The rapid proliferation of social sharing has changed how patients search for and choose healthcare providers. More and more patients check websites for healthcare professionals before reaching the doctor. And even more, people check all available reviews before scheduling an appointment. So medical website development for a clinic becomes a must-have. Creating HIPAA compliant healthcare websites for patients and doctors with a fresh look and updated features for your healthcare organization can be exciting.
In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare, the fusion of innovation and digitalization has become integral to the success of medical practices. Embracing the essence of medical website development and design, healthcare professionals can transcend traditional boundaries and unlock new dimensions of patient engagement and service delivery.
This article explores the transformative impact of cutting-edge healthcare web development, shedding light on how medical website development is not merely a technological upgrade but a strategic imperative for practices aiming to thrive in the modern healthcare ecosystem. Starting with medical website development, it becomes evident that a well-crafted online presence is more than a digital façade; it is a catalyst for enhancing patient experiences.
90%
90% of patients use online reviews to evaluate physicians.
80%
80% of consumers trust online reviews as much as personal recommendations.
77%
77% of patients use online reviews as their first step in finding a new doctor.
Why Do You Need An Up-To-Date Medical Website Development and Design
Patients prefer to search for doctors, even when being referred to them by another physician. Having a website organizes your online presence, thus lending credibility. Listing the education, showing successful treatment cases (most suitable for dermatologists), facilities, and offering real reviews increases trust and retention rates.
Increase Revenue
Websites increase revenue. Offering features like request appointments and new patient registration on your website makes the booking process for your patients twice easier. This helps reduce waiting time and convert users to patients faster.
Influence Your Online Reputation and Digital Footprint
Creating a self-titled domain name can become the strongest online asset. It works especially well when you focus on SEO (search engine optimization) to get quality traffic.
Having a website allows clinics to directly affect reputation – proper SEO will inform search engines that you are a trusted source of information, so you will appear on the first pages of Google.
Medical Website Use Cases for Healthcare Professionals | Trends
Lends Credibility
Alongside the benefits we covered above, there are other tasks that medical facilities – whether you run a clinic, a hospital, a lab, or a personal practice — can perform easier and more effectively when building a medical website. Below you will see some of them:
Seamless Doctor-Patient Communication
A website for clinics allows patients to communicate seamlessly with doctors. The appointment-booking feature makes it easy for patients to find a suitable date and schedule an appointment without calling the clinic or waiting for hours just to get a basic answer from a hospital.
In addition, websites can provide telemedicine features. This will allow patients to chat or have a video call with doctors. This reduces half of unnecessary personal visits and reduces the load of medical staff.
Automation of Certain Features
A ChatGPt bot can bring higher efficiency compared to human employees when it comes to some actions. Let’s take as an example customer support. Human employees aren’t able to be at work 24/7, while chatbots powered by machine learning and natural language processing technologies can gather a lot of information and provide relevant answers to patients that need help all day around.
Websites can also ask patients to fill out an online form before an appointment so the medical staff can check it later. Maintaining proper design, sorting, and form-filling features, no form will be lost during the process – and doctors won’t need to work with countless papers to find information on one patient or a case.
Educational Content
Having a website as a clinic means you will be able to educate patients. Your website will work as a reliable source of information for patients so they don’t need to look for symptoms or google their diseases in search engines and social networks.
Websites for Healthcare Professionals | Trends
Digital Records of Conditions and Prescriptions
Digitization has greatly affected the healthcare space. E-prescriptions, remote patient monitoring, and online records management have reduced a lot of hassles associated with cataloging and maintaining physical copies.
As a result, clinics have achieved higher accuracy, faster diagnosis, preventative treatment, and reduced paperwork. Forgetting to bring prescriptions or changing a healthcare provider isn’t a problem anymore – all data is collected in one digital ecosystem, making the care process easier for both sides
According to a survey by the American Medical Association, virtual physician visits scaled to 80% in 2022 from 14% in 2016.
Multi-Omic Technology
Precision medicine is a growing trend in medicine in 2023. Personalization, in general, is what modern consumers love – whether it is in the healthcare sphere or any other. And multi-omic technology is what drives the demand.
This technology offers insights into the smallest changes at a molecular level in a living being. The result? Preventative medicine. This technology is able to understand early symptoms, changes, and health impacts, diagnosing patients at much earlier stages of conditions.
IoMT Technology
Thanks to the growing wellness awareness, patients are now more responsible for their health. Most people try to prioritize both their physical and mental health. That is where IoMT technology and wearable health-tracking devices come into the picture. They enable healthier lifestyle choices and keep track of health deficits among COPD patients.
