to get an experience that is much closer to the actual world. Whether it’s through typography or illustrations, three-dimensional designs provide an additional dimension to the overall look and feel of the end-product. The increasing usage of augmented reality is one of the reasons that necessitate incorporating 3D designs.

Mixed Typeface

The concept of mixed typeface is predicted to gain prominence in 2021. This phenomenon establishes content hierarchy to create visual interest and plays a major role in boosting the focus as well as the emphasis of a sentence or a title. The best practice is to select a ‘sans serif’ virtually and then merge it with a serif of your choice. This combination will not only function well together but also help you build a nice design. The ‘sans serif’ approach elevates readability as compared to serif and so such a practice perfectly befits the body of the text.

VUI (Voice User Interface)

Interacting with voice interfaces is one of the hottest UX design trends of 2021. The voice interface is an internal one and is related to data synthesis and context. Applications that provide the service of translating words/sentences into the desired language are good examples of this kind of UX/UI design pattern. In such apps, the device starts recording a person’s voice after a button is clicked and then translates the speech. Thus, it becomes easier for individuals to communicate with others who speak a different language.

The Usage of Soft Gradients

Simple web designs and minimalism rules the modern era and as such, the practice of using bright and flashy gradients is no more considered effective. This is because as gradients impart volume and depth to images, it is difficult to achieve the desired effect with screaming colors.

Hence, the practice of using pastel colors in UI design is gaining popularity. This helps in highlighting the unobtrusiveness and lightness of the UI design. Moreover, pastel colors perfectly fit into a wide variety of concepts and establish the ideal environment for various websites such as SaaS applications, eCommerce platforms, etc.

The Usage of Geometric Structures

The usage of geometric structures in interfaces is an existing trend that is expected to expedite in 2021. Here, individual shapes are used for creating bigger and complex shapes for imparting a conservative as well as tidy visual structure. Several UI designers integrate this concept with the phenomenon of optical illusion for generating a memorable momentum.

Employing Micro-interactions

Micro-interactions refer to the pleasing and delightful moments experienced by customers while using a product. These short moments add immense value to your product by offering a truly humane experience to the end-users. Such visual elements function best when combined with users’ action triggers. Micro-interactions prove beneficial as they enhance the usability of a product, promise an improved ROI, and work wonders in retaining customers and making a product popular. 

The implementation of Pop-art and Comics

The recent times are all set to launch feel-good designs that make use of colors in an unexpected and quirky manner. Designs that display pop art and comics are ideal examples of such statement designs. These innovative and fun-filled designs are sure to attract users and engage them in a meaningful way.

Emoji Design Patterns

Emojis undoubtedly enable app creators to express a lot despite having a minimalistic UI design. This emotion–expressing concept makes an interface far more enjoyable and engaging. This is the reason why most popular apps these days have adopted this concept. Emojis are being used in empty states, onboarding screens, push notifications, dialogs, etc. by not only social apps, but also applications belonging to serious business domains like eCommerce, banking, and finance.

Brutalism

As the name suggests, this design seems quite unusual due to the usage of strong contrasts and unpleasant typography that might seem chaotic to many. This design often causes issues concerning readability and accessibility. Yet popular brands such as Foursquare and Dropbox have adopted such a concept. The primary objective behind employing such designs is to offer a deconstruction that is perceived as attractive and handy.

Concluding Lines

Well, what are your views about these refreshing and stimulating UI design trends? Please share your thoughts in the comment section provided below. If you are looking for assistance to decide on the right set of UI design patterns for your website or mobile app solution or planning to hire high-end UI designers; contact Biz4Solutions, a prominent and highly experienced offshore software development company, and reliable technology partner.

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Costing of Constructing a Unique On-Demand Music Streaming Application like Spotify!

Music is a universal companion for all. And the best thing about it is that in today’s digital era, we can carry music anywhere we go, owing to our smartphones and music streaming apps like Spotify, SoundCloud, Pandora, Google Play Music, iTunes Music, etc.

