Healthcare

What is the best telehealth platform?

Editor

Telehealth is not something new to the world as it has already existed for over 50 years after conducting the first medical video consultation. However, telehealth software development has been growing and expanding significantly recently due to accessible and widespread emerging technologies.

Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the global telehealth industry was expected to be worth $175 billion by 2027. It means that telehealth platforms are among the most promising businesses for the next few years. Meanwhile, software agencies like Exoft will continue to help customers create such platforms in the shortest time frame. That makes custom-developed telehealth platforms a perfect option for each healthcare organization.

Advantages of custom-developed telehealth platforms

Among the key benefits of telehealth platforms are following:

Accessibility

Accessibility serves as probably the most influential telehealth advantage. Thanks to telehealth platforms, patients can make appointments with doctors from anywhere. After all, a video conference may take place where a patient is and requires less than 30 minutes. The particular situation is critical in areas where people do not have many healthcare facilities or struggle with the lack of medical specialists. For example, patients who live in the countryside find it incredibly hard to get help from a clinician compared to urban areas.

Telehealth platforms also offer some advantages to doctors. Most clinicians are willing to conduct video appointments because they increase access for relevant patients. Besides, telehealth apps allow doctors to expand their audience.

Convenience

Apart from being accessible, custom-developed telehealth platforms are also significantly convenient. Among the most critical reasons clinicians want to conduct video calls with their patients is because the particular convenience allows maintaining an appropriate work-life balance. Meanwhile, doctors also believe that this approach promotes using time more efficiently for both physicians and patients.

Affordability

Telehealth platforms save a lot of money for people because there is no need to use emergency rooms for getting treatment as quickly as possible. For instance, the video conference with the clinician via telehealth platforms costs about $50, while visiting an emergency room is often three times higher.

In addition, telehealth platforms can provide patients with affordable prices as they allow optimizing the use of relevant resources and personnel distribution. After all, using telehealth apps does not require equipped waiting rooms, along with facility staff. That enables healthcare organizations to save significant costs when providing their services.

Safety

During the COVID-19 pandemic or other life-threatening diseases, exposing both patients and doctors to the nidus must be considered an incredible risk. Therefore, online video conferences serve as a much safer option for all parties.

Core features of custom-developed telehealth platforms

Creating a telehealth platform should start with market research and analysis of competitors, which allows determining the core features and functionalities for the future solution. Below, we provide a list of the fundamental features you should consider when developing a custom telehealth platform.

Registration

Your custom telehealth platform should provide users with fast and easy registration. To do that, you can offer them to sign up using their social networks such as Google or Facebook. Besides, it is critical to ensure that users are familiar with the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. After that, they need to accept them, along with HIPAA Authorization. Finally, you have to send a relevant email or an SMS to the user’s phone to ensure his intention to use your telehealth solution.

User profile

A patient’s profile should serve as a medical card; the only difference is a digital form. An appropriate user profile must contain everything, ranging from general health data about the patient to different preferred pharmacies.

Search

Although you can provide an incredibly extensive search if needed, it is recommended to keep it minimal:

  • search using a keyword, clinician, or symptom;
  • search using the patient’s location.

Also, you can provide your platform’s search page with a map that will show how many physicians are available.

Booking

Bookings may be conducted using a specific questionnaire. For example, during the booking process, you should ask patients for:

  • the insurance number;
  • the reason for a medical appointment;
  • time and date;
  • other notes.

Video and audio calls

When it comes to video and audio calls, you should make them HIPAA-compliant and maintain the required security. At the same time, you can select a type of video conference your custom-developed telehealth platform will provide: on-demand or pre-scheduled. The first type refers to an instant call and is often more expensive. Instead, users may book a pre-scheduled video call beforehand by setting the desired date and time.

Payment

To conduct payment transactions in your telehealth platform, you should choose some safe options, including PayPal and Stripe. Besides, you need to provide patients with various options of paying, such as credit cards or digital wallets.

Messaging

After conducting a video or an audio call, users may still require some additional information or clarifications. Thus, providing your telehealth platform with a messaging function is vital. But at the same time, you should establish a subscription model due to this feature because patients will take physicians’ time. In this case, you will gain relevant resources for compensating the work of the last ones.

Doctor’s profile

Like patients, clinicians are also required to fill in the data about themselves, including various medical certifications, experience, and even photos. That allows patients to contact a professional with the desired expertise.

Conclusion

To conclude, custom-developed telehealth platforms are increasingly in demand today and will continue to stay popular for many years. After all, healthcare organizations invest millions of dollars in such platforms that provide the best possible functions, unique propositions, and high-quality healthcare services. Of course, the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic have boosted the progress of telehealth services and telehealth apps. But the relevant platforms have always been incredibly effective, useful, and profitable.

Ultimately, before building a telehealth platform, you need to decide what functionalities your platform will provide. At the same time, the most critical thing here is to ensure that your telehealth platform is compliant with the necessary regulations. After considering these aspects, your custom telehealth platform development will be successful.