Building an app like Epocrates is thrilling, especially since the medical reference apps market is expected to grow at a 34.70 % CAGR by 2031.
Imagine owning a tool that gives users quick and accurate medical information. Your app could become a trusted resource for healthcare professionals. But how do you start? Let’s explore it here!
What is Epocrates App All About?
Epocrates is a go-to app for medical pros. It offers instant access to clinical insights right at the point of care. Doctors, pharmacists, and nurses use it to make smart decisions on drug interactions, medical calculations, and treatment options. It’s their pocket-sized guide to better care.
Creating an app like Epocrates takes careful planning and attention to detail. But with the right approach, your app can become an essential tool for healthcare professionals.
How Does Epocrates Work?
Epocrates provides information on dosing, medicine usage, reactions, interactions, pharmacology, contraindications, pregnancy, and more.
Understanding where Epocrates sources its content is essential.
The Epocrates Medical Information Team develops and compiles most of the content. It also sources licensed content from third-party organizations:
- Drug retail pricing: GoodRx
- Pill images: First Databank
- Formulary content: MMIT
- Alternative medicine: Therapeutic Research Center and Natural Medicines
- Diseases reference: BMJ Group
- Calculators and Tools: EBMcalc provides interactive medical equations, decision trees, and clinical criteria for various specialties.
- Clinical Procedure Guidelines: These guidelines are sourced from top government agencies and medical societies to help healthcare professionals make actionable recommendations based on patient type.
Revenue Model of Epocrates
Epocrates generates revenue from various models due to its large user base of clinicians:
- Subscription-Based Access
The free version provides essential drug information, interaction checkers, and other basic tools. Healthcare professionals needing more comprehensive resources, such as specific pharmacological information, clinical guidelines, and decision-support tools, can sign up for premium plans invoiced annually or monthly.
- Professional Subscriptions
The premium versions include additional features such as advanced drug information and Access to a broader range of medical calculators. This tiered subscription model allows Epocrates to cater to individual healthcare providers, academic institutions, and even larger medical practices or health systems.
- Institutional and Enterprise Solutions
Epocrates also generates revenue by providing tailored solutions for healthcare institutions and enterprises. These institutional subscriptions often include added features like integration with electronic health records (EHR) systems and multi-user Access.
- Advertising and Partnerships
Epocrates offers targeted ads and sponsored content through partnerships with pharmaceutical firms and other healthcare organizations.
- Data Licensing and Analysis
Epocrates contains various clinical and pharmaceutical data for research and analytics. The company licenses this information to pharmaceutical firms, research organizations, and unitary organizations, among others, needing comprehensive health information.
- Educational Material and Continuing Medical Education
Epocrates provides medical professionals with educational materials and CME functions. These offerings can be purchased individually or with subscription services. CME programs assist healthcare providers in meeting their training needs and keeping up with the latest medical information.
What Makes Epocrates-like App Advanced?
Epocrates-like app offers up-to-date information and resources for better clinical decisions. Here’s how it supports your targetted group throughout the day.
- Identify Superbugs
Identify superbugs in communities and make accurate prescribing decisions for bacterial infections. This patented mobile tool provides timely, geolocated info about bacteria types and resistance patterns. It’s free and included in the app.
- Learn Anytime, Anywhere with an Epocrates-like App
Users earn CME and CE credits and stay current on medical developments at their convenience. They can access educational articles, videos, podcasts, and more organized by specialty. It’s free and available on all devices.
- Drug Info
The app offers prescription and safety details for thousands of brand, generic, and OTC drugs. Users quickly find dosing information, adverse reactions, drug interactions, contraindications, and pharmacology.
- Interaction Check
Along with checking for harmful interactions between up to 30 drugs, herbs, and supplements simultaneously, medical professionals view detailed interaction profiles to decide if therapy needs adjustment, monitoring, or substitution.
- Pill ID
Identify a pill’s imprint code, shape, color, or scoring. Users view possible matches with images and links to detailed drug information.
- COVID-19 Resources and News
Your audience can access breaking news and resources about COVID-19 through the app’s new COVID-19 Resource tile or the Epocrates online portal.
Additional Features of Epocrates-like App
The app includes instrumental content that helps users quickly get their desired answers. Your Epocrates app offers the following:
- Clinical Guidelines: Detailed summaries of practice guidelines by patient type.
- Notifications: Brief medical news alerts with links to detailed info.
- Formulary: Drug coverage for over 6,600 insurance plans by state.
- Calculators: With over 600 medical calculators and risk scores, users can also mark their most-used tools as favorites for quick and easy access.
Development Steps to Build an Epocrates-like App
Creating an Epocrates-style medical reference app entails numerous critical processes, making it an invaluable tool for healthcare providers. Below are the development steps of an Epocrates-like app-
- Define Requirements and Scope: Research applications like Epocrates to understand their features, strengths, and weaknesses. Identify your audience: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, and students.
- Design Architecture: Build a user-friendly interface that is easy to navigate. Focus on UX/UI design principles. Plan the server architecture to handle data requests efficiently.
- Develop the Front-End: Choose cross-platform frameworks such as React Native or Flutter or native technologies (Swift for iOS, Kotlin for Android). Convert designs into functional code and ensure responsiveness across devices and screen sizes.
- Develop the Back-End: Use Node.js, Python, Java, and the framework using Express, Django, and Spring, respectively. Integrate the app with the services or API to ensure smooth data flow and synchronization.
- Data Collection and Management: Obtain licenses for medical content from reliable sources (medical databases, drug information providers).
- Data Entry: Input and structure the data within your database. Maintain accuracy and consistency.
- Testing and Quality Assurance: Test interactions between components and services. Determine the app’s performance under various scenarios. Address any issues identified during testing.
- Launch and Deployment: Prepare for deployment on app stores (Apple App Store, Google Play). Implement monitoring tools to track app performance and user engagement.
- Post-Launch Activities: Provide customer support channels (help desk, chat support) and address user queries and issues. Gather user feedback to identify areas for improvement. Ensure that the app adapts to user needs and technology changes.
Why You Must Opt for an Epocrates-like App?
An Epocrates clone details prescriptions, dosing, adverse reactions, safety, interactions, and retail prices. Users can search for and understand drugs and their uses. Additionally, it includes a guide to diseases, instructional videos, and monographs. The Epocrates clone is easily customizable to fit specific app requirements.
Benefits of Developing an Epocrates-Like App
Creating an app similar to Epocrates offers several benefits:
- Better Patient Engagement: This app increases patient engagement with their health by monitoring their condition and facilitating communication from home with healthcare providers.
- Enhanced Clinical Decision-Making: It gives the health professional easy access to current drug information, treatment guidelines, and diagnostic criteria with great rapidity, thereby facilitating more informed decisions.
- Increased Drug Safety: It offers real-time information on the drug with drug interaction checkers to avert medication errors and improve patient safety.
- Easy Access to Medical Resources: It saves time and effort for health professionals, students, and nurse practitioners by offering clinical guidelines, reference materials, and diagnostic tools in one package.
- Support for Continuing Medical Education (CME): The Epocrates-like app has educational modules and updates that help healthcare professionals stay current regarding medical knowledge and practices.
- Integration with Electronic Health Records (EHR): Synchronizing EHRs facilitates more accessible access to patient information, contributing to better decision-making because it is accurate and efficient.
- Better Collaboration and Communication: The app also enables team communication and generally enhances coordination among health team members to improve the quality of care.
What is the Cost to Develop an App Like Epocrates?
Epocrates-like app gives users quick access to medical information. It includes drug safety data, medication interactions, and diagnostic tools. Medical offices and assistants find it useful.
If you want to develop a similar app, you need a skilled developer.
The cost of development depends on the app’s complexity and features. It ranges between US $10k and US $50k. An app like Epocrates combines medical references, drug databases, and test interpretations.
The Bottom Line
An app like Epocrates kicks off an epic journey into the complex realm of healthcare technology. It’s a challenging quest. However, the rewards are significant and far-reaching.
Imagine creating a digital tool that will become a cornerstone for healthcare practitioners, a beacon of clarity in the sometimes murky waters of medical data.
Your journey starts with a clear vision:
focus on essential features that genuinely matter and craft a user experience that feels as intuitive as a trusted colleague’s advice. Your app’s lifeblood will be its reliable data sources, and ensuring compliance with regulations will be your guiding compass.
Your app will stand out with meticulous planning and thoughtful execution. It’s a global touchstone for healthcare professionals, embodying excellence and reliability in the ever-evolving landscape of medicine.