Technology in music has advanced to such an extent that we can’t even think of playing music using tape recorders, or mp3 players having limited storage of songs. New generations are gradually getting addicted to the ease of accessing hundreds of songs of their choice in an instant through music apps. No wonder why the popularity of such music apps is soaring.

Here are some statistics on the rising number of music streaming users; the source being Statista, a renowned online portal for getting up-to-date statistics.

The number of users of music streaming apps was 1268.5 M in 2018 and grew to 1315 M in 2019. In 2020, this number crossed 1351 M and in 2021, it is expected to cross 1379 M. Furthermore, the estimates depict that by 2022, this number will cross 1400 M users.

These exponentially growing figures support the fact that On-Demand music streaming apps and websites will be in high demand in the coming years.

So, this blog is intended to help On-Demand App Development companies and entrepreneurs who are willing to create such an app. Here we will explain in detail how much does the development of a Spotify-like app costs and what factors affect these cost considerations. But before we delve into the topic, let’s look at what is Spotify and why it became so popular.

What is Spotify and Why it is so Popular?

Spotify is a music and video streaming platform that enables users to easily browse through millions of songs and playlists. Launched in 2008, this Swedish-based app provides any genre of music to anyone across the globe. It allows users to share the songs, create playlists to add favorite tracks, and also collaborate with friends for creating compilations. It comes in paid as well as ‘Spotify free’ versions. In the free version, one can’t download the songs and has to listen or watch frequent ads in between. But the premium accounts have no such restrictions or disturbances.

Spotify has now gone a step further by providing specially-created content of artists, podcasts, etc. to the users apart from series of musical audios and videos. The app makes use of technologies like machine learning, artificial intelligence, etc. for analyzing the listening habits and patterns of the users and providing them customized recommendations based on that.

So, Spotify has all the features of ideal music streaming app i.e. quick access, unlimited storage, affordability, and social engagement; and hence, it has been a top choice of millions of music lovers. The app literally rules the music world.

Factors Affecting the Cost of a Music Streaming App like Spotify

Research, and Planning

Before commencing the development, there is a lot to do. Research on various factors like competitor apps, their USP, your target audience, their age bracket, their likes/dislikes in Music, etc. as all these factors are essential for deciding the app costs. Accordingly, plan the concept of the app that will meet the expectations of your audience.

Deciding the Type of App You Want

There are three categories of On-Demand music applications seen in the market, as mentioned below. You can research and brainstorm with your team to decide on which suits your needs and budget the best.

• Radio Station: In recent years, several radio stations have gone digital for reaching out to a large number of audiences, because today’s audience makes use of their smartphone rather than listening from a separate radio device.
• Cloud Storage: The music streaming applications in this category enable the users to store their favorite audio/video content over the cloud platform itself and listen to it whenever required.
• Server-based Music Library: Such a kind of music app provides a wide range of options to its users. It provides unlimited access to the music of their choice under paid subscriptions or even free options. Users can download the music, and create playlists, based on the subscription.

Choosing the Platform

Platform selection is one of the key factors impacting the development budget. Whether you choose native development or cross-platform, it will affect the cost of app development. 

Hiring the Technical Team

Once you have a vision of what your on-demand music streaming app would look like, it is time to search and hire a technical crew for app development. The app costs depend a lot on the country of the tech crew, rates of their developers, etc. Usually, regions like Asia (India, Indonesia, Malaysia), Eastern Europe (Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic), Latin America (Brazil, Peru, Mexico), and Africa (Nigeria, Egypt, Kenya) are comparatively cost-effective.

Designing the Application

After hiring the team, you need to proceed to make the wireframes for your project. The app design must be highly functional, navigational, and easy to use. For this, it is essential that your development team is well-experienced and knowledgeable.

