Telehealth for Dogs: Step-by-Step Guide to Develop a Veterinary App for Pets

January 31, 2024 14 min read
Telehealth for Dogs - Veterinary App

Telehealth has seen incredible growth since 2020. The Pandemic saw fewer in-person checkups due to fear of contracting the virus. At this very moment, the telehealthcare industry saw a tremendous boost. A review of the situation in 2021 saw that the telehealthcare industry had grown 38x after the Pandemic as compared to the pre-pandemic statistics.

Veterinary Telehealth Market Size, Share & Trends Analysis Report By Animal Type (Canine), By Service Type (Telemedicine), By Region (North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, Latin America, MEA), And Segment Forecasts, 2023 - 2030

It is estimated that about $250 billion (McKinsey) will be invested in the virtual healthcare industry. While the Pandemic and post-pandemic were concerning for humans, it was worse for pets. Several dog parents had to identify ways to connect with their vets to ensure the perfect health of their dogs.

This paved the way for the telehealth for dogs idea. Several vets have enlisted to support virtual healthcare and ensure that dogs receive their medicines and treatments at the right time.

The veterinary apps allow the owners of the pets and their doctors to connect quickly, and at a convenient time without engaging in long queues or wait times. This has intensified the experiences.

This blog will discuss the benefits of a veterinary application, the existing types and the top few apps in the market. We would also love to discuss the crucial vet app development steps.

Current Veterinary Telehealth Market Scenario

1. The pet care market is estimated to reach $359 billion in revenue by 2027 (PRNewsWire).

2. The Veterinary telehealth market size was valued at $149.5 million in 2022 (GrandViewResearch).

Telehealth: A quarter-trillion-dollar post-COVID-19 reality?

3. Leading companies are entering this segment with their vet healthcare services. Practo is one such company that released its version of the telehealth service.

4. The rise in telehealth solutions for pets can be attributed to the growing zoonotic and chronic diseases among animals. At least 1 million cases are registered every year.

Let’s look at why more people are calling for veterinary applications. This section will help you understand how they are useful to you.

Benefits of a Veterinary App

Here is why you need a veterinary application to improve services of telehealth for dogs.

Benefits of a Veterinary App

1. Efficient Services

When you employ veterinary applications, you can improve the process efficiency. The process is conducted manually, from booking appointments to offering solutions and after-service invoices. This can delay the solutions, and increase the frustration among the pet owners. The application will ensure that everything is processed via the software, minimising process delays.

2. Increased Patient Interaction

When in-person services were the only way of treating patients, it took a lot of time. Most often, it reduces patient intake tremendously. While a doctor could see more than one patient, they were stuck with one because they had to follow the timelines strictly.

With telehealth chat and voice services, doctors can connect with more patients, and help them out. The travel time is reduced, and the interactions are smoother.

3. Improved Services

The vets can cater to more services by offering pet parents the required education and affiliating themselves with online stores. They can offer to solve numerous issues within a generalist or specialist category. Along with taking up more cases, the vets can expand their services too. For instance, they can cater to big and small animals.

4. Gamified Services

To encourage more retention and ensure better acquisitions, the vets can offer gamified services to their patients. They can offer reward points, loyalty programs and other such solutions that will help the patients come back repeatedly.

For instance, allowing the person to buy dog food or medicines from the app can reduce their headache. This would increase their retention. similarly, the prescription-to-buy process inside the application can remove the frustrations and increase patient engagement.

Features that you cannot avoid in Vet App

It is very crucial for businesses planning veterinary telemedicine apps to define the right features. Here are all the features that you should incorporate into your business app.

Features that you cannot avoid in Vet App

1. Profile and Health Record Management

This feature is important as it can help the vets manage the entire health history of the dog patients. The profile creation feature will help the dog owner add all the details regarding the dog. For instance, their age, breed, medical history and other aspects.

Whenever a vet adds any detail regarding the dog’s health, it gets added to the history. This electronic health record can be accessed by any vet, which will allow them to get complete details of the dog’s health history and current medical condition.

2. Managing Crucial Medical Documents

This feature allows your end users to save all the documents related to animal health. You will find the exact details if they have prescriptions from the doctor or have taken x-rays that need to be added. This can ensure a smooth transfer of documents.

