Telemedicine is the use of medical information exchanged from one location to other utilizing electronic communications to make the better health status of a patient. Telemedicine provides a growing variety of software and services that use two-way video, e-mail, mobile phones, wireless devices, and other types of telecommunications technology. For choosing the right telemedicine platform, you need a list of essential features. Here we are discussing what kinds of telemedicine app features for patients & doctors, should be in a system that can help the doctors, patients, and as well as hospitals.
Telemedicine is not a separate medical discipline in its own right. Telemedicine-related products and services are also part of a broader commitment by healthcare institutions in either information technology or clinical care delivery. In fact in the reimbursement fee structure, generally no difference between on-site and those provided services by telemedicine, and often no separate coding is needed for remote service billing.
Still, Patient consultation through videoconferencing is image sharing, e-health as patient services, remote monitoring of vital signs, continuing medical education, consumer-focused wireless apps, and nursing call centers are all considered to be part of telemedicine and telehealth, among all other apps.
Below you will see the features of the telemedicine app for patients and doctors.
Telemedicine App Features for Patients
The patient side of the app should have the following features
1. Profiles
A patient enters their name, address, sex, age, medical history, and other vital data needed to start the treatment process to build a profile.
2. Book an appointment
This s one of the best benefits of the telemedicine app for patients is that a user can see a list of doctors, view their profiles, and book an appointment with the doctor they choose. This function is one of the most important as it provides patients with details about the availability of a doctor and helps them to book a time that is suitable for them.
3. Video conferencing
Patients use this feature when they need a doctor to examine them. Doctors conduct initial observations through video chat, which is why the quality of the video is so critical. Proper diagnosis and therapeutic accuracy rely on good connection and a clear picture.
4. voice-only calls
Most people don’t want to reveal their faces when it comes to psychological issues, and like to speak privately. The App provides a voice-only call feature for these purposes. It offers a safe forum for people who feel reluctant to get trained assistance to speak about their issues.
5. Cloud-based e-record storage
When patients have established their accounts, they get storage of Electronic Medical records that contain all their information, including medical data and history of communication. Those records can be shared with another specialist, spouse, or another family member if necessary.
6. Medication tracker
The app stores all prescriptions that a doctor writes and sends notifications to remind patients to take their medicine.
7. Geo-Location
A location-aware feature is needed to verify that a patient and the doctor are from the same area. For instance, they are located within the same state in the United States. This is important as states have different regulations.
8. Built-in chat
A patient can use the secure built-in chat to contact a doctor with any urgent query, to get a second consultation, or if they have any questions concerning prescribed medications.
9. Payment gateway
After the consultation, a patient pays the doctor for the service provided. To achieve this, you need to integrate the payment gateway via API. Which can accept all major credit cards: Visa, MasterCard, American Express, and Discover. Patients may also pay using HSA or FSA debit cards as long as they have a Visa or MasterCard logo.
10. Push notifications
Push notifications are your primary way of communicating with your users. Alert users of upcoming appointments or meetings, alert-success transactions, and incoming messages, and advertise your services.
11. In-app calls
You can also incorporate routine phone calls from your app in addition to video and text chats. Sometimes this may be more convenient for users who do not have a stable internet connection. Also, calls can be used for emergencies.
12. Insurance plan
Add the option to add an insurance plan to a user’s profile and keep it in one spot, and send bills to the insurance provider automatically.
13. Ratings and reviews
Once the patient has received medical treatment from a doctor a patient can rate the doctor and leave a review. This feature helps new patients make better decisions while finding doctors.
Telemedicine Concept and the Principles
Telemedicine, also known as telehealth, is a medical procedure that makes use of technology to offer assistance to patients who live far away. It was first introduced by the USA to connect patients across an extended distance and is now a standard practice due to the ease of use. Telehealth apps are mostly utilized to offer support for doctors for non-urgent cases where lengthy inpatient treatment isn’t required.
The following statistics show that the market for telemedicine continues to grow and is predicted to reach 41.2 billion US dollars in 2021. This is why entrepreneurs are seeking an app development solution for telemedicine to get into the market and earn a profit.
Reasons For Why People Opt For Telemedicine Applications
People are gradually getting more cautious when it comes to using electronic health products. Their trust grows and the development of telehealth apps is exploding. These apps are becoming more loved because they’re:
Quick: People who have an unimportant health problem or are unable to visit the doctor in person, cut down on the time they’d have spent visiting the clinic, filling in medical forms, and sitting in a waiting room.
