Medical practice website development is a challenging path. Nevertheless, such a simple tool comes with several value-adding opportunities for both patients and hospitals. Connecting to your patients via a well-developed web or mobile portal promises an opportunity to cut operational costs, deliver better personalized medical care, gather and analyze patients’ data, raise brand awareness and improve the credibility of your healthcare institutions.

That’s why in this article, we will dwell on the up-to-date medical website design tips and best practices to help you develop a strong online presence. 

Healthcare and Medical Services Evolution – Leading Tech Trends

The industry of healthcare is evolving, being reshaped by artificial intelligence, the Internet of Things, Big Data analysis, blockchain, 3D printing, and cloud computing. AI and ML are used for patient data gathering and analysis, smart devices help with in-hospital and at-home monitoring, blockchain provides the secured ecosystem, while cloud computing is the top option to keep sensitive data protected and ensure fast data transfer. In the background of these technologies, a medical website seems the simplest possible tool to use for attracting new patients and staying in touch with the current ones, raising awareness, and building social proof. 

So, if your healthcare business is just getting started with digital transformation, opting for medical website design and development is the right tactic. There are a lot of factors to pay attention to, and your medical website design is one of them. 

Why Does Medical Website Design Matter?

According to the Health websites visual structure research, “ The visual impression the medical website delivers is decisive for the users’ trust in a healthcare provider. That’s why healthcare institutions keep their website’s designs appealing to the users, ensuring intuitive UI and creating a user journey free from stumbling blocks.”

What’s more, building trust isn’t the only task a healthcare website design is responsible for.  There is also a strong connection between medical website design and SEO since the design directly affects the website’s bounce rate which is one of the most important ranking factors. The user experience your website delivers is also strongly connected with the design and UI, so the main task is to develop a medical website in such a way to provide the users with the necessary features, fit them into the user journey, create intuitive UI and ensure top-notch usability. 

Basic And Advanced Functionality of a Healthcare Solution

Depending on the medical website design ideas you would like to implement and the business model you plan to follow, you have to develop both basic and advanced features to make your website a starting or recurring point in your medical services delivery. 

Basic features:

• Home page. This is the core page your patients use to start interacting with your website. It should also come with sign-in and sign-up features, preferably using Google and social media accounts. 
• Contact information and map. This is the next basic feature your clinic’s website should have so that prospective patients can easily get in touch with you. 
• Introducing your doctors. Most patients would like to know the personality and professional background of the doctors they are about to apply to. Introduce your best-in-class medical specialists right on your website. 
• Services and pricing. 75% of patients would like to discover the cost of medical service in advance, so it is better to share this information on your medical website. 
• Testimonials. Social proof is important, especially for health-anxious patients. Consider gathering authentic patients’ testimonials to raise trust, and find a way to organically embed this section in your website design. 

Advanced features:

• Online scheduling. 58% of medical institutions use online booking to deliver a better experience to their customers, fill in free time slots and reduce the workload on the administrative staff. 
• Video conferencing. Telemedicine is on the rise as well  – 76% of healthcare service providers in the US use video conferencing features to deliver medical care online and reduce operational costs, increasing healthcare accessibility regardless of the location. 
• Electronic health record integration. Integrating your website with Electronic Health Records is the top opportunity to switch to data-driven healthcare, quickly exchange healthcare data, and develop better-personalized treatment programs, being fully aware of the patient’s medical history. 
• Self-diagnosing tools. Some of the advanced medical websites also come with self-diagnosis tools. This approach is especially popular in mental health services, since a self-diagnosing feature allows the patient to answer the most important questions in advance, and the doctor, in turn, can get better prepared for an upcoming consultation. 
• Notifications and reminders. Adding reminders and notifications to a mobile medical website is another great idea for driving patients’ engagement and helping them follow the doctor’s recommendations accurately. 

Medical Practice Website Design Tips and Best Practices

• Strive for clarity and simplicity. This is an ever-green rule regardless of the business niche you are creating a website for. A medical website UI should be intuitive, the color scheme should be chosen taking the psychology of colors into account, and the overall UX should be as seamless as possible. 
• Know your users’ needs and pain points. There are a lot of advanced features that you can embed but not all of them might be equally useful and expected by your users. That’s why you have to get started with the research, validate your design and development ideas with your patients, decide on the features necessary to run an MVP, and only then proceed with medical website design services. 
• Stay legally compliant. There are a lot of legal regulations when it comes to medical website design and development. HIPAA is one of them. This is a regulation that defines the rules for medical data storage, transfer, and sharing, and is applicable not only to the data stored by the website but also to medical information the doctors have about the patients shared by them personally. 
• Share scientifically-proven content only. According to Statista, Mayo Clinic is the top-visited medical website globally. In addition to the fact that this platform comes with an easy-to-navigate and nice design, the website shares science-proven, well-written and SEO-optimized content only. 

Conclusion

A medical website is a must-have tool for healthcare providers in 2022 and beyond. Following the industry-accepted design and development practices, staying legally compliant, and protecting your patients’ data are three main pillars of a conversion-driving medical website, so consider professional development services to build a patient-centered, secured and scalable healthcare software. 

FAQ

• Why do medical professionals need a website?

From a business standpoint, this is a tool to drive conversions rate, build customer loyalty and improve brand awareness. A medical website is also an opportunity to deliver deeply-personalized medical care, gather and analyze healthcare data, and transform your healthcare institution digitally. 

• How much does a medical website design cost?

The cost to build a medical website largely depends on the technologies you use, the complexity of the design, the features you would like to build, and the integrations to add. 

• Do I need to hire someone to design and build my healthcare website?

In a nutshell, yes. Creating a medical website requires following the up-to-date design trends, tips, and practices, securing sensitive data, and staying legally compliant.