Telepsychiatry App Development

Develop the Future of Mental Health

Telepsychiatry has been around since the late 60s, shunned upon as a handicapped version of traditional psychotherapy. However, telehealth technologies have been through such an evolutionary race lately that today’s psychotherapy is merely struggling without the power of telepsychiatry app development.

Telemedicine psychiatry apps are no longer viewed as an add-on service. Instead, telepsychiatry software is shifting the whole paradigm of mental care towards making it more patient-centered.

With distance being no longer part of the equation for receiving quality mental care, telepsychiatry apps empower telepsychiatrists to cater to broader audiences and seriously consider group therapy and innovative treatment collaborations with colleagues.

Topflight Apps develops telepsychiatry platforms and apps that shape the future of mental health, making it more approachable, cost-effective, and successful. Reach out today to see how we can help you become the industry leader serving your community with the best of what telepsychiatry has to offer.

Why Telepsychiatry Apps Matter

Telepsychiatry builds on the strengths of the golden-standard face-to-face counseling & psychotherapy, significantly extending its capabilities for everybody — patients, therapists, and medical organizations.

Patient-focused

First and foremost, telepsychiatry apps put patients front and center. It’s now up to them to pick the location for consultations. For many patients, the option of joining a psychotherapy session from the privacy of their homes may be the crucial factor that removes barriers and builds trust.

Besides, using an application, they can now see their telepsychiatrist even when traveling, being sick, or in case of disability. In addition, telepsychiatry helps alleviate the social stigma around mental health care and makes it affordable to a larger population.

Effective psychotherapy

On the other end of the spectrum, telepsychiatry software enables psychotherapists to serve more patients, organize their time more effectively, and deliver mental care to remote locations.

Research has found that patients treated via telehealth solutions display the same level of satisfaction and positive outcomes as in traditional in-office psychotherapy. Diagnostic and treatment effectiveness and quality of care have also been found equivalent to in-person care.

As a result, therapists relying on telepsychiatry apps are able to help more patients. Telepsychiatry software pushes them to the hybrid mental health paradigm, where they become part of integrated care — mental care, delivered within primary care in collaboration with on-site or virtual teams. Eventually, that leads to better outcomes for patients.

Our Healthcare Clients

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Types of Telepsychiatry Apps

Depending on the intended target audience and business model, we can develop various types of telepsychiatry applications.

Clinical Telepsychiatry Platform

Traditional telepsychiatry solutions for clinics, hospitals, and private practices include audio- and videoconferencing applications that allow expanding a medical facility’s outreach to rural areas and beyond.

These telepsychiatry platforms were initially trying to replicate the original mental health practice using telehealth technology. But today, such clinical software is playing a significant role in pushing the whole industry to a value-added care delivery paradigm.

On-demand Telepsychiatry App

Imagine a telepsychiatry platform that brings together mental health specialists and people seeking to relieve behavioral health issues. Same as Uber, but instead of a ride, the user orders a video consultation with a psychotherapist or psychologist.

One of the most challenging aspects of developing such a telepsychiatry platform would be to match the locations of patients and specialists.

They would have to be in the states that allow telepsychiatry services. To verify, we can use GPS and IP geolocation technology and ensure legislative compliance of a telepsychiatry app across mobile and web platforms, even post the COVID-19 crisis.

Self-Help Telepsychiatry Software

Some mental health issues can be successfully attacked with the power of the community. People rely on this type of telepsychiatry apps to deal with such mental states as depression or anxiety. The apps themselves look very much like a blend of networking applications and web forums.

Alternatively, the help may come from a neural network, like in an AI-powered mental health platform that we developed to help veterans and other vulnerable groups find peace of mind through education and reinforcement of positive thinking.

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Telepsychiatry App Development Best Practices

High-Quality Stable Connection

Connecting patients with specialists is the core of any telemedicine psychiatry software. Therefore we use state-of-the-art streaming toolchains and SDKs for developing experiences with ultra-low latency and zero stutters even in poor connectivity settings. We can build one-to-one and one-to-many conferencing solutions to make sure your colleagues can join a call if necessary.

UX and UI Considerations

How patients and specialists use the app is going to influence the outcomes significantly. Is there an option to turn off video for a patient? Can they get quick feedback from a therapist via a secure chat? What do patients experience in a virtual waiting room? Does a therapist have access to a picture-in-picture or virtual background? Do both parties get access to visual cues,e.g., the length of the meeting? We make sure to build in answers to all these and a myriad of other questions during telepsychiatry app development.

Security & Compliance

At Topflight Apps, we have rich experience in developing HIPAA-compliant secure telehealth applications. That, among many other precautions, includes encrypting all PHI and streamed data, meeting the FIPS 140-2 certified 256-bit standard. We also make the security an integral part of telemedicine psychiatry apps by adding user verification and location detection. However, in most cases, you will not need to invest in additional hardware as these HIPAA compliance and security options come out of the box for any telepsychiatry app we develop.

