Telemedicine is the practice of providing clinical care to patients at a distance using telecommunications technology. In other words, it is a method of treating patients using the internet and telephone. This can take the form of real-time video visits, secure email, or remotely monitoring a patient’s vital signs.
No, telemedicine is a subset of telehealth. Telehealth also includes non-clinical uses of telecommunications technology such as self-monitoring, provider and patient education, and medical records management.
It depends on state-to-state. For instance, in some states, it is not necessary for the doctor/patient relationship to be established in-person. However, a prior in-person visit is a requirement in some states like Texas.
This depends on the application. In general, telemedicine software is designed to be as easy to use as other familiar modern applications. Patients and providers with a basic familiarity with online apps should be able to quickly figure out how to use a telemedicine application.
This keeps changing between countries and states. As of now, India does not support Insurance pay as it does not cover OPD visits.
Yes, but only when it is conducted using an encrypted platform that was designed for the purpose. Consumer apps like Facetime and Skype are not secure enough for video visits.
Patients: Telemedicine offers timely care, where patients can address their health issues to practitioners through video consultation and get treatment options quickly without compromising on quality. They help patients to connect with expert Physicians where they can communicate via video consultation and get the appropriate solution that increases the satisfaction of the patients. Reduces travel time and related stresses with increased patient satisfaction.
Providers: With telemedicine, provider can determine new symptom of the patient quickly which might require urgent care. This helps to reduce avoidable hospitalizations and readmission rates, potentially increasing the care delivered to the patients. Today’s market is filled with lots of aggregator services where practices/healthcare facilities find it difficult to compete and end up losing their current patients to these aggregator platforms that serve more like a search engine with referrals and offers. Telemedicine allows providers to retain patient and helps expand your base in order to deliver the best patient experience at ease.
The Healthcare System: Even if you never use telemedicine yourself, you will likely benefit from the practice. The efficiency of telemedicine will reduce wait-times for in-person visits, help keep people with non-urgent conditions out of the emergency room, and improve the overall health of the population.
Data collected during the consultation is stored in an AWS cloud which is hosted/housed in India.
Only your hospital, doctor and the respective patient can see their medical data. The data is protected when it is at rest and at transit. The Data is encrypted using AES 256 bit encryption algorithm when at rest and at transit the data is protected by TCP using (SSL).
No, it’s peer to peer communication and it is not recorded by default. But this can be recorded and this can be pushed to your local servers/S3 buckets. Any cost on this infrastructure would be additional and will have additional charges
We follow and adopt HIPAA compliance, one of the topmost standards in the healthcare industry and protecting PHI is the key.
The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) was passed by Congress in 1996 to ensure that people can transfer and continue their health insurance coverage when they change jobs. It also created industry-wide standards for healthcare information on electronic billing and other processes.
One of the most important things that the Act did was to require the protection and secure handling of certain information, known as Protected Health Information. For example, your healthcare provider must have systems in place to ensure that only authorized individuals have access to your health information. This is true whether the information is on paper or in a computer system. HIPAA regulations also apply to any information transmitted over the internet, including video visits.
In order to comply with HIPAA and avoid stiff penalties and fines, your healthcare provider must use a telemedicine solution that meets HIPAA’s strict standards. Many telehealth solutions for video visits on the market today can meet the test.