5 Key Features Every Telehealth App Needs 

Telehealth, which also includes online therapy, e-health and digital medicine, is fast becoming the leading mode for people to access mental health services. Call it convenience, privacy or affordability, the fact is that distance consultation is here to stay.

Online therapy has spiked in popularity, ever since healthcare providers expanded their services consequent to the coronavirus pandemic. As this trend continues to grow, it is estimated that a majority of smartphone users will have at least one health app on their phones in the months to come.

However if you are new to virtual therapy or curious about how telemedicine works, you should ensure that your healthcare apps features are centred on convenience, scheduling, consultation and access to critical health information among others.

Here is a list of five must-have telemedicine features which must be included in every online therapy app for an enhanced patient-doctor experience.

Effective communication capabilities 

To develop a good telehealth app, incorporating features that facilitate the interaction between the doctor and the patient is what effective online therapy heavily relies on. It is therefore crucial to include the following features:

• Live video conferencing:  Good video quality, preferably that which is capable of making high-definition HD, or ultra-high definition UHD video calls. It should enable both the parties to read each other's body language and interpret facial expressions clearly. In some instances, this type of video evaluation has been proven to be just as effective as viewing them in a traditional workstation.

• Voice-only calls: In-app voice-only calls are a very good feature for users who don't want to show their faces. For this the online therapy app sound quality should be exceptional as it will form the main part of communication, as poor audio can distort facts and cause misrepresentation.

• In-app chats: Where voice calls are not possible because of a noisy environment or any other medical condition which restricts over phone conversation, this feature will come in handy. So check whether your health app has a texting option.

Electronic Medical Records (EMRs)

When downloading an online therapy app, check the EMR section from where your doctor can access your medical files. Electronic Medical Records are critical for digital health as they keep track of a patient's medical data and the history of communication with all the doctors. 

Apps which make the use of cloud technology for storage and retrieval provide even better access to the physician to quickly review the patient's medical history before an online consultation session.

However, since a patient's medical information is sensitive, the app should have all the security loopholes covered to prevent any threats of cyber attack by hackers. Your app's security system should be robust and conform to the data privacy requirements of the state's medical protection bodies.

e-Prescriptions

A healