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How to make a HIPAA-compliant mobile app

May 26, 2022 By Sho

Deciding how to make a mobile app when your business has an obligation to make it HIPAA compliant can make it a tricky process to navigate alone. Not everyone is considered a “covered entity” by HIPAA, but for those that are, ensuring that your patient’s information is secure is your number one priority when making an app. While you may think this limits your options, making a HIPAA-compliant mobile app isn’t as hard as it used to be. In this post, we’ll dive into if your app should be HIPAA-compliant, what HIPAA-compliance means, and some best practices.

Doctor uses HIPAA-compliant mobile app on their phone

Does your mobile app need to be HIPAA-compliant?

HIPAA was established to protect individuals’ medical records and other identifiable health information, but it only applies to covered entities who are typically in the medical field and have privileged information about a patient’s health. Covered entities defined by HIPAA include hospitals, doctor’s offices, clinics, pharmacies, other health care providers who conduct electronic transactions, health insurance issuers, or health and wellness programs related to a health plan offered by an employer. 

However, just having an app and being in one of those industries doesn’t make your app necessarily need to be HIPAA compliant. It’s the information your app processes that determines whether or not your app must be HIPAA compliant. 

Ask yourself: Does your health app create, receive, maintain, or transmit identifiable medical information? If yes, your app probably needs to be HIPAA compliant. 

Besides covered entities, any business associates who receive, maintain, or store protected patient information are also required to be HIPAA-compliant. So if your business asks for personal health information but isn’t a covered entity or business associate, your app doesn’t need to be HIPAA compliant. An example of this would be asking for someone’s gender to sign them up for your app. Even though this is health information, you don’t need to comply with HIPAA to secure that information if you aren’t a covered entity or business associate. However, if you are–even if the gender question is the only protected health information you ask for–your app needs to be HIPAA compliant. 

While HIPAA has a set of security requirements, they are not really applicable to people outside of covered entities and their business associates. If you want to secure your app but are not dealing with protected health information, there are other resources you can check out, like this one.

How do you make a HIPAA-compliant mobile app?

Once you’ve determined that the app you’re making is covered by HIPAA, you need to know what you need to do to make a HIPAA-compliant mobile app. There are certain technical requirements for HIPAA compliance, and here’s how we would approach them.

Doctor chats with a patient on a video call using a HIPAA-compliant mobile app

Information

Before you can set up protocols to protect your patients’ health information, you need to know what information you are gathering. Determine what information you need to collect and protect in order to fulfill your core functions in the app. 

For instance, while it can be good to have demographic information on your patients, you should consider why it is medically necessary for your app to do so. If you are running an app to help monitor people’s heart health, it may not be necessary for you to collect information on their previous mental health diagnoses, or if your app helps patients track migraines, it may not be necessary to know their weight and gender. Knowing what information is necessary for you to complete the core functions of your app without overstepping and gathering more health information can help with HIPAA compliance.

There is strict guidance from the government on what information is considered protected health information, so here’s a quick, non-exhaustive list of the identifiable health information you need to protect:

  • Demographic information
  • Relates to past, present, or future physical or mental health conditions
  • Involved in past, present, or future medical billing or payment for the provision of health services
  • Provides information that can identify the customer, or there is a reasonable basis to believe it could be used to identify the customer

Security

Securing your app-user-protected health information for HIPAA compliance involves both technical, operational, and relationship requirements for the security of that information. 

HIPAA security requirements include:

  • Encryption: Any app with protected health information should provide both encryptions at rest and encryption in transit. Note: This is different from end-to-end encryption, which is not required for HIPAA compliance.
    • Encryption at rest: This ensures health data that is stored either physically on your computer or digitally is protected from unauthorized access by converting the data to code.
    • Encryption in transit: This secures health information as it is being transferred from the person inputting the data to you and back again. Data is converted before being transmitted from the app, the endpoint is authenticated, and the data is decrypted and verified on arrival, preventing decryption by any unauthorized parties who may attempt to intercept the data.
  • Standard operating procedures: This includes getting consent from people on your app to gain access to their health information, providing transparency on how their information is used and stored, and only gathering necessary health information for your purpose.
  • Sharing with third parties: To comply with HIPAA, protected health information must be accessible to the protected individual and authorized third parties in certain circumstances. If an individual wants to gain access to your record of their protected health information, your app is required to give them access to it on request. Additionally, if a third party submits a request in writing–signed by the individual whose health data they are seeking access to–your app must also give them that information with the individual’s consent. This is largely used to distribute health information to the patient’s other healthcare providers. 

Assistance

If you are unsure about making a HIPAA-compliant mobile app, get assistance from the experts! There are many ways to build an app, and many app solutions can be HIPAA compliant. If you find a developer with experience in HIPAA compliance, they typically understand the technical side of securing your app in all of the legally protected ways and can help with that. You can also find no-code app platforms that are already HIPAA compliant where you can build and customize your app. 