Adding the Features

Features are vital to any application and they are one of the major factors affecting app costs. Here is a list of the most important features that you must consider in your app:

• Registration
• Profile Creation
• Discovery and Searching the Content
• Music Recommendation
• Social Sharing with Friends
• Online as well as Offline Access of Music
• Push Notifications
• Playlist Creation
• In-app Messages

Getting Licensed

In genuine music streaming application, you cannot simply add anyone’s composition and music just like that. The copyrights and legal procedures must be considered and hence, getting licensed is quintessential. Or else, you will have to face a lawsuit.

For providing your users with high-quality and legal content, you have to get a Public Performance Rights license. This is handled by three agencies in the USA- SESAC.com or ASCAP.com, or BMI.com. Besides this, you will need to share the revenues as royalties to the concerned artists for using their music.

How much does it Cost to Fabricate a Spotify-like App?

We have looked in detail at various cost-forming factors in the aforesaid section. The features to be embedded, the technologies used, design complications, number of OS platforms on which app is to be built, location of the mobile app development partner, etc. affect the costing of the app. So, here is an approximate cost estimation of an advanced music streaming platform:

• An app with basic but essential features i.e. an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) can cost anywhere from $20,000 to $50,000.
• A feature-rich application with advanced features and functionalities would range from $50,000 to $ 80,000 or more.

Final Thoughts

Summing up, we can say that the approximate cost of creating basic on-demand music streaming app like Spotify starts from $20,000, and for a full-fledged feature-packed application, it can reach $80,000 or more. However, just building an app does not guarantee its success. Gaining tremendous popularity like Spotify is not a piece of cake. For creating such a unique app, you first need to have a one-of-a-kind idea. Besides the idea, you need to hire the best app development partner for your project and thoughtfully design the app of your dreams.

So, we hope you enjoyed reading this insightful post.

Also, do you want to know further about the cost considerations of the best music streaming service like Spotify? Connect with us today!

How RFID Adoption has Influenced the Healthcare Domain?

Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology and its rising implementation in the healthcare domain has proved this technology to be a favorable asset to medical facilities and hospital bodies. The RFID technology offers promising benefits like real-time traceability, communication, identification, etc., thus, helping organizations to save vital time and money. Besides, the healthcare app development services leverage this technology to build advanced solutions that ensure patient and asset tracking, patient safety, enhanced quality of care, and more.

There is a lot to talk about how RFID is transforming the healthcare industry and in this post, we will provide insight on how healthcare app developers and healthcare companies can benefit from it.

Use Cases of RFID Technology in Healthcare

Supply Chain Inventory Management

RFID systems enable better inventory visibility, utilization, and accuracy in healthcare facilities. They reduce product expiration, wastage, and shrinkage to some extent. They help in reducing equipment and supply chain costs. Also, in some cases, certain RFID solutions like automatic inventory tracking systems decreased the time spent on searching and shipment of products to just 5 minutes, which used to be three hours if done manually.

Accuracy of Medication Tray Restocking

Using the RFID solutions, the time for daily medication tray restocking could be reduced by 15 minutes/tray.

Identification of Patients and History Tracking

RFID technology helps in patient identification when an RFID band is tied over the patient’s wrist. The band carries all the health data of the patients like their name, medical history, reports, allergy details, etc. This crucial data is useful to doctors while treating the patient.

Besides, RFID prevents wrong-site surgery, allows patient care auditing, provides automatic billing, and also decreases long wait times.

Identification of Hospital Equipment

In the operation theatres, there are several life-saving equipments used, and inspecting them is mandatory for avoiding any sudden breakdowns. In this case, too, RFID asset management systems prove beneficial as they monitor the equipment and inform the concerned personnel of its expiry.

RFID helps in completing the UDI requirements. Also, it helps to enhance CAUTI outcomes through automated asset tracking and avoid any additional purchase of equipment.

Pharmaceutical Tracing and Tracking

RFID solutions facilitate effective recall management. The RFID asset tracking and management systems can manage the drugs, other pharmaceuticals, and products like gloves, masks, syringes, etc. in hospitals by tracking the available stock and making the concerned person aware if there is any shortage. This also reduces the expiry and wastage of the products.