Ecosystem-Friendly

Intimate knowledge of HL7 and FHIR standards allows us to integrate your telehealth app with existing EHR/EMR platforms as well as the rest of your software ecosystem, e.g., patient scheduling software, a billing system, education portal, and other solutions. To get a patient’s consent to talk to other people who worked with them, it’s often a good idea to integrate with services like DocuSign to let them easily sign the agreement.

Cross-Platform Efficiency

And of course, making a telepsychiatry app available as a mobile and web app today is a must. Just as a web psychiatry solution lets you get your mental health services out of the office, a mobile solution takes it virtually anywhere. We can also help you leverage both technologies by combining their strengths, for example, when you need to make a cognitive examination. A mobile app companion can be used to stream an additional picture of how a patient draws a clock or similar exercise.

Cutting-Edge Telepsychiatry

We’re ready to take your telepsychiatry software to the cutting edge with virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), artificial intelligence (AI), and other innovative technologies. Envision an app that your patients use with a VR headset, immediately transferring them into your office. Or an AI-powered platform that assesses a patient’s state and recommends content based on their input. Or virtual objects brought into your teleconsultation to practice telepsychiatry with children.

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What Sets Us Apart

Our sharp focus on building innovative healthcare solutions is what makes Topflight different from other app development shops. We strongly believe that to deliver top-notch telepsychiatry apps, you have to be an expert in this field. That’s not something you can usually expect from a regular app development company.

We were among the first to recognize and take part in the shift in the healthcare space towards value-based care. Mobile and web healthcare apps, including telepsychiatry apps, are allowing doctors to serve patients better.

Telepsychiatry is going through a renaissance, when practically every clinic and private practice will be implementing a telehealth psychiatry solution to remain competitive. We are happy to help mental health specialists reach more patients by developing telepsychiatry apps that add value to the whole behavioral health ecosystem.

Transparency in Our Process:

How We Build Telepsychiatry Apps

Discovery Stage

Before developing a telepsychiatry app, we ensure that the app we’re to build will actually help you achieve your business objectives. The starting point is a draft representation of the app that we use as a visual guide. We describe technologies we’ll be using and pre-select the appropriate tech stack. In addition, we check any relevant SDKs, APIs, and libraries that can spearhead the development of the telepsychiatry app. We also assess if your app will benefit from artificial intelligence, machine learning, or blockchain.

Deliverables: requirements, min and max estimates for development.

UX Design

Next, we take the app through a prototyping stage, unlike regular app shops that immediately proceed to development. Rapid prototyping helps us create an optimal user experience. The app prototype is a mock-up version of the telepsychiatry app, with just foundation and carpentry. Its purpose is to allow us to quickly iterate and discover the features that will be implemented in the app. Our telepsychiatry app developers also assist by pinpointing potential bottlenecks and advise on alternative solutions to make sure we’re not “overdesigning” telemedicine psychiatry app.

Deliverables: clickable prototypes to test with customers.

UI Design

After the app’s UX has been defined, the team passes the prototype onto our graphic designers, who add that magic that makes the app look gorgeous and irresistible. Our UI designers bring to life the actual look and feel of your telepsychiatry app. By that stage, we’ve already prepared all necessary assets, such as icons, colors, animations, branding, and other visuals that help increase user engagement. This step focuses on making your telepsychiatry app look and feel intuitive for patients and doctors.

Deliverables: design sources, animations, Invision prototypes.

Development Stage

At this point, we have everything necessary to start fleshing out your app using artifacts from the previous stages. Development is led by a dedicated product manager according to the Agile principles. Our team of telepsychiatry app developers breaks up all tasks into 2-week sprints. We keep communications while coding transparent, so you’re aware of the progress on the project. At the end of each sprint, the product manager holds a check-in meeting with you to update you on the progress and show the app demo.

Deliverables: code in Github, beta versions of apps ready for testing in a staging environment.

Quality Assurance

At the QA stage, we perform various tests on the telepsychiatry app internally and externally. When coding, our developers program unit tests to automate all new code verification for any potential issues and conflicts with previously coded features. Apart from unit tests, we carry out beta testing with end users, making sure that the app is functioning according to the requirements. The QA team also checks for typos, missing links, security, branding compliance, loading speed, mobile layout, and all other minutiae that make up the customer experience.

Deliverables: source code, customer-ready apps.

Launch and Beyond

Finally, the telepsychiatry app is ready to be launched to the app stores. Besides the ready app builds, we also provide source code, so that you can make further updates to the app. However, most clients choose to continue working with us long-term to have us maintain and update apps because mobile and web technologies continue to change. We help our customers address major OS updates and provide recommendations whenever a new opportunity arises.

We will add any new features, monitor and scale up the app servers as its usage grows, and instantly fix any issues that might surface.

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