When you are ready to start making a HIPAA compliant app, figure out your options, keep your patients’ information safe, and get back to doing what you do best: helping people. 

Want to build an app for your business? Check out our free guide to get started. Click here to download.

Top 3 Innovative Marketing Channels for your Business

January 15, 2022 By Sho

Businesses are always trying to find the next big way to market to their customers. It can be tough to find the right mix of engaging, original, and suitable ideas for marketing your business, whether your company has been around for a while or you are just starting out. These three marketing channels are some of the most innovative emerging ideas, and here are some ways you can utilize them to better market your business.

1. Video is the way to go

Pictures and gifs are old news when it comes to improving your marketing strategy. Video is consistently proven to be the most effective way to engage with your followers, and social media algorithms have been updated to reflect that. The pandemic drove video engagement, with nine out of ten people responding to a recent Hubspot survey saying that they wanted to see more video content from the brands they follow, and people have overwhelmingly increased their online video consumption in 2020 with no indications of slowing down in 2022.

Additionally, Forbes has reported that people end up spending 2.6 times more time on a website with video than one without it. It is easier than ever to get your potential audience to watch a video on mobile apps, and video can be a great way to share complex concepts and ideas in a way that is easy for your audience to understand. 

Young blogger using smart mobile phone to record live video to review IT product. The image is focused on mobile phone

Creating engaging videos for your audience can be as simple as using your smartphone’s camera! Many of the most popular videos on social media, like TikTok and Instagram Reels, are created using a phone camera, and with the constant improvements we are seeing in mobile camera quality the need to use a professional for creating everyday videos for your brand is declining.

There are some great guides on making high-quality videos just using your phone, but if you are unsure where to start, make sure you have good lighting, sufficient storage space on your phone, and ideally a microphone or headset to record high-quality audio before you get started. So if you want an innovative way to market on social media, video is absolutely the way to go.

2. Build a strong community

Whether you have a strong locally-based circle or a broad but loyal online following, your business should make an effort to build a stronger community around your core business idea to provide additional value for your community.

First, you’ll need to meet your community where they are, which could mean organizing in-person events or getting more active on their favorite social media channels and apps. Every community is different, but you can start by polling or otherwise getting a sense of your most loyal customers and brand advocates for where they go to find out more about your core topic or businesses like yours. 

Couple looking at a smartphone together

There are many ways this can be done, but it begins by finding what your core community likes about your product or service. Book stores could offer book signings or online book clubs, a mobile game developer could host people playing their game on YouTube or Twitch or offer in-person competitions and leaderboards, or restaurants could offer date nights in a box delivered to your home or a social event like a pub quiz at their bar monthly.

If your community is happy with your product or service, they’ll recommend you to a friend, and it’s more likely to happen if you aren’t heavy-handed with salesy messaging. Putting your community first and giving them something extra valuable that they enjoy increases the likelihood of referrals and repeat business.

3. Get creative with mobile app ideas

Did you know that 46% of people spend an average of five to six hours per day on their mobile phones and only 5% spend less than an hour? A marketing channel that a lot of businesses fail to consider branching into are mobile app ideas.

Whether you are building an app to communicate with your base more directly or create more efficient internal processes, developing mobile app ideas for your business can meet your potential customers on the device where they spend a lot of their free time and grow engagement with your company. 

Regardless of your business’ size or budget, there are app-building options that can be utilized as a powerful marketing tool for your company. Mobile apps can boost engagement with your brand through push notifications, which have an 18% higher click-through rate on average than email marketing campaigns, and with the high amount of time people spend on their mobile devices daily, it can be a cost-effective way to reach your entire target audience at one time, rather than targeted marketing campaigns on multiple platforms. Additionally, mobile apps can increase brand loyalty and awareness via loyalty programs, exclusive sales, and additional content offerings made for mobile devices.

Additionally, mobile apps are a great way to share videos and build communities, so you can hit two birds with one stone by hosting a holistic marketing campaign in your company’s app. For instance, your users can gain access to exclusive video content which can include useful tutorials, webinars, and/or group classes through your business’ app.

With some creative mobile app ideas, you can also build a strong community by offering easily accessible chatting to answer questions or connect with other community members, organize exclusive member events or sales, or offer additional value through generating content geared towards your community’s core interests. A custom mobile app for your business can be a great way to innovate your marketing. 

Hands hold an iPhone looking at several mobile apps, deciding which to select

Keeping up with marketing trends can be tough, but these innovative marketing ideas can help you grow and build up your community, increase online engagement, and deliver your content in a convenient way for your audience. While marketing trends may change, the core ideas of meeting your audience where they are and building a strong community can help keep you top of mind and bring in more repeat business and referrals down the road. Plus, we see these innovative marketing channels continuing for years to come.

Want to build an app for your business? Check out our free guide to get started. Click here to download.