In addition to tracking health vitals, there are wearable devices specially designed for more specific cases. For example, glucose monitoring systems, cardiovascular disease management devices, as well as ECG monitors.
AI Assistants
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a hot trend. While AI can replace humans in some industries and specific cases, AI can work only as a handy assistant in the healthcare industry. That is why it is already used in some clinics to simplify and enhance human effort and accuracy. For example, as a part of customer support or educational portal in case a doctor cannot answer yet and the clinic doesn’t want to lose a potential client.
Telehealth
Telehealth was adopted in the days of the pandemic, yet it is here to stay. Telehealth allows doctors to chat with patients regardless of their location. Telehealth applications provide real-time solutions for patients in case of emergency. Simultaneously, this technology reduces costs incurred by clinics and rushes at healthcare organizations.
HIPAA, PIPEDA, and GDPR for a Healthcare Website Development
GDPR
HIPAA
PIPEDA
GDPR
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR for short). This regulation was adopted by the European Union. It affects all individuals and businesses that collect, process, and keep personal data of EU citizens.
GDPR Principles
All the principles of GDPR IT compliance are based on 6 privacy principles from Chapter 2:
Lawfulness, fairness, and transparency;
- Purpose limitation;
- Data minimization;
- Data accuracy;
- Storage limitation;
- Integrity and confidentiality of data.
HIPAA
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA for short). This act is used to standardize health data protection and management in the U.S.
The official version of the regulation is here.
Key Elements of HIPAA
HIPAA compliance simply means being compliant with its 5 main rules – US standards for collecting, storing, processing, and transferring PHI. These rules are what make the regulation:
- Privacy Rule;
- Security Rule;
- Breach Notification Rule;
- Enforcement Rule;
- Patient Safety Rule.
PIPEDA
The Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA). This privacy law was adopted in 2000 in Canada. The law introduces a set of consumer privacy standards making this law similar to GDPR.
Key elements of PIPEDA
This Canadian privacy law consists of 10 main principles that make up the core of the document. And these principles are similar to GDPR ones:
- Accountability;
- Purpose;
- Consent;
- Limitations;
- Duration;
- Accuracy;
- Protection;
- Transparency;
- Access;
- Challenge.
Medical Web Development | Key Considerations Before Starting
There are a few things that you should pay attention to when building a medical website to stay on the safe side of the law and to reach your ROI goals.
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Compliance and Security
As mentioned earlier, businesses operating with information should be compliant with several rules and laws. Healthcare organizations are among those who store and transfer sensitive data, so the website should be compliant with HIPAA and HITECH Act regulations.
We recommend starting with choosing a HIPAA-compliant cloud service provider (it could be either AWS, Google, or Microsoft). It is also crucial to discuss all possible regulations you may fall under with your development team. It could be:
- Encryption of data at rest and in sync;
- Data integration in healthcare;
- Use of secure connection;
- Access rights management;
- Active session expiration.
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Accessibility
Websites should be developed to support people with special needs. When it comes to healthcare, medical websites should be compliant with accessibility guidelines.
W3C Accessibility Standards are methods to present web content and technical specifications. Start off by exploring these standards before the development.
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Customer-Centric Design
Your patients and their needs are what you should focus on when building a medical website – the UX and UI must adapt to their routines and organize an effortless understanding of the site’s functionality.
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Interoperability
Digital platforms are not existing in a vacuum today. They should always be able to exchange data with other services. For example, EHR systems or healthcare APIs. Therefore make sure that your web architecture should account for mechanisms so the software can pull data from integrated sources and send data to other systems.
Healthcare Website Development | Key Components
Frontend and Backend part
- The frontend part is everything your patients interact with on a screen.
- The backend part is everything transmitting, processing, and storing data.
Developing the front-end part of the websites involves designing and coding user-friendly interfaces. In our case, your team will develop a website for the browser, but you can also consider building a PWA (progressive web app) – a mobile app that is working on mobile phones even when offline and is developed using a web tech stack.
Website Design for Healthcare | Best Practices
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Visual design:
Use a clean and professional theme that aligns with the clinic’s branding. Incorporate a soothing color palette and images that evoke trust, convey a healthcare environment, and create a positive impression. Utilize appropriate typography, font sizes, and contrast ratios to ensure readability for all users, including those with visual impairments.
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User-friendly navigation:
Ensure that the website has a clear and intuitive navigation structure so that visitors can easily find the information they are looking for. Use clear headings and menu items to guide users.