When you consult a vet via telehealth services, you can easily share your records and get the exact solution when you consult a vet via telehealth services. The treatment plans can begin without delay in this case. This is one of the most significant features of your vet application.

3. Find the Clinic

It is very important to find clinics in some cases, as your dog needs in-person treatment. You might want to look for emergency services in your area. The vet application will allow you to search and find the apt veterinary clinic based on the services they offer, ratings and doctor type. You will always find someone reliable and experienced via the application.

4. Digital Notes Taking

This is important for the doctors who are accessing the vet application. Sometimes, while they are offering telehealth solutions, they need to note down the issues, symptoms and current treatment plan. At the same time, they need to make note of all the suggestions they plan to offer along with the diet plan.

The note-taking feature will allow them to jot down all the important points and provide it when needed.

5. Find the Doctor

An important feature that allows you to find the doctors available during your time. you can search or filter by the slots you are looking at. You add a few more filters and look for doctors who offer particular services at the time.

Lastly, make sure to look for experience, rates and other aspects before selecting the doctor.

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6. Appointment Scheduling

The app should allow users to book an appointment with the vet of their choice from the app. You can select your mode of appointment- in-person, chat or video call. The time and other details should be set to your preference. Once the appointment is booked, you should get notified via SMS.

7. In-app Chat or Video Call

The Telehealth for Dogs app should allow customers to connect with doctors via video calls or chats. They should integrate with the device-specific components to complete the conversation. In case you want to show specific issues that your dog is facing (any externally noticeable symptoms), you might want to opt for video calls.

With the video call option, the health practitioners can record the videos and use them to diagnose and send your treatment plan.

8. In-app Notifications

The push notifications will let the patient or doctor know about the recent updates made to the app. For instance, if there is a response to the chat, an invoice is generated or a message to refill the dog’s medicine, the in-app notification will make the announcement. This can help dog owners to stay at the helm of their dog’s health.

9. In-app Payments

The dog owners should be able to pay the doctor’s fee online via the integrated payment gateways. It is important for the vet applications to offer all payment solutions including UPis and wallets to ease the payment systems.

10. Health Monitoring

The patients can use the app to monitor the dog’s heart rate, feeding and diet to ensure their good health. It can help keep track of the number of times they need to be fed, their water intake and other details.

Read More: How Artificial Intelligence Works in Healthcare?

Types of Vet Apps

Let’s take a look at some of the popular vet app types.

Popular Vet App Types

1. On-demand Vet Medicine App

This is an on-demand application, where you can schedule visits or telemedicine services whenever you need them. for instance, if your dog is not feeling well right now, you can schedule a meeting with your doctor immediately, without any delay.

2. The On-demand Marketplaces

This is where you will meet multiple vets who offer treatments to dogs. You can choose to consult more than one vet and seek their advice on your dog’s health. You don’t need to move out of the house to consult the vet.

3. Educational Mobile Solutions

You can build these vet app type that allows you to educate your pet owner and show them how to take care of their dog. This would involve parenting, diet and health-related articles and products.

4. The Practice Management Software

This is a software solution that you create for the veterinarian. They can use it to schedule appointments, improve billing and ensure streamlined assistance in the virtual world. This will help improve their decision-making through data-backed insights. The vet calculators are also great ways to manage the calorie and other calculations important for veterinary medicine. 

5. The Job Board Application

In case the vet clinic needs more hands on deck, they can use this app to post their requirement and seek immediate recruitment services. It is an important part of the telehealth services. 

6. Inventory Management Solution

As a doctor, it is very important for them to manage the inventory and keep the supplies up to date. The smooth management of inventory can ensure that the processes in the clinic are smooth and streamlined. 

7. Remote Monitoring

This is the type of app that allows doctors and even dog owners to keep a real-time check on their dog’s health. It will help ensure that the dog receives timely treatments as and when needed 

3 Most Popular Vet Apps

Here are all the top vet apps that you should know.

Top 3 Vet Apps

#1 Pet Pro Connect

This is one of the most vetted applications that connects dog owners with their vets. Dog owners can manage all their pet’s care and health-related aspects from a single place.

