Top telemedicine software features, integrations & use cases

Top telemedicine software features, integrations & use cases

April 30, 2024

Anastasiya Korzun

by Anastasiya Korzun,

Senior Business Analyst

Telehealth software features encompass a range of functionalities that help medical professionals securely provide healthcare services and receive reimbursement remotely. A telemedicine app’s feature set usually depends on the medical specialty and business model of the healthcare organization.

Tailoring a solution's functionality to the organization's clinical and business requirements is an essential step in telehealth application development, as it ultimately determines its usefulness. Let’s explore both basic and specialized functionality for telehealth solutions, as well as use cases of their successful implementation, and learn how to choose the combination of features most suitable for your medical practice.

Table of contents

Telehealth software usage statistics

revenue expansion is expected for the telemedicine market by 2025

Fairfield Market Research

of patients agreed that telehealth has made care more accessible to them

Statista

of patients use telemedicine services to deal with common illnesses

SingleCare

Essential telemedicine software features

Telemedicine software’s basic functionality focuses on establishing a secure space for productive and uninterrupted virtual consultations.

HD video calls

Telehealth solutions aim to smoothly connect patients and doctors and provide experiences similar to in-person visits, and video calls are the most effective way to achieve this. However, the diagnostic accuracy of video conferencing, its comfort for the patients and clinicians, and its effectiveness for treatment largely depend on video quality. High-definition video allows medical professionals to see more details during the patient examination and make a more precise diagnosis.

Backup audio communication channel

Not all patients have access to high-speed internet to support a high-quality video connection. Connection disruptions can also happen during a video session due to bad weather, hardware malfunction, or network overload on either side. For such scenarios, a telehealth platform should have a backup communication channel that doesn’t require as much bandwidth as a video chat. For instance, a telehealth platform can trigger an automatic call to a pre-authorized phone number if the connection is lost, allowing clinicians to switch to a traditional over-the-phone conversation with the patient.

Text messaging

Telemedicine platforms should allow patients to get healthcare providers’ advice without an audio or video consultation. A telehealth system with an in-built chat offers patients a convenient and easy way to clarify questions that don’t require a full-length consultation, notify their provider about changes in their health condition, or schedule an appointment for a more thorough consultation. Clinicians can initiate conversations via messages as well, for example, to routinely follow up on patients who aren’t likely to have complications or confirm patient details to renew e-prescriptions.

Store & forward data exchange

In addition to the real-time communication between patients and clinicians, telehealth apps should enable patients to log symptoms and upload images or videos for medical professionals to examine. This store and forward functionality is essential for specializations that rely heavily on visual examinations like dermatology or symptom observation over extended periods like psychology.

Visit notes templates

Telemedicine applications should streamline note-taking during the virtual visit to let clinicians dedicate more attention to their patients. 

This is why telemedicine solutions should provide customizable templates for common visit types that pre-fill patients’ demographic data, medical history, and medication lists from the solution’s database, EHR, or healthcare CRM solutions. During the consultation, medical professionals can simply update relevant information in such templates, which significantly cuts down the time needed for paperwork.

Features for patients

Telehealth apps should allow patients to access and manage their health records. Such patient-facing features typically include patient profile management, access to medical records, appointment scheduling, virtual waiting rooms, and educational materials for patients and caregivers.

Portals for medical specialists

Healthcare professionals also need to have a dedicated interface for interacting with the telehealth platform. To support doctor’s day-to-day workflows, such a portal should be intuitive and include features like appointment scheduling and cancellation, patient information and clinical notes management, and access to clinical documentation and medical knowledge bases.

Regulatory compliance features

As most software for the healthcare industry, telemedicine software should comply with dedicated security standards and country-specific regulations. So, depending on factors like the telehealth app’s user base, location and licensing of medical service providers, and types of data collected and transferred, it should comply with HIPAA, GDPR, CCPA, or other relevant standards. Data encryption, role-based access, multi-factor authentication, and peer-to-peer video conferencing are patient data protection methods most commonly implemented in HIPAA-compliant telehealth software.

