Why Your mHealth App Needs Testing
mHealth is a sector of healthcare tech that covers diverse types of applications for monitoring and sharing health information via mobile technology. Popular mHealth software includes fitness, meditation, and nutrition apps, condition-based apps, pill reminders, remote monitoring, virtual doctor, general hospital apps, etc.
For example, healthcare institutions in Denmark use online platforms to collect health data of the citizens. All Danes can access their records via the online portal to view test results, treatment plans, and prescriptions. A dietitian from the Netherlands has come up with a smartphone game that helps kidney patients to control the levels of sodium and potassium in their diet. Similar mHealth technologies are used all around the world, gradually reforming the healthcare industry.
mHealth App Market Overview
The Accenture 2019 Digital Health Consumer Survey reports that people support healthcare digitalization. Although only 49% are willing to have virtual doctor visits, 68% would like to book appointments online and 77% would choose a healthcare provider that offers e-prescriptions.
The forecasts for global mHealth app market growth differ. For instance, Fortune Business Insights states that it can reach $293.29 billion value by 2026. Yet, even less optimistic predictions are promising — $102.43 billion by 2022 and $152.2 billion by 2026.
Private equities, however, are hesitant to invest in the rapidly growing market. The complex and fragmented landscape of the healthcare tech industry makes it difficult to identify good assets and obtain the relevant information on local markets, highly dynamic due to geographic and legislation differences. Moreover, tight regulations significantly increase mHealth app development time and costs.
Why and How Digital Health Businesses Bring Value?
Eventually, the healthcare industry will have to catch up with the digitalization. Both doctors and patients already have hardware — smartphones they use on a daily basis. The next step is encouraging them to use the same platform for communication. And for that, you will need software.
New players on the market have good chances of gaining leadership positions quickly if they manage to fully address blanks in customers’ needs and fill them. Good-to-great m health solutions can help companies to become trendsetters while they are still working on product functionality.
Why Quality Matters?
325,000 mHealth apps were available in stores in 2017. The competition is high, so only a well-regarded product can stand out. It is possible in case an app meets market demands and works flawlessly.
Also, a product should be prepared and able to scale. The changing market is likely to dictate new terms and trends for healthcare mobile application development. If a current version doesn’t work well, it will be very difficult to scale.
What to Test?
The following types of testing help to keep high standards of a mHealth app. The exact testing checklist depends on the peculiarities of an application.
Compliance Testing — Eligibility With Regulations
The QA process should start at the early stage of development. It is important to understand the policies and procedures to fulfill the requirements of industry standards. If an app doesn’t comply with the standards, it won’t be published, no matter how good it looks or how well it works.
UX Testing — Ultimate User Experience
QA engineers check the consistency of a mHealth app. For example, users of workouts, yoga, and meditation apps with different levels of proficiency should get clear guidance for their level. A user journey should be simple. mHealth applications have a wide audience, so many users might not be very good with gadgets. And even if they are, people still prefer simple solutions. Push up notifications for regular activities should be relevant and not too frequent.
Functional Testing — Functional Capabilities
QA specialists identify disagreements between an expected and actual behavior of the implemented features. They cover all implemented functions taking into account the most likely errors. An example of such test scenario is checking personalized advice generated after you enter individual data or set preferences.
Compatibility Testing — Reach More Users
Users don’t necessarily have the latest version of a particular program or browser. Low compatibility can have different consequences — from crashes to memory blockage and freezing a device. Thus, QA engineers check how a mHealth app behaves on different devices.
Performance Testing — Availability and Smooth Functioning 24/7
Care providers in the hospitals are available 24/7, and that’s what users expect from a mHealth app. AppDynamics reports that 60% of users have uninstalled an app after a single failed attempt to access it. Performance testing occurs repeatedly after every update. Here are some things to pay attention to:
- Apps designed to build healthy habits should be accessible regardless of the network speed.
- Crash-free performance can be critical in case of emergency, like abnormal vitals, events logs, alerts, etc.
- Drawbacks like battery draining or memory clogging alert not to use the app on the go. Eventually, users forget about it or uninstall it.
- Always simulate peak traffic situations to see how the app handles it.
Accessibility Testing — For People with Special Needs
The purpose of accessibility testing is to verify that a mHealth app provides access to services for as many people as possible, including users with disabilities and the elderly. They often use assistive technology, like speech recognition software, special keyboards, screen readers, magnification software, etc. A good mHealth app supports this software.
Interoperability Testing — Wearables and Other Systems
Interoperability is the app’s ability to interact with other software. For example, some mHealth applications offer integration with Google Fit and Apple Health accounts, the others are connected to the medical records, scheduling software, huge clinical systems, etc. QA profs verify that data travels from one application to the other, both share the readings properly, and the systems lead a continuous dialogue. If your mHealth app doesn’t work with wearables or other apps, interoperability is still useful for scalability in the future.
Integration Testing — Interactions Inside the System
At this stage, QA engineers check how well the elements of the app communicate with each other. For example, a patient uses an app for a video chat with a doctor to receive a consultation and a prescription. Later, this person pays a medical bill inside the app (integration with billing) or checks if the insurance covers expenses (integration with insurance provider). A patient doesn’t use separate apps for this, these are different layers of the same system checked during integration testing.
GUI Testing — Layout and Visual Design
We won’t go into details. Page layout bugs deteriorate user experience as much as other bugs. Remember that texts should be easy to read, action buttons convenient to press, and commands clear to understand.
Security Testing — Client Data Protection
This is one of the key concerns of every mHealth app. Keep in mind that this is a task for testing companies that specialize in security testing. QA teams that carry out all the rest of the tests rarely perform security testing.
Bottom Line
mHealth applications make healthcare more accessible for people in rural areas, people with disabilities, and the elderly. Easy access to patient records minimizes the probability of errors and duplicate medical records lacking full data. Patients can monitor their real-time condition and address practitioners online instead of addressing Google.
Launching a product that meets user demands and fills the gap on the market can make you an industry trend-setter. If you need assistance with ensuring the excellence of your mHealth application, fast & high-quality testing with QA Madness will make you a key gameplayer on the market. Contact us to get an estimate.