Hygiene Tracking in Hospitals

RFID solutions can be utilized for improving hygiene tracking practices in hospitals. These prevent hospital-acquired infections. This is so because continuous monitoring is quite an unrealistic approach when it comes to hand hygiene compliance. RFID-based continuous and real-time automatic hand hygiene recorders enable the medical facilities to record compliance that could lack when a direct observer is involved.

Some More Applications of RFID Innovation in Healthcare

• These systems also allow real-time tracking of the hospital staff dispersed across various patient care environments. This provides insightful information especially for larger and busier hospital bodies for tracking the overall productivity.
• RFID solutions allow the hospital to track the temperature of heat-sensitive medicines and drugs throughout the supply chain and take the essential steps for maintaining compliance and standards.
• RFID-based proximity cards provide a secure and seamless way for the staff or concerned personnel to access certain areas within the organization as they do not need to remember any PIN codes while entering the area. These cards do the job well.
• If RFID proximity cards are utilized along with an output management software, it can decrease the paper consumption and related costs to a great extent through secure input printing for your medical facility.
• RFID tags can also be used for tracking mobile assets in the hospitals like patient beds, wheelchairs, etc.
• RFID data can be stored online and it can be shared and managed online too. A battery-driven active RFID, like infrared and ultrasound, is equipped with the infrastructure that makes use of WiFi for communicating data to important medical systems like asset management apps, EMRs, etc.

A Few Drawbacks of RFID Tags and Systems in Healthcare

• For using an active RFID system in the hospital, the antennas and readers need to be installed throughout the hospital so that they could work in real-time. But this can be a bit tedious at times.
• Installation of active tags could be very expensive as a single active tag may cost up to $30. Comparatively, passive tags are less expensive.
• Passive RFID cannot track in real-time. So, the medical facilities should use them only when real-time tracking isn’t required.
• Active tags come in bigger sizes and need more maintenance because their batteries require to be changed often.
• Another drawback of an active tag is that it can operate only over WiFi. The tags that aren’t in the WiFi range will not be detected, won’t prove much useful for the hospital processes.
• Owing to the maintenance needs and high prices of active tags, they are usually employed only in costly mobile assets or complex patient processes like staff monitoring, infant security, etc.

Final Verdict:

RFID technology comes with a huge potential to assist medical organizations, hospitals, clinics, pharmaceutical producers, biotechnology companies, etc. Besides this, the RFID innovation has opened new doors for enhanced operational efficiency, better security, and improved cost savings by tagging stocks, patient data, personnel records, and other assets.

However, despite providing so many advantages, the adoption of RFID technology has not yet taken up speed in the majority of healthcare facilities. As of now, these systems are being used in countries like the USA, Japan, UK, France, Spain, Italy, etc. But, this revolutionary technology needs to be implemented furthermore.

That’s it for now.

Hope it was insightful.

Please comment below to share your thoughts on the aforesaid topic.

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Step-by-step Guidance on How to Proceed from an App Idea to a Prototype!

The journey from app ideation to prototyping - checking the relevance of the app idea before jump-starting the app development process - is one of the most crucial milestones for crafting an impeccable application. The reasons are:

• App owners get a better perspective about the purpose of the proposed app and its target audience.
• It helps in keeping the designer and the app owner on the same wavelength regarding the app design and ensures that the idea is implemented as intended.
• It helps in identifying and resolving the potential usability problems.
• It provides a competitive advantage while you pitch your app to potential investors.

However, to successfully prototype an app, you must be aware of the right steps. So, I have penned down the key steps involved in prototyping an application.

App Ideation to Prototyping: Key Steps

Pre-prototyping Stages

Prior to prototyping, check whether your app idea is financially promising and technically feasible.

1. Defining the Objective

The crucial questions concerning app ideation that should be answered during this stage are:

What’s the app’s objective?

Does the app fulfill any specific consumer/business requirements?