Need help conceptualizing a telemedicine solution?

Turn to Itransition

Advanced capabilities for a telehealth app

In addition to essential telehealth features, medical organizations can incorporate more innovative technologies to widen the scope of provided services and stand out among competitors.

VR features

Virtual reality can increase the effectiveness of telecare by immersing the patient in a comfortable and stimulating environment. For example, virtual reality rehabilitation programs that patients can complete at home prove to be as effective as those provided at a specialized facility, while offering more comfort for the patient.

Computer vision algorithms

Computer vision can serve as an additional pair of eyes for a medical professional, analyzing medical images and videos during or after virtual care sessions. It detects anomalies in patients’ appearance or behavior, providing supplementary data to clinicians for more accurate condition assessment.

Chatbots

AI-powered bots can answer patients’ questions 24/7 in a messaging module and help them find the needed information in their medical records or the knowledge base. If the request is urgent, chatbots can connect the patient to relevant medical professionals.

AI-powered clinical decision support systems

AI-powered clinical decision support solutions integrated with telehealth apps can analyze patient data and provide real-time suggestions for relevant diagnostic tests, treatment options or medication adjustments and highlight possible allergies or drug interactions, driving more precise and personalized medical care.

Valuable telehealth integrations

Healthcare providers that want to provide their patients with a more holistic medical experience need to expand their telehealth platform’s functionality through integrations with other healthcare apps.

Telehealth software
Medical devices
EHR/EMR
E-prescribing software
Healthcare analytics
CRM
Payment gateways

Medical devices

Medical professionals can receive only limited information from talking to patients and observing them during virtual consultations. To supply telehealth practitioners with more data, patients often use devices measuring heart rate, blood pressure, sugar and oxygen levels, and temperature. Connecting remote patient monitoring devices to telemedicine apps allows healthcare providers to easily observe patients’ vitals during the consultation and track their changes over time. Depending on the parameter to be monitored, integrated devices can be simple wearable fitness trackers or specialized medical IoT devices.

EHR/EMR

While telehealth apps collect patient health information from consultations or submitted via patient portals, they don’t contain entire medical histories. To provide clinicians with a 360-degree view of patients’ health, healthcare providers can integrate their telehealth platform with the electronic health records system in place.

E-prescribing software

Healthcare professionals providing services via telehealth apps aim to offer a fully remote experience to their patients, including getting a medication prescription without having to pick up its physical copy. Integrating the telemedicine app with an eRx module enables clinicians to generate electronic prescriptions and send them directly to pharmacists to dispatch the medication to patients’ addresses.

Healthcare analytics

Healthcare analytics solutions integrated into the telehealth platform process patients’ health data and provide insights into their symptoms and behavior. Such reports give a basis for more accurate diagnoses and effective treatment, health risk prevention, and patient care personalization to reduce patient no-shows.

CRM

Healthcare CRM integration with a telehealth platform speeds up patient registration and appointment scheduling, ensures the effectiveness of sales and marketing campaigns, enables telehealth services’ upselling and cross-selling, and helps centralize patients’ feedback for future improvement of remote healthcare delivery.

Payment gateways

Allowing patients to instantly pay for telehealth services contributes to patients’ convenience, while healthcare providers can receive reimbursement faster. Therefore, medical organizations should equip their telemedicine platform with a variety of payment options for different patient groups.

Our telehealth case studies

With 25+ years of expertise in healthcare software development, we have delivered multiple telehealth solutions tailored to the unique requirements of our clients.

Telehealth app facilitated psychiatric medical care

25%

patient wait time reduction

Telehealth app facilitated psychiatric medical care

We delivered a cloud-based telemedicine software solution with a field-specific feature that speeds up remote psychiatric assessments and case creations, improving the accuracy of patient records, and coordinating patient placement across multiple psychiatric facilities.

An RPM and telehealth suite improves care for assault victims

3x

faster case creation

An RPM and telehealth suite improves care for assault victims

We developed a software suite consisting of a mobile app and a web-based portal that facilitates high-quality video conferencing and secure image transfer. Solutions are integrated with medical devices and patient records management systems to help nurses in rural areas provide care to assault victims.

