Looking for the best telehealth partner for your medical practice? We understand that choosing a telehealth platform can be overwhelming and confusing. Listening to what friends, colleagues and patients share with you and what you find in Google only makes it more confusing.
As Healee has been in the telehealth market for some years now, we want to share with you what your options are so that you can make the most informed decision, matching your specific practice needs.
We compiled a list of 8 telehealth platforms that are considered to be among the leading players in this segment in the UK and US. We will juxtapose the features of each platform and share the biggest advantages each one of them offers.
In no particular order, here are the 8 best telehealth platforms for 2020.
Healee is a technologically advanced telehealth platform that consists of two separate but interlinked applications – Healee MD for doctors and Healee for patients – accessible both as mobile apps for iOS and Android, or via a browser. Healee has an extensive set of features covering the patient-doctor and doctor-doctor communication and it stands out with its modern looking and easy-to-use user interface. Healee is the most recently found company.
Biggest strengths: robust video and chat functionalities, speech to text feature, medical discussions (where you join at your discretion), multi-person conversation rooms for doctors. Multi-functional appointment booking system, allowing patients to pick what medical service they are coming to you for. Access to patient data beforehand from your custom-made medical forms, patients’ personal health records and data gathered by Healee’s AI-guided assistant. Patients’ online reviews help you gain more visibility and credibility. Doctors can create and save notes to use again later.
Limitations: There is no digital waiting room, yet patients can see doctor availability and vacant time slots at any time, and have an online consultation right away.
Doxy.me is a web-based teleconferencing app that requires no downloads and can be used by patients, doctors and clinics alike.
Biggest strengths: The platform offers convenient waiting rooms for patients, group calls, an option for doctors to add an interpreter or translator to join the telehealth call and an analytics page that helps doctors view their telehealth performance. Doctors can personalize their waiting room with text, images and videos.
Limitations: There is only a web version and no mobile Android and iPhone apps. The platform does not support Internet Explorer or Safari and there is no option for e-prescription and prepayment.
vSee is another telehealth platform that is HIPPA compliant, suitable for businesses of all sizes and doctors from all specialties.
Biggest strengths: The platform is functionally rich, offering e-prescribing, appointment scheduling & reminders, available online chat support, screen share, file transfer, group video calls, webinars, dynamic and static image support, onboarding support, custom medical forms, etc.
Limitations: Online support is available only by email, workflows are hard to follow, the technology behind the software is quite old and the interface is a little outdated, and not as user-focused as it should be, patients do not receive any notification that there is a message waiting unless they are having the app running in the background.
eVisit is a telehealth platform designed by providers for providers. The platform is best for all healthcare organizations ranging from Primary care, urgent care clinics and mental health care providers.
Biggest strengths: There are iOS and Android apps; easy to use online scheduling service where doctors can see the patient’s visit details – reason for request, description of illness, need for prescription refill, etc. The platform also offers a waiting room, appointment reminders, availability option, file transfer, option for e-prescription, convenient note taking
Limitations: most expensive platform; no free trial available or discounts offered; no webinars; no option for multi-provider practice.
SimplePractice is a practice management solution for private practitioners. The platform is integrated with paperless intakes, online booking and more.
Biggest strengths: you can easily upload documents, create custom questionnaires, get automatic appointment reminders, use a mobile app (iOS and Android) and have access to live classes every week.
Limitations: sometimes customer service is slow to respond; the online booking system is a little outdated and needs refreshing; the setting menu is not very intuitive; the platform is not very suitable for urgent care or primary care specialties; it does not offer e-prescribing option, doctors cannot review lab results, MRI or CT scan images.
Power Diary is a practice management software suited for healthcare practitioners like physiotherapists, psychologists, speech therapists, osteopaths, chiropractitioners, massage therapists, naturopaths.
Biggest strengths: simple system with clean interface, robust integrations with Google calendar, easy-to-use online appointment system with SMS and email appointment reminders, responsive and fast customer support available at all times; unlimited custom forms, AutoPay and online credit card processing.
Limitations: does not offer mobile apps for ios and android; patients cannot send dynamic images to doctors, only doctors can upload them to patient profiles; there is no e-prescription,
relatively good price but there is an additional charge for private patient-practitioner messaging via SMS reminders.
Cliniko is a telehealth platform suited for allied health practice management software that donates 2% of subscription fees to charity.
Biggest strengths: user experience is easy and intuitive; patients can easily re-schedule appointments; online booking service is feature-rich; customer service is available at all times, doctors can create customizable treatment notes; there is an active support forum where doctors can engage with other healthcare practitioners.
Limitations: the software needs some upgrading in regards to group sessions, doctors cannot easily see in the diary which patients have cancelled their appointments, no e-prescription.
Zocdoc is an online platform through which doctors subscribe to have their own online medical profiles, set their availability online and expand their online presence to patients.
Biggest strengths: offers an online appointment scheduling system with automated appointment reminders; offers a button for your Zocdoc profile that you can implement on your website which helps you increase your web presence; patients leave reviews; available on ios and Android
Limitations: most expensive compared to the rest and there is additional $35-110 per new patient appointment; manually editing your practice management system’s availability, doctors get charged even if the client cancels the appointment; there are patient insurance discrepancies.
Disclaimer
The information about the features in this blog post is not our personal statement. The information has been taken from the telehealth platform websites, their own videos about the features and online forums and online comparison sites (like Capterra), because we did not have full access to all platform features. Moreover, the data is bound to change in time as the companies continue improving and adding new features.
Now that you are armed with this information about the features of each of the eight telehealth platforms, you can make your informed choice.
Although it might seem relatively straightforward to choose a telehealth partner, make sure you look into your options. Remember to consider that there are features that might better fit your workflow and be more suitable for your specialty than others. Take into account that every feature in each of these telehealth platforms is implemented in a different way. For instance, the way medical forms function may vary a lot between providers and if it’s something that you intend to use extensively in your practice, you need to spend time finding the one that will be most compatible with your needs and practices.
We, at Healee, implement new features all the time to make sure the platform offers the most reliable, comprehensive and convenient virtual contact between doctors and patients.
If you want to learn more about us just visit our website, request a free demo, or contact us at support@healee.com
You can follow Healee on Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/company/healeehq
You can follow Healee on Twitter: https://twitter.com/HealeeHQ
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