5 Signs You Need a Custom App

September 30, 2021 By Sho

From shopping on Amazon to connecting with friends and family on Facebook, apps have made our lives a lot more convenient. Most of the companies we interact with daily can be accessed with the touch of a button on our phones, and many companies have found that creating a custom app is a great tool for expanding their business. You might be wondering if you should create an app for your business, too. If you find that your business is experiencing one of these five things, it’s a clear sign that your business would benefit from having a custom app.

1. You want to keep up with your clients

These days, mobile devices are becoming more and more ubiquitous, so it’s no surprise that they are also the primary way we connect to the internet. Because mobile devices are so easily accessible from anywhere, having an app makes your company easier to engage with on the go. Rather than attempting to log in on a web browser that isn’t optimized for mobile, an app allows your users to stay logged in and easily navigate your company’s offerings with the touch of a button. Your company’s existing content, services, and functionality can all be delivered through mobile by connecting your custom app through integrations to your existing infrastructure. 

Apps make it so much easier to connect with people no matter where they are, and they provide your service or product to a wider audience than only being accessible through the web. You can deliver real-time support through direct messaging and easy access to FAQs using an app as well as providing survey forms with easy reporting to get feedback from your clients, which makes it a great way to facilitate conversation with the people who are most important to your business. Apps make it easy to keep up with your clients.

2. You want to grow your business

Whether your initiatives to grow your business are internal or external, an app may be the right solution for your company. When you’re looking to develop better internal processes to drive growth, an app can be a powerful tool for you and your employees. If you want to increase communication, organization, and transparency in your business, you can create a custom app that has the functionality to address all of those concerns, even if you don’t know how to code. Rather than engaging with complex computer software, employees could have a user-friendly experience on the devices they are already most familiar with: their cell phones.

Apps can be a great tool for external growth, as well. To grow your engagement, you can use push notifications on your company’s app to remind your customers about deals and other relevant information about your service or product. Push notifications have been shown to receive an 18% higher click-through rate than email marketing, so it can be a great way to grab your customers’ attention. Additionally, you can enhance your current offerings through utilizing an app. A great source of growth is to scale your offerings up with the help of creating an on-demand resource for your customers or clients that can be accessed online or offline for easy use through a custom app. 

3. You want to offer more value to your clients

Apps are an easy way to increase the value you offer your clients with little effort for your company. They enable your company to add features and functionality by utilizing the capabilities of mobile phones, such as scanning QR codes using the device’s camera to offer a way to easily collect feedback or a quick way for employees to enter data from different worksites to generate more accurate reporting.

While creating an app like this may seem time-consuming at first, today there are more and more options to create a custom app without hiring a developer by utilizing no-code options and mobile app companies. Even if technology isn’t your business’ primary focus, developing a custom app can help you stay one step ahead of your competition. Having an app offers value to your clients by making your business accessible no matter where they are or what platform they’re using to look for information.

Having an app is also a great way to build strong customer relationships and increase brand loyalty. Developing a loyalty program on your app is one great way to provide value for your customers. Loyalty programs give customers an incentive to engage with the app and your company regularly and can be easily accessed from their phone whenever it is top of mind, and rewarding customers for their loyalty to your brand incentivizes them to continue interacting with you. 

4. You want to provide a personalized experience

Whether you’re looking for a tool to make your product more accessible to potential customers or a secure chat feature to increase communication with your existing clients, it’s easy to build a custom app for mobile devices and still address the needs of your business or your customers. Apps that are made for internal use can benefit from personalization. By adding in custom frameworks, your company can provide a highly useful and relevant tool that employees want to use, and the mobile interface can make things more efficient for your business by helping employees do their jobs faster by having access to easier reporting and communication tools at their fingertips.

Additionally, a benefit of having a custom app for your customers is being able to take inputs from customers and immediately offer relevant resources, information, products, or services to them through push notifications. Your clients’ activity on the app can also inform how your team interacts with them, providing them with a top-to-bottom, tailor-made experience.

5. You want to reduce costs and improve productivity

Finally, apps can help your bottom line. If you create an internally-facing app for your employees, you can reduce costs by creating an easier and more efficient way to manage performance, accessing real-time data for inventory management or sales tracking, and replacing paper communication in most instances. It can also help increase visibility of employee tasks, which helps eliminate redundancy and frees up more time for managers and executives to focus on growing your business instead of monitoring employees. All of which helps increase productivity.

Customers can also benefit from the reduced costs and increased productivity in an external, customer-facing app. Customers can utilize messaging features on the app to communicate with your employees directly without tying up employee resources by sitting on long phone calls. Also, your business’ content can be delivered on the go and consumed whenever your clients have downtime, like during their daily commute or when they are waiting in line. 

While creating a custom app for your business can seem intimidating at first, it can lead to some pretty awesome benefits by growing your business, lowering costs, and increasing the value you deliver to your clients. Plus, there are some easy ways to get your custom app to mobile devices quickly without learning to code. 

Make an app: grow your business. Our free eBook can help get you started. Click here to download!

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