Telemedicine software conceptualization guide

The telemedicine software market has skyrocketed after the pandemic, so future adopters face a disorientingly large selection of ready-made solutions and custom options. Here’s a three-step guide to help healthcare providers choose the most fitting telehealth option.

1

Assess your objectives & resources

Decide on your telemedicine offer - general or specialty consultations, mental health support, wellness advice, remote physiotherapy, or other type of services.
Assess your target patients’ tech-savviness, location, age, and other characteristics influencing the telehealth feature set.
Describe expected business and clinical outcomes from implementing a telehealth solution. 
Evaluate the resources you can dedicate to telemedicine app development and implementation and set the project’s budget.

2

Determine the feature set

Prioritize essential telehealth software features like compliance with HIPAA and other regional security regulations, video and audio conferencing tools, and user-friendly interfaces for your patients and personnel.
Consider additional features or capabilities that will facilitate your telehealth services provision. For example, if you offer teledermatology services, you will need large data storage for high-quality images submitted by patients.

3

Compare different solutions

Create a shortlist of potential software based on the feature set you’ve outlined during previous steps.
Compare solutions’ customization and integration capabilities, their pricing, and feedback from users. 
Request demos or sign up for free trials to see the solution in action.

Benefits of telemedicine

Schedule and location flexibility for medical care providers

Workload reduction for on-site medical personnel

Improved care accessibility in areas with a shortage of healthcare professionals’

Considerable reduction of healthcare provision costs without compromising service quality

Improved safety and comfort for immunocompromised patients, people with reduced mobility or mental health issues

Fewer no-show patients due to the simplicity of telehealth appointment scheduling, rescheduling, and attendance

Additional revenue streams for healthcare organizations from telehealth service subscriptions

On-demand availability of healthcare services for patients who can’t go to hospital in person

Telehealth software solutions

Streamline telehealth delivery with a relevant feature set

Streamline telehealth delivery with a relevant feature set

While telemedicine is rightfully hyped by healthcare professionals, patients, and the media, you need to remember that just like any other tool, its capabilities should cater to the medical provider’s business needs. Healthcare providers must have clear goals for telemedicine app implementation, or they risk investing in software that doesn’t benefit their organization. Healthcare organizations that aim to offer virtual medical services have to consider a wide set of factors to find a telehealth solution that fully supports their workflows. Partnering with an experienced healthcare software implementation provider is a great way to secure the success of telemedicine solution adoption.

Streamline telehealth delivery with a relevant feature set

Need a telehealth app with tailored functionality?

Contact us

FAQs

How much does customized telemedicine software cost?

The cost of a telehealth development project ranges from $50,000 to over $100,000 depending on the solution’s functionality, number of integrations with other healthcare apps, user base, and other factors. You can turn to our consultants to learn a ballpark estimate for your project.

What hardware and software is used for telemedicine?

Patients and clinicians typically use laptops or smartphones to communicate during the virtual visit. Though in some cases, a smartphone is enough, in others patients need to have special diagnostic tools at home. The software for telemedicine needs to be compliant with relevant privacy and security regulations, so telehealth consultations typically aren’t held over Skype or other general-use communication platforms.

What are the best telehealth apps?

Doctor On Demand, Teladoc, Microsoft Cloud for Healthcare, and Amwell are often mentioned as the best telehealth apps on the market. Still, any out-of-the-box solution must be configured or customized to fit the business requirements of the particular organization. Moreover, if you have highly specialized medical workflows, a custom telehealth solution can prove the most valid option for you.

Do doctors need high-speed Internet to use telehealth apps?

High-speed connectivity is paramount, as it helps avoid annoying disruptions and interferences during video consultations, creating the feeling of a realistic doctor's office visit. Therefore, healthcare professionals need access to hardware, software, and internet connection facilitating HD video consultations to fully assess each patient’s condition and give them their undivided attention.

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