Healthcare applications have been on the rise, especially with a heightened interest of the people in maintaining good health post COVID. Entrepreneurs and startup founders have been quick to hop on this increase in interest and provide customized solutions in the form of healthcare applications.
Healthcare app development can be done with native application development or cross-platform. The former type of development is better because of its ability to speed up the development process, reduce the cost, and address different audiences.
Every cross-platform development technology offers similar benefits. These include reusability, faster time to market, native-like UI, compatibility with different platforms, API access, and higher performance. But this also makes the decision to choose the right platform for healthcare app development complex. Well, that’s where we come in to make things easier for you.
Top Cross Development Platform Technologies
Flutter
Flutter is the first choice for cross-platform app development in many industries, including healthcare. Developed by Google, Flutter did not take much time to bypass some established technologies to reach the top.
This platform is based on Dart (its own language) and works on the BLoC architecture. The BLoC architecture is specifically helpful in handling large amounts of data and applications with sophisticated architecture.
Healthcare applications that are focused on great UI/UX (which is the case with almost every end-user application) will prefer using Flutter due to its ability to build native-like interfaces. Flutter gives access to Cupertino for iOS and Material for Android, which houses specific and native UI/UX elements for their respective platforms.
React Native:
Built by Facebook, React Native is also known for its potent features and functionality addressing the specific needs of iOS and Android applications. While React Native is still under development, ReactJS development Services practices can also be integrated into creating a healthcare application.
One of the benefits of React Native is that it can seriously reduce the weight of an application while ensuring a performant outcome and responsive UI. Building the application with React Native also means you will get impressive navigability and gesture handling capabilities.
The difference between React Native and Flutter is that you can easily find developers to work with React Native. As Flutter is based on Dart, there aren’t many developers, which limits your choice.
Xamarin
The third cross-platform technology for healthcare app development is Xamarin, and it’s the brainchild of Microsoft. So, until now, we have three biggest IT companies in the world creating and providing a solution to execute cross-platform applications development.
Xamarin is based on C#, and it has been put into practice within the Microsoft community. With the highly integrated and in-depth Xamarin SDK, you will get support for iOS, macOS, Android, Android, watchOS, etc., devices.
Similar to other cross-platform development platforms, Xamarin also provides code reusability. But what’s better here is that Xamarin has 90% code reusability. Xamarin also provides access to native API platforms for Android and iOS.
With this, the developers can integrate platform-specific functions and features on an application built with Xamarin.
Ionic
Healthcare app development requires expertise in the technical aspects of programming and a deep understanding of the healthcare industry rules, including HIPAA. With this in mind, healthcare solutions that must implement everything according to HIPAA rules will find better support in Ionic.
Ionic handles all the data and development aspects perfectly well. In addition to this, it also provides better security and data protection abilities specifically catering to HIPAA compliances.
The multi-layered and front end security setup integrated within Ionic protects the user’s data and prevents breaches. Such a setting is essential to promote a healthcare application as health-related data and details represents the epitome of privacy.
Why Choose a Cross-Platform Technology for Development?
Healthcare app development with cross-platform technology has proven benefits. Most of all, as healthcare applications generate tons of data, the administrators need a solution that can successfully process that data without compromising on the output and results.
Second, these platforms offer an efficient security net, ensuring data integrity, protection, and unauthorized access. Besides these two benefits, other advantages of cross-platform healthcare app development are;
Shareable Code
Since you will be writing the code once and can share it to build the same application for iOS and Android, it saves the time and cost required to build the application.
Native-Like UI/UX
Cross-platform application development offers the same native interface and design as you will get with native application development.
Using an application built with a cross-platform technology like React Native or with a native technology like Objective-C offers a similar outcome in terms of the look and feel of the application.
Better Market Outreach
Imagine developing an application for iOS users first and then doing the same for Android users separately. On the other hand, another company built a similar application but for both types of users at once.
Compared to your application, the other company has higher chances of success because more people can use their solution.
Test and Measure Performance
Measuring an app’s performance is essential. Gathering data, user feedback, logging performance issues, etc., helps to know the app’s working status and problems faced by the users.
Conclusion
The choice between native and cross-platform application development must be made after gaining a comprehensive understanding of both systems. With reference to healthcare app development, using cross-platform technology means spending less money and time on creating the solution.
Plus, you will address the audiences using different mobile operating systems at once, including Android and iOS. Where code reusability saves time and cost, easy maintenance and cloud integration make the code scalable and more adaptable according to the requirements.