The C-Suite Guide to Mobile Technologies for mHealth Development

Executive Summary

mHealth technologies are forming a more integral part of many healthcare organizations’ health IT roadmap. This Guide is designed to concisely present relevant information explaining the benefits, limitations, and differences between three different technologies available for mHealth application development. This guide covers:

Native Application
Cross-platform Application Development
React Native Application Development

The information presented is intended to serve as an overview and starting point for determining the right set of development technologies for your mHealth application.

Introduction

Mobile technologies have significantly impacted almost all consumer-driven industries over the last decade. As healthcare continues to integrate IT and digital solutions to improve outcomes, reduce costs, and engage patients, mHealth applications will continue to play an important role in the IT and digital strategies of healthcare delivery networks.

Over 165,000 mHealth applications on the market

iOS mHealth applications grew 106% from 2013 to 2015

Only 2% of mHealth applications are integrated with provider health IT systems

Source: QuintilesIMS

In this guide, Medical Web Experts provides a brief overview of the available technologies for building mHealth applications, and an unbiased assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of each.

Native Applications

Native applications run directly on a mobile device without a browser component. They are built for a specific operating system (iOS, Android, or Windows), which allows access to device features like the camera, GPS, and gesture functions (swipe, enlarge, etc.).

The two most common platforms for native application development are Android (55.3% market share) and iOS (43.5% market share). For Android development, Java is the core programming language used. For iOS, Objective-C and Swift are the core languages, with the focus shifting towards Swift.

Source: 9to5Mac.com

Benefits of a Native App

  • Performance: Better performance than a non-native application, because the native app runs directly on the device operating system.
  • UI consistency: Excellent user experience with UI/UX design that is optimized for each operating system.
  • Device Access: Easily able to access device features for complex functionalities.

Drawbacks of a Native App

  • Cost: Higher cost, because developers are needed for both Android and iOS, and code written for one system can’t be used for the other.
  • Limited data aggregation: Limited data aggregation capabilities across other Health IT systems.

Cross Platform Applications

Cross platform applications are those that allow web apps to run on mobile. They do this by wrapping the web application in something called a “native container,” an additional layer of technology that allows web applications to run as mobile applications. This native container also allows access to an array of device features similar to those available to a native app, although this access is heavily reliant on third-party plugins that are often out-of-date or nonexistent.

Perhaps the biggest virtue of choosing to develop cross platform mobile applications is that the HTML, CSS, and JavaScript that your web developers are already writing are the languages they will use to create mobile apps. So the same code your team is using for your website can also be used to create a mobile application.

Tools like Ionic, Cordova, PhoneGap, and Xamarin are widely used options that provide the native container necessary to allow your web application to run on mobile devices but have it look like an app. As such, it can be downloaded through the app store and use plugins to access device features using these tools.

Benefits of cross platform application development

  • Web applications can easily be turned into mobile applications.
  • One coding language for both web and mobile apps.
  • Reduced cost, as your existing web development team can also create your mobile applications.

Drawbacks of cross platform applications

  • Inferior UI/UX: Cross platform frameworks can’t access operating system-specific design elements for user interface creation.
  • Lowest performance in terms of battery usage, processing speed, and user experience due to the extra layer of technology.
  • Limited access to device features like the camera and GPS, as the only way to access these is through plugins.
  • Cannot be used offline.

React Native

React Native is a new generation of mobile development technology created by Facebook, based on the popular ReactJS library for web development. It allows developers the ability to create UI/UX with visuals that are standard for each operating system, translating to a much better user experience compared to cross platform applications. React Native also allows robust access to device features while allowing web developers to create a single code base in JavaScript that can be used for both Android and iOS.

In essence, React Native combines the cost-effectiveness of cross platform mobile development with the platform and operating system-specific capabilities of native mobile app development.

Benefits of React Native development

  • One code base across all platforms: Ability to create native application UI/UX.
  • Access to device features: Like the camera and GPS.
  • Reduced development costs compared with native app development, as one set of technologies can be used across both iOS and Android.
  • Open-source codebase: Well supported and constantly evolving, with a robust developer community contributing to the code and the stability and functionality of the platform.
  • Increased versatility: Custom mHealth app data can be submitted to a custom administrative portal.

Drawbacks of React Native development

  • Faster performance than cross platform, but still slower than native applications.
  • Platform stability that still has not reached a v. 1.0, with frequent changes and updates.

As with all technologies, native, cross platform, and React Native mobile apps all have their pros and cons. One won’t necessarily always be the right choice. Instead, you should choose your app development technology based on the functionalities you will need for your new mHealth application.