Urgent: These apps can reduce the need for emergency room visits since they aid in the treatment of common cold-related ailments, respiratory ailments (e.g. asthma,) allergies skin and eye problems, muscle strains, burning, cuts, and pain.
Convenient: Telemedicine is a great way to access necessary notes from doctors like excuses for school or work in cases where a patient requires an extra day or two to recuperate. When a doctor refills the form, the patient will be informed that the form is available to print or email.
Another reason that makes the development of telemedicine apps popular is evident from the survey of companies that offer mobile health apps in the year 2017. The survey revealed that consumers are most attracted to connecting to their doctors and are worried about monitoring chronic diseases.
Other benefits to investing in developing telehealth apps for healthcare providers are:
Reduced paperwork: All administrative work is automated since specialists utilize EMR.
Simple Follow-up: A caregiver gets immediate access to the patient’s medical records and prior suggestions from other doctors.
Speedier delivery of services: Doctors provide services faster thanks to an easy Electronic Medical Records (EMR) system, and instant messaging with the integration of AI chatbots.
The Most Important Features To Consider For Telemedicine App Performance
Every app comes with standard components to incorporate during the creation process, however, there are also specific characteristics that make telemedicine software for healthcare distinct from other health software. Here’s a look at the characteristics of a telehealth application.
User Profile
A profile of the user is an important element to display details about the user: picture (optional) the address of their home, gender and address the email address, time zone or phone number, as well as alternate numbers for account settings or in case of emergency. The profile should also be able to display the history of the visits as well as the schedule of appointments.
Patient Web/Mobile Panel
The typical panel includes doctors’ services, along with the listing of conditions that are subject to treatment and the application form to schedule appointments. A common page with tabs includes mental, medical, and family health histories as well as lifestyle pages as well as payment methods and settings, as well as the patient’s interactions through the system.
Geolocation
The development of a Telemedicine app and its introduction can help patients reduce the need for travel. This is why they always require the user’s location to locate hospitals and pharmacies nearby provide directions, and also set an approximate time of arrival at the destination of choice.
Communication Methods
In order to ensure the control of treatment and to ensure real-time communication for real-time communication, the primary focus of the development of the telehealth app should focus on the integration with:
- In-app chat option;
- In-app calling;
- Live video sessions.
The job of a developer team is to design an intuitive messenger that supports audio, file sharing, and video support. This will ensure high-quality messages are sent and provide an easy connection.
Electronic Medical Records (EMR)
The development of the app for telemedicine calls for an integration with EMR to guarantee:
- The flexibility of workflow,
- Accessibility of services,
- Usability of software.
The basic idea behind EMR is in capturing information about the new patient and then making it up-to-date with each new visit. It aids in further diagnosis of a patient, by providing an ongoing assessment of the patient’s health. EMR collects all data that pertains to the condition and reduces paperwork for doctors and eliminates duplicate health records.
EMR assists in addressing security concerns. It is built on the blocks of information that are accessible on various levels by various specialists. For instance, the entire patient’s medical record is accessible by the attending physician only. Other medical personnel who provide extra services to patients only have access to specific parts of the record. Therefore, the goal of the telemedicine app development team is to create the security of data storage and access for both patients and providers.
Remote Patient Monitoring (RPM)
Some platforms have been developed to assist patients with ailments that require self-monitoring. They utilize RPM to aid doctors and patients keep their medical records of pregnancy and to aid in the pregnancy program or manage chronic diseases which require, for example, the monitoring of glucose levels or cholesterol and glucose monitoring, for instance. Developers also develop RPM-based apps to help patients fight cancer-related diseases and enhance their lives.
Symptom Checker
A symptom checker functions as an extra program that can help patients identify their symptoms and answer queries about their condition. Based on the information input the program will suggest a most probable diagnosis, but only a physician can make the final determination.
A Medication and Prescription Tracker
If a physician recommends an order the tracker will inform the patient when they can get the medicine at the pharmacy. Patients then need to show their ID, their insurance card, as well as the electronic copy of the prescription.
It is possible to tell the telehealth app’s development team that you wish for your app to incorporate an integrated marketplace or online pharmacy similar to previous versions of our earlier projects. Furthermore, your application could incorporate features that give patients the option of receiving prescriptions delivered to their homes. This feature is helpful for patients with special needs who are not able to purchase the prescription at a pharmacy on their own.