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Clear and prominent call-to-action buttons:
Make it easy for users to take action, such as scheduling an appointment or contacting the clinic, by using clear and prominent call-to-action buttons throughout the website.
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Intuitive search functionality:
Include a search bar that allows users to quickly find specific information or services within the website.
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Accessibility:
Ensure that the website follows accessibility guidelines, making it usable for individuals with disabilities. This includes providing alternative text for images, proper heading structures, and keyboard navigation options.
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Mobile responsiveness:
Many users access websites from their mobile devices, so it is crucial to design a responsive website that adapts to different screen sizes. This will improve the overall user experience and accessibility.
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Mobile-friendly forms:
Ensure that any forms on the website are mobile-friendly and easy to fill out on smartphones or tablets.
4 Must-Have Pages and Information to Place on the Medical Website
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Home page
Also known as a landing page, this is where your patients will end up when opening a link in search engines. This is the first page they will see, so it works as an introduction to your services and should always meet all standards in terms of usage and design. The main page usually contains the following parts:
- A header (menu on the top of the screen) where patients can explore all services you offer in more detail or use it as a navigation
- A footer (on the bottom of the screen) where patients can explore your email, phone number, and location.
- Main services you offer.
- Operating hours.
- CTA – whether to book a call, schedule an appointment, or perform an action you want them to.
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Location and contact information
While this data should also be in the footer (mentioned above), it will make sense to duplicate it and provide it more comprehensively directly on the main page + a map is always a good practice to follow.
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Credentials and work experience
Create a separate landing page where you will list all credentials, case studies, work experience of each doctor, and similar information that can grow trust and patient loyalty. Here you can also add reviews, but creating a new landing page is also a way to go.
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Pricing
When searching for a clinic or a doctor, patients tend to compare services and prices. So not leaving prices available for them to view will reduce your chances of being selected. Create a separate landing page where you list prices on different services (even when they are approximate).
Also known as a landing page, this is where your patients will end up when opening a link in search engines. This is the first page they will see, so it works as an introduction to your services and should always meet all standards in terms of usage and design. The main page usually contains the following parts:
- A header (menu on the top of the screen) where patients can explore all services you offer in more detail or use it as a navigation
- A footer (on the bottom of the screen) where patients can explore your email, phone number, and location.
- Main services you offer.
- Operating hours.
- CTA – whether to book a call, schedule an appointment, or perform an action you want them to.
6 Must-Have Features of Medical Website Development
While you can develop a website with only basic features, the only way to stand out from the crowd is to provide a personalized user experience. And this is only possible when following the latest trends and best practices for healthcare mobile app development. While we will talk about them layer, let’s quickly get through the list of main features every medical website should come up with:
Individual Patient Profiles
Patients booking an appointment or being your regular customers should have an opportunity to create their personal profiles. While this will work for them as a place to explore e-prescriptions, diagnosis, and upcoming visits, you will also use this profile as a way to quickly gather data for paperless work.
Appointment Scheduling
If your goal is to reduce unnecessary work of front desk employees and increase revenue, then offering a feature of appointment booking is a must-have. This feature will let your patients schedule a visit by choosing the needed doctor, service, and date without calling the clinic and waiting for hours for the appointments to be finally approved.
Reminders
Reminders help patients to keep track of upcoming visits. They can also notify patients when a doctor sends new information regarding their health, when patients need to take their medications, or when their e-prescription is expiring.
Search and Filter Functionality
A smart search feature will let your patients easily find what they came for. No one likes the idea of searching for the needed data without any clue whether it can be found – so make sure the filter works as it should be, and patients can easily understand the search functionality.
Chat and Video Functionality
When it comes to telehealth and telemedicine, offering chat and video consultations is a must-have. While you can also ignore this feature and allow patients only offline visits even when booked online, enabling them to contact a doctor through chat or video opens up new revenue streams and reduces operational costs.
Payments
Knowing the issues with payment systems in the medical domain, you may also consider adding payment features to the website. This has already been shown to reduce paper payment-related issues, human mistakes and make the overall process for patients twice as easy as before.
- Strategy Creation;
- Prototype Development;
- Development & Testing;
- Deployment;
- Maintenance.
Step 1: Strategy Creation
First of all, you need to explore your customers’ needs, analyze competitors, and set priorities in terms of ROI goals.
Depending on the progress you achieve on this step, Interexy also helps here with the following:
- Defining a suitable business model;
- Defining the product’s technical components;
- Create a rough version of the roadmap;
- Identify key features and extra functionality based on business objectives.