So, the very first step is capturing the app idea and visually representing it on a piece of paper. Paper prototyping should be kept simple without using any colors, or art and should include only a rough list of the doodles or features of the UI of the envisioned app. This is a rough visualization of the app idea that will be recreated as well as refined into digital format during the later stages.

2. Mobile Market Analysis

For validating the effectiveness of your concept, one should conduct a mobile market analysis for understanding the following particulars:

• The present demand for the proposed application
• The upsides and downsides of existing apps that target the same set of audience

This stage determines whether the idea is effective, is capable of competing with similar apps existing in the market and whether the app launch timings are suitable for its success.

3. Creating Relevant testing Personas

The next step is to create relevant types of personas for subsequent testing processes. These personas represent the preferences, predicted behavior, values, etc. of the would-be app users.

Prototyping Stages

1. Wireframing

A wireframe is a simplified, low fidelity outline of the proposed end-product comprising of words, lines, boxes, and even descriptions. It is simply the structure of the app designed by first formulating the requirements. User flows (the sequence of actions needed by the end-user for reaching their destination) are created for every major feature of the app. Wireframes are created either on paper or using the graphics editor software. Check out the key steps.

• Design positive workflows: Conduct a rough mock-up for each screen, using tools like Sketch, Figma, Adobe, Balsamiq, or Illustrator. Thereafter, organize the screens into flows by adding arrows and comments for example – Click the button ‘A’ for opening screen ‘B’.

• Add error screens: When the end-users fail to achieve their objective, error screens inform them about the occurrence of an error or the failure of an action.

2. Static Prototype: Creation and Testing

Now, develop a static prototype based on the outcome of wireframing. This stage can be executed alongside wireframing as well. Its prime intention is to establish and display the transitions amongst app pages.

The next step is conducting the A/B testing of this prototype. It involves creating interactive prototypes and sharing them with software industry veterans, volunteering individuals, and various personas that represent the app’s target audience. User testing helps in receiving feedback on the app’s crucial usability aspects such as:

• Is there any element hampering the app’s functionality?
• Are the UI element texts easily understandable?
• Are the users able to conveniently navigate through the interface layout?
• Can the end-users effectively use the UI to execute intended actions?

Prototyping helps the investors get a real view and feel of the product. It allows the testers to get an idea about the app’s usability, and the developers to be well-versed with the intended UX prior to finalizing the design.

3. Revamping the Prototype

This stage involves resolving the flaws detected and revamping the app based on the testers’ feedback. This ensures that the app’s functioning is intuitive and convenient, and the app becomes more attractive to potential end-users in the future. Once this stage is completed, the prototype comes back to the testing stage and this cycle goes on till satisfactory outcomes are achieved.

4. Finalizing the Design

Once all parties approve of the prototype, the app’s UI design is finalized. This includes finalizing the app idea, the shape of buttons, etc., and achieving a consensus on the use of colors. After the design creation process is completed, testing is conducted for checking the validity of the selected UI solutions and the appearance of the visual elements.

5. Product Demo

Now, it’s time to combine screens into a prototype; either a clickable one or one with arrows; for demonstrating it to the clients or potential investors. Remember to be transparent with them about whether the prototype is the actual functioning product or not. The key points to highlight in the demo meeting are:

• Clarity about the proposed application
• The reason why it’s a profitable investment option
• A pitch that displays the business model, problem, and solution
• The app’s prototype to make them walk through the future app.

After the demo, the customers would wish to make certain changes. These requested changes should be executed at the earliest and arrange for another demo. Once, the clients are satisfied, the finalized user flows are handed over to the developers for preparing the cost estimate.

Bottomline

Prototyping is undoubtedly a crucial aspect of the project planning stage and app creators shouldn’t ignore its importance.

Having trouble transforming your app idea into a fully functional app? Contact Biz4Solutions, a highly experienced offshore app development company. It is a leading firm offering mobile app development services that will be your technology partner all through your app development project.

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