Design and Development of Android Application for Doctors and Patients: Implications for Covid-19 Pandemic and Post Pandemic Uses

Abstract

The anxiety brought by the Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19) pandemic caused a lockdown across the world to ensure social distance. This has pushed health care services far from the reach of many people, especially people with other ailments other than COVID-19. Outpatients become reluctant to visit healthcare centres to avoid the long waiting time to consult a doctor. There are also the problems of scheduling and rescheduling of appointments between patients and doctors, which has affected communication between them. Many hospitals have restricted patients' visits to hospitals and encouraged patients to communicate with their doctors via mobile phones. This has necessitated for the design and development of an android-based application called Medipal that improves consultation and appointment scheduling processes between doctors and patients, as well as personal health record keeping by patients. The application also enables patients to personally keep their health information, thereby involving them in their health and wellness. The overall performance of the mobile application was satisfactory as the evaluation showed that it enabled users to save time and cost during appointment scheduling and consultation. The app was deemed useful as majority accepted that it made them more aware of their health information. The interface of the app was easily navigated as users were able to perform operations with ease. Further research and development can be carried out as this study creates a platform upon which better systems can be built. Keywords: Doctors, Healthcare, Medipal, Mobile Health Application, Mobile Technology, M-Health.