1. You can make appointments anywhere using the mobile app

2. All the health records are maintained in a single place

3. Easy to place appointments

4. Automated confirmations and follow-ups

5. Access the medical records and health history

6. In-app payments for all your services

#2 Televet

This is yet another top-notch vet application that makes dog owner’s life easy and hassle-free. This is also one of the best vet management applications, as it handles all the processes

1. Instant medical refills from within the app

2. Appointment scheduling and follow-ups

3. Automate your repetitive tasks for process efficiency

4. Get the clients to fill out questionnaires for better treatment plans and quicker resolutions

5. Integrate with all your software solutions for better data management

#3 PetDesk

This is the vet management software that enables smooth client communication and enhances internal processes.

1. Manage your loyalty programs

2. Create and manage invoices for the patients

3. Improve revenue generation for your vet clinic

4. Handle inventories and improve the supply chain with integrated systems

5. Automate communication with the right tools

It is important to define the budget of your vet application before you move to build the actual solution. 

Read More: Healthcare App Development: A Complete Guide

Cost of Developing a Pet App

This section will look at the overall cost of developing a vet app. We will also consider the top things to consider when building the application.

The average cost of building a veterinary application is $25000.

We will look at the cost breakdown, the technology stack and other details needed to build the vet app.

The Development Time

It is crucial to note the development time when calculating the cost. The front end and backend together will take around 400 hours of developer time. This will include feature addition, creating the client-facing interface and the logic.

This will increase or decrease depending on the number of features you wish to add to the mobile application.

The total time taken to build the UX would be around 60 hours. The testing and documentation would take another 100 to 120 hours.

The total time taken would be 580-600 hours.

The Developer’s Hourly Rate

Depending on the location, you can define the hourly charges. If the developer is from the US, the hourly charges would be around $100 to $250. However, if the developer is from India, the rate would be $70.

If you multiply the developer rates by the total hours, you would get the budget estimate.

The total cost of app development also depends on the expertise of the developer. If you are choosing a senior developer, the hourly charges are high. However, if the developer is fresher, the rates would go down.

Similarly, you also need to consider the experience and skill set of the offshore development company you are planning to outsource your app development too.

3 Main Steps to Building a Streamlined Vet Application

If you want to build a vet application, it is very important to define the workflow and determine the process. Here are three crucial steps that guarantee the success of your mobile application development.

Step#1: Product-market Fit

Determining a product-market fit is important if you want to develop a successful mobile application to offer telemedicine. Check if your market is ready to adopt the mobile app you are building. Know if they will embrace and use the solution.

Learn from the market the issues they are facing, and whether the solution you are offering will fill the gaps. These essential movements can help you plan a solution that will help increase business acquisitions.

Step#2: Choose the Team

The right team can help translate the idea and the workflow into a usable solution. If you haven’t considered the team yet, it is time to start working on it. Choose the appropriate designers, developers, consultants, and analysts with the right knowledge and skillset to drive mobile application development.

The people are the force behind developing the pet health application and deriving the apt solution.

Step#3: Prioritize the UX Design

The user experience is key to translating any design into a usable and accessible solution. you should ensure that all users find the app easy to use and intuitive. The UX designers will sit with the research team to understand users’ mobile app behavior, and know their consumption patterns before determining the apt design strategies.

Here are some of the regulations you should check when building your virtual vets app. Agreeing with them might be important for your application.

Regulations to Follow in Your Vet App

Here are all the regulations to follow when developing the vet app 

1. FFDCA: This is the US Federal Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act, which is an important regulation for all diagnosis and remote treatment applications.

2. HIPAA: Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act helps keep patient records safe and private. It ensures the privacy of the dog owners and the vets.

3. AVMA: American Veterinary Medical Association is the regulation that helps bind the vet-client-patient relationship in tele and in-person situations. This is an important regulation for apps for veterinarians.

Conclusion

Telehealth for pets applications is gaining popularity. It can help your dogs get the treatment they require immediately. it offers comprehensive treatment plans to the dogs and ensures the dog owners need not step out unless absolutely necessary.

From managing health records to improving real-time monitoring, the dog app can help owners in several ways. it can also enhance the vet’s capability to manage their practice. 

Expert App Devs is a leading telehealth app development company with expertise in vet apps for dogs. Our developers have extensive expertise in telehealth solutions. If you want to build a telehealth application, connect with our team.

Read More: Telemedicine App Development: 12 Must-Include Features for Your Next-gen App

Jignen Pandya-img

Jignen Pandya

Vice President at Expert App Devs

Responsible for creating a sales funnel, attracting top-of-the-funnel customers, and converting the target market.

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