By the end of this step, we will provide the following:
- The summary of the business model and development plan;
- A detailed list of features and technical site components (being prioritized);
- Strategic roadmap.
Step 2: Prototype Development
The prototyping stage involves fleshing out the UI and overall user experience. For that, we start off by validating the design healthcare app ideas.
Making changes at this step is cheaper than at the coding stage. Here we can also easily discover flaws in order to optimize the solution based on your feedback.
Step 3: Development & Testing
Although the development and testing process is custom, here is a bird-eye-view of how it may look like:
- Project Manager
Project processes setup, budget & time coordination, estimation, and team management.
- Business Analyst
Market and target audience analysis, backlog specification, MVP definition, and requirements for the project.
- Solution Architect & Developers
Technical requirements analysis, consulting, solution architecture definition, integration analysis, tech stack finalization, estimation, team support, and development.
- UX/UI Designer
Product concept elaboration, mood board creation, design system creation, and designs.
- QA Engineer
Identification and elimination of mistakes and errors in code before its release to customers.
Step 4: Deployment
Deployment involves shipping a tested product to a production environment (public-facing servers) and then uploading a product to the App Store and Google Play when required.
Step 5: Maintenance
Once the website is launched, you will still need to keep track of the following:
- Overall app stability;
- User feedback;
- New features.
Cost For Medical Website Development | 5 Pricing Factors to Consider
The cost of medical website development will depend on many factors. However, it is still possible to calculate a general cost by breaking down average pricing and industry standards.
- Small Medical Website: $3,000 – $10,000
- Medium-sized Hospital Website: $10,000 – $40,000
- Large Healthcare Network Website: $50,000 – $200,000
These are key factors that will affect the final price.
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1 Custom or Template-Based Design
- Custom design means creating a unique layout tailored to the business objectives and medical practice, so it tends to be more expensive.
- Template-based means the use of pre-designed templates that potentially could be customized, so it is a cheaper option.
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2 Responsive Design for Mobile Devices
Responsive design means your website will be adapted to mobile use in case your patients use mobile phones over laptops to search for your services.
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3 Features and Functionalities
The cost also depends on website complexity. You can use the basic features we listed above or go on with a more interactive and feature-rich website. The first case will be cheaper; the second option may incur higher costs.
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4 Chosen CMS Platform
The most popular CMS platforms for medical website development include WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and Squarespace. The cost differs, but your chosen medical development provider should help you choose the cost-effective one based on several factors:
- Ease of use;
- Scalability;
- Security;
- Budget.
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5 Payment Gateways and Billing Systems
If you plan to integrate your website with secure payment gateways and online billing systems, it will incur additional costs.
Ensure the Success of Your Medical Website Development with Interexy
How to Choose a Medical Website Design and Development Company
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Determine the requirements (purpose, deadline, budget, etc.). When narrowing down your options, you will be able to choose a provider that fully meets your needs.
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Ensure that the medical development provider has relevant expertise in the field (ask for case studies or perform a code review).
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Check methodology and cooperation models. Most clients now work with Agile methodology, so it is best to explore what methodology a company you choose uses. In addition, check what cooperation models the company has to offer – team augmentation, outstaff, and outsourcing.
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Check communication. It is always best to choose a medical software development company with good communication skills.
Healthcare Web Development FAQs
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How long does it take to develop a medical website?
Websites tend to be developed faster compared to mobile apps. But it always depends on how complex the website will be, whether you will use templates, custom, or off-the-shelf solutions during the process. Interexy requires 5-7 months on average to develop a top-notch medical website.
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What can a medical website design company offer after creating a healthcare website?
Developing a website is just half of the process. Interexy, as a trusted telemedicine app development company, strives to develop long-term relationships with customers. As a result, we help with website maintenance to keep tabs on performance and quickly resolve any issues that arise.
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Will I receive regular updates while the site is being developed?
This will depend on the chosen development company. Regardless of the selected cooperation model, Interexy always keeps clients informed regarding each stage of the project, gathering clients’ feedback and implementing timely changes so they won’t affect the cost by the end of the development process. You can choose to be fully involved, half involved in the process, or even manage the team by yourself or your in-house project manager – the choice is always up to you!
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What should a healthcare website include?
Features and pages your healthcare website will be packed with depend on many factors. However, there are some pages and information that every medical website should include. These are the main page, the service page, client testimonials, contact information, email address, and so on.
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What are the basic features of a medical website?
The basic features of a medical website are individual patient profiles, appointment bookings, reminders, filters, and searches. Although these are the most basic features that an average medical website needs, we recommend considering adding more interactive features to improve user experience.