Case Study - Telehealth Mobile App
The Project
Recomedica is a telehealth app launched in November 2019 that brings specialized medical support as close to the user as possible. With more than 350 specialized medical professionals under the same umbrella and growing, Recomedica provides medical advice and recommendations to users posting an average of 300 requests daily.
The platform aims to help patients get the optimal medical advice, receive guidance and connect with doctors and healthcare professionals worldwide. It focuses on assistance in the Romanian language and matches patients with the best medical professional that can handle their particular health condition.
The Challenge
In 2021, the Recomedica team decided to expand their product and connect better with their audience by becoming a mobile product. Their main driver simplifies the initial medical evaluation of each patient and decreases the time from when they need help until a preliminary diagnosis is provided.
Recomedica has contracted me to help them visualize and define their product and drive the execution from the idea until the launch in the mobile app stores.
The challenge of this project was identifying the key stakeholders for product development and delivering the product quickly.
Approach
As soon as we started working together, we went through a complex delivery process that involved:
Product Positioning. We needed to know what other apps do in the local Romanian market, connect our vision to the global telehealth trends and adapt to the pandemic environment.
Business Analysis. The product needed to comply with the legislation about patient data management and provide an easy and pleasant onboarding experience for each medical request they made.
Stakeholder identification. The stakeholders involved were doctors, patients, and the design and product management team. We needed to find a way to get all the patient-related details in a friendly manner to not over-complicate their onboarding and to help them explain their medical history in a short way.
Delivery Management. Another important aspect of my work represented identifying a software development company to develop the product that the product designer and I have defined.
For this particular project, I had the opportunity to be in the driver's seat. Each day, I would have to anticipate any potential blockers, carry out task management duties, ask the stakeholders key questions and commit to continue managing the delivery team to build a product as close to our vision as possible.
Product Development
Following the Product Positioning exercise that I led with the client, I have built the main workflows of the app:
Complete Medical Profile for the user and their family members
Real-time Chat with doctors from different specialties
Management of medical cases and files
Medical Requests
Patient health profile flow defined as part of the product definition phase.
We aimed at a simple experience for the user to be able to quickly report their problem and for us to have the relevant data to assist them. All the reporting was done in writing, with the patient being able to upload images and videos to better explain their issue.
Product design is key in the development of a great idea. Therefore, I worked with my designer-of-choice, Raluca, to make all these schemes and charts into reality. Below is the result of our collaborative design process:
You can also try the interactive prototype here: Recomedica App
Identifying a development team to deliver the project was a month-long process. We have contacted three development studios in Romania, and one of them convinced us of the ability to deliver the product. Their previous experience with telehealth apps was more relevant than the pricing at that point because we knew we needed someone who could understand the terminology and the necessity of a certain approach so they could deliver in the 4 months we had for development.
Following the initial discussions, the software contractor has provided us with a team of one Lead Developer, two React Native Developers and one QA Engineer. The continuous development process was set up from the first sprint using Jira, Bitbucket, and Bitrise.
The whole product design & development process took 6 months, and we managed to fit it into a budget that the client was able to handle as a startup.
The Recomedica App is now available in the App Store and Google Play, and you can use it to get a fast and reliable diagnosis from hundreds of medical professionals.
