In the world of healthcare solutions, agility and rapid updates can make a critical difference in patient care and user experience. Building mobile applications that run consistently on both Android and iOS while enabling quick UI updates and feature deployments has always been a challenge.

In this blog post, we'll explore a unique approach that combines the strengths of React Native and web technologies to achieve these goals.

The Challenge: Consistency, Speed, and Control

Healthcare applications demand a level of consistency, reliability, and security that is second to none. However, they must also keep pace with evolving medical practices and user expectations. This challenge often leads to a trade-off between speed and control in mobile app development.

Traditional approaches to mobile app development involve building native applications for each platform separately. While this approach provides full control over the app's functionality, it can be time-consuming and inflexible when it comes to quick UI updates or adding new features. Every change requires development, building, and deploying new app versions to app stores, causing delays and potential disruptions in services.

The Solution: A Hybrid Approach with React Native and Web Integration

To overcome these challenges, we leveraged our extensive experience in building hybrid mobile applications and devised a hybrid solution that combines the best of both worlds: a React Native container application that loads a locally hosted React UI app in a WebView.

How It Works

1. React Native Container App: We developed a React Native container application that acts as a native wrapper around a WebView component.

2. Locally Hosted React UI: The core UI of the healthcare application is built using React and hosted locally within the WebView. This React UI is responsible for rendering the primary user interface and presenting information to users.

3. Native Features: For features that require native capabilities, such as camera integration, speech recognition, or serial port communication, we implemented these features natively within the React Native container app.

Benefits of the Hybrid Approach

1. Rapid UI Updates

With the healthcare UI hosted as a web application, we gained the ability to make quick UI updates without the need for app store submissions. Updates to HTML, CSS, or JavaScript code can be deployed instantly, ensuring that critical information and user interfaces are always up-to-date.

2. Agile Feature Deployment

Adding new features or functionalities no longer requires extensive development and app store updates. We can develop and deploy new features on the web side of the application, and users can access them immediately without any app updates. This agility is especially valuable in the fast-paced healthcare sector.

3. Native Integration

By combining React Native with web technologies, we retained full control over the native side of the application. This allows us to seamlessly integrate native features like camera access for medical imaging, speech recognition for medical dictation, and serial port communication for device integration.

4. Platform Consistency

React Native ensures that the application runs consistently on both Android and iOS platforms. Users benefit from a unified and familiar experience, regardless of their device.

5. Private Distribution

In healthcare, data security and privacy are paramount. The application can be privately distributed to authorized users or healthcare facilities, ensuring that sensitive patient information remains secure.

Potential Side Effects: Performance Considerations

While the hybrid approach offers numerous benefits, it's essential to consider potential side effects, particularly in terms of performance.

1. Web Technology Limitations

Dependence on web technologies for the core UI may introduce performance limitations. Complex web applications, especially those handling large datasets or graphics-intensive tasks, can strain device resources.

2. WebView Constraints

WebView components are subject to limitations and variations across different devices and operating systems. Ensuring consistent performance and behavior across the wide range of devices used in healthcare can be challenging.

3. Network Connectivity

Since the core UI is hosted as a web application, the healthcare solution relies on network connectivity. Any disruption in network access could impact the application's usability.

Balancing Act: Optimizing Performance

To mitigate potential performance issues, it's crucial to implement best practices:

• Optimize Web Code: Ensure that the web-based UI is optimized for performance, minimizing resource consumption and rendering bottlenecks.

• Caching: Implement efficient caching mechanisms to reduce the dependency on network connectivity and improve response times.

• Device Testing: Thoroughly test the application on a variety of devices and operating systems to identify and address any compatibility or performance issues.

• Native Enhancement: For critical features that require high performance, consider implementing them natively to achieve the best possible performance.

Conclusion

In the ever-evolving landscape of healthcare solutions, the ability to deliver rapid updates and new features is a strategic advantage. The hybrid approach that combines React Native with web technologies offers a compelling solution to this challenge. It empowers healthcare applications with agility, flexibility, and native integration while allowing for quick UI updates and feature deployments.

However, it's essential to strike a balance and carefully consider performance implications, especially when dealing with resource-intensive tasks. By optimizing web code, implementing caching, and testing rigorously, healthcare providers can harness the full potential of this hybrid approach and deliver cutting-edge solutions that meet the demanding needs of healthcare professionals and patients.

Reference Links:

• React Native Documentation
• WebView Component in React Native
• Mozilla Web Docs