How to Create an AI Chatbot Healthcare App 

Wondering how to create an AI chatbot healthcare app? Do the following:

1. Build an experienced team to plan the AI chatbot healthcare app development project 

You need sufficient planning if you undertake a project to help healthcare professionals and patients by developing an AI chatbot. Onboard an experienced team for project planning.

A project manager (PM) should lead this team. You need a software architect and business analyst too. 

The business analyst should gather, analyze, and document the functional requirements. You need the architect to define the non-functional requirements (NFRs) and technical solutions.

The PM should create a comprehensive project plan. You need a PM with knowledge of project management frameworks and project management methodologies. The PM needs a good knowledge of project management tools and project management best practices.  

2. Review examples of healthcare chatbots 

We recommend you review some of the AI-powered chatbots in the healthcare sector. Several companies have used conversational AI to great effect in this sector. Check out the following examples of companies that implemented AI chatbots in the healthcare industry:

• OneRemission;
• Youper;
• Babylon Health;
• Florence;
• Healthily;
• Ada Health;
• Sensely;
• Buoy Health;
• Infermedica;
• GYANT;
• Woebot;
• Cancer Chatbot.

Some AI chatbots cater to Oncology patients. A few chatbots enable patients to avail of online consultations. There are also chatbots to assess symptoms.

Several of these chatbots are available on multiple platforms like iOS and Android. You can also use some of them with Facebook Messenger. 

3. Assess how AI healthcare chatbots can help patients, medical professionals, and healthcare providers 

How do you want to utilize an AI healthcare chatbot in your organization? AI chatbot healthcare apps can offer a lot, e.g.:

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• Assist medical professionals by answering their questions quickly;
• Help doctors by timely providing information related to potential diagnoses;
• Improve patient engagement by answering common queries quickly even outside business hours;
• Assist patients with common administrative tasks like paying bills without human intervention;
• Enable experienced customer support representatives to answer complex patient inquiries by handling standard queries;
• Help patients by scheduling appointments;
• Improve patient experience by sending appointment reminders;
• Disseminate information effectively about public health concerns and public health emergency situations;
• Reduce costs for healthcare providers by handling routine tasks without human interaction;
• Act as virtual assistants to medical professionals;
• Connect patients to virtual healthcare services;
• Provide useful content concerning mental illness for helping patients with sub-optimal mental health;
• Make medical history accessible by allowing patients access to relevant information;
• Provide doctors with valuable content on body language, speech, etc. for treating chronic conditions related to mental health;
• Improve access to healthcare services;
• Improve patient satisfaction by providing important information about medical assistance to patients;
• Help doctors create plans for personalized care.

The above isn’t an exhaustive list. Decide where to utilize AI chatbot technology.

4. Gather, analyze, and document business requirements for the AI healthcare chatbot development project 

The BA should gather business requirements by interviewing business stakeholders. The following are a few examples of requirements:

• Improve patient outcomes by helping doctors create better medical care plans;
• Enable patients to access health data conveniently;
• Book appointments for patients;
• Send reminders to patients about appointments and prescription medicines;
• Improve healthcare experience by providing useful content about health issues;
• Improve patient support by quickly solving common queries. 

The architect should define the NFRs. Your team should document requirements effectively. The PM should define the scope of the work, i.e., developing web and mobile-based chatbot apps. A requirements management process is important too.

5. Choose an appropriate medical chatbot development approach 

We recommend you develop an AI chatbot healthcare app from scratch. This allows for maximum customization. Naturally, you need competent developers for this custom software development project.

The other approach could be to use a no-code platform like Appy Pie for developing a web app, mobile apps, and a chatbot. You can also use chatbot development platforms like Chatfuel, Landbot, or Tars. This approach involves little-to-none coding. However, your customization options are often limited. 

Note: You need to keep information security in mind while formulating a software development approach. An AI healthcare chatbot often collects sensitive data. Such apps also access sensitive data patient records. The healthcare sector is highly regulated. Plan to design and implement a robust information security solution.

6. Decide on the technology stack for AI healthcare chatbot development

We recommend the following technology stack:

A. Web development

Use JavaScript, HTML, and CSS for front-end web development. JavaScript is open-source, and there are many useful frameworks based on it. You can also use Angular or React JS for front-end web development.

Use Node.js for back-end web development. Developers can use many useful tools along with this open-source runtime environment for JavaScript.

B. Mobile development

We recommend you develop native mobile applications. These applications use platform-specific hardware features well. You can offer the best user experience, performance, and security by launching a native app.

Use Java for native Android development. It has been a mainstay for Android development for long.

Develop the native iOS app using Swift. Apple prefers that developers use this modern programming language for developing apps for its platforms.

C. Cloud platforms

We recommend you use a cloud computing platform. You can focus more on software development than IT infrastructure management. You can use any of the top cloud providers like AWS, Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, etc. 

D. Artificial intelligence development

We recommend you use Python for artificial intelligence development. This open-source programming language offers excellent libraries. You can implement several AI capabilities like machine learning (ML), natural language processing (NLP), speech recognition, etc. 

E. Databases

You can use one of the popular open-source relational database management systems (RDBMS) like MySQL or PostgreSQL. Sometimes you need SQL and NoSQL databases. In that case, you can use an open-source NoSQL database like MongoDB or Apache Cassandra.

7. Plan your AI chatbot healthcare app development project 

The PM should plan the project. This exercise should cover many aspects, e.g.:

The use of software development methodologies like agile;

• Tasks and dependencies;
• Project schedule including milestones and iterations;
• Project’s technical environment;
• Risk management;
• Issues management;
• Human resource management;
• Cost estimation and cost management;
• Project quality management;
• Communications management.

8. Hire developers, testers, and designers for developing the proposed AI chatbot healthcare app

You should now competent people for the following roles:

• UI (user interface) designers;
• Web developers;
• Android developers with Java skills;
• iOS developers with Swift skills;
• AI developers;
• Testers;
• DevOps engineers. 

Take the following steps:

A. Choose a hiring platform

While you might think of hiring freelancers, we don’t quite recommend that approach. Developing an AI chatbot healthcare app takes a considerable effort, and such projects are complex.

Freelancers work part-time on your project, and you might not get enough effort from them. You might find it hard to manage the work of freelancers. It’s harder for remote freelancers.

Freelance platforms don’t offer any project management support. You need to find replacement developers if freelancers leave your project mid-way.

We recommend you hire full-time developers from a trusted partner like DevTeam.Space instead. Our developers are skilled, experienced, and motivated. We train them in our AI-powered agile processes. 

Our focus on quality reduces your risks. We offer project management support. Hiring from DevTeam.Space will hold you in good stead in a complex project like this.

B. Conduct interviews 

You chose a hiring platform and posted your job requirements. Interview the applicants now. You can use our interview questions:

• Swift interview questions;
• iOS interview questions;
• Java interview questions;
• Android interview questions;
• Python interview questions;
• JavaScript interview questions;
• Node.js interview questions;
• SQL interview questions.

Ask questions that help you evaluate the hands-on skills of developers, therefore, don’t ask only theoretical questions. Evaluate the past project experience of developers. Explain your project requirements and ask how they would develop such apps.

C. Onboard developers

The PM should onboard the new team members effectively. This process should cover the following aspects:

• Sharing the required documents with developers;
• Explaining the project requirements and technical solutions to them;
• Granting access;
• Introducing the new team members to the existing team;
• Explaining the project schedule, iterations, and milestones;
• Describing the work approval process;
• Setting up a communication process and establishing accountability.

9. Execute, monitor, and control the project 

Your project team should now do the following:

• Design the user interface (UI) of the chatbot, web app, and mobile apps;
• Formulate and implement an information security solution including tools like multi-factor authentication (MFA), encryption, etc.;
• Develop APIs (application programming interfaces) using tools like Postman or Swagger;
• Code the web app using an IDE (Integrated Development Environment) like Eclipse;
• Develop the Android app using Android Studio;
• Code the iOS app using Xcode;
• Develop the chatbot;
• Test the chatbot;
• Integrate the chatbot and relevant APIs into the web and mobile apps;
• Test the web and mobile apps;
• Deploy the web app;
• Submit the Android and iOS apps to the respective app stores.

The architect should guide the team, whereas the PM should monitor and control the project.

Submit a Project With Zero Risk

Developing healthcare chatbots takes plenty of effort. Such projects use cutting-edge technologies e.g., machine learning technology. You need competent web, mobile, and artificial intelligence developers. 

DevTeam.Space can offer developers with relevant expertise. Our skilled, experienced, and motivated developers are trained in our AI-powered agile process.

Wondering how DevTeam.Space can help? Fill out the DevTeam.Space product specification form. One of our experienced account managers will contact you. 

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