The prescriptions for lab tests are created to determine particular health issues. Following the video visit has concluded, the patient will be presented with a list of labs to conduct tests at. The doctor’s electronic request will be delivered to the chosen lab to notify a lab technician to make the necessary preparations for the tests.
Payment Methods
The payment methods differ between apps However, if you want to follow the Doctor on Demand for instance there are many methods to pay for telemedicine:
- Credit card;
- Insurance (Medicare or Medicaid plans);
- Employer coverage;
- Coupons.
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PLATFORMS FOR TELEMEDICINE – ELECTRIC MEDICAL
The issues that make developing telemedicine apps more difficult are the limitations that are imposed by healthcare laws. There’s still a lot of uncertainty over the privacy of patients. Legal limitations vary at federal and state levels. In this sense, the focus will be on security and HIPAA (Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) compliance for US citizens, or GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance for EU residents, as well as the related Acts that apply to other countries.
Local Legislation
In accordance with US law, security is provided by HIPAA. Because the collected data is stored and redirected, HIPAA Security Rule states that personal health information needs to be sent via secure messages. Documents and media files should be secured and not be shared outside of the secure network.
According to European law, an app must conform to GDPR. Article 25 and Recital 78 in the GDPR state that the security of data is protected by design and not by default. Data protection through design includes:
Pseudonymization is the process of replacing personal data elements with artificial identifiers
Encryption is the process of changing the code so that it is accessible only to users who have permission to access it.
The default setting for data protection means that the health information of the user is accessible and only processed in an individual case. This is a reference to data protection for personal information stored and the date of processing storage, accessibility, and access.
GDPR does not specify the ways to meet the requirements, but they must be enforced in full. The two laws GDPR and HIPAA have more responsibility for companies and support the rights of a health consumer. This is the reason why the business owner must be cautious when choosing the team to develop telehealth apps.
International Care Provision
Telemedicine applications for healthcare cannot be made worldwide due to the various regulatory systems across the globe. But, it is possible to allow patients to begin the visit when they’re away from the area in which services are provided with no restrictions. The only restriction is that the healthcare provider will only provide advice on medication and treatment however, in no way can they prescribe a medication. In that situation, the patient is completely responsible for the decision to begin treatment and the consequences.
Physician-Patient Legal Relationship
The privacy concerns in the doctor-patient relationship could be pertaining to:
Patient credentials. As per some laws, doctors are required to ask patients to show their identification card prior to the exam and then sign a consent to treatment prior to prescribing any medication.
Practitioner’s license. Doctors who provide services via your app must hold a GP or a specialist license within the region where the patient is.
Insurance for malpractice. Find out whether the providers’ malpractice insurance covers services offered by telemedicine and if it’s applicable in the specific area you’re trying to protect.
Costs For Engaging A Telemedicine Platform
The costs for developing a telemedicine app and the time required for developing a telehealth app are dependent on the previous experiences of a group in making similar healthcare initiatives as well as the size of a team, and the timeframes. But, you must be aware of a few unique features that generally require more money to ensure an excellent outcome.
Big Data Analytics
Each telemedicine platform has to be able to gather and store massive quantities of data. To better understand the way Big Data technologies work, imagine the old-fashioned paper record storage rooms that evoke an image of a library that can fit inside a tiny cabinet on your desk. The cabinet is equipped with software capable of analyzing this huge data and offers a crucial prediction in a simple format. Big Data analytics is used in EMR and real-time alerting functions help to collect information about diseases that can keep them from occurring in the future. The process of structuring and determining methods to guarantee the security of searching is a challenging challenge for a telehealth app’s development team. It will require more money due to the complexity of massive data management.
AI Integration
It is a costly but worthwhile option to look into during the development of a telemedicine application. AI chatbots can be effective in mental health. In addition to aiding patients to fill out registration forms and helping them navigate the application, they communicate by utilizing smart questionnaires to assess mental disorders. Chatbots that are more sophisticated help users overcome compulsive thoughts by showing empathy.
Chatbots are able to provide medical advice when a health professional is not present or patients find it difficult to disclose their issues during the appointment. They are able to look at the signs, educate the patient about the illness and give prescriptions for minor health concerns in lieu of a physician.
Quality Assurance
QA experts ensure that the end product of the development process is at standard and that the app functions in accordance with the customer’s requirements. Some may view QA as a costly and time-consuming process because it’s part of the category of expenses that are not included in the other categories. It actually saves money since it offsets the time and effort you could have spent on contacting IT firms to fix issues in the software.
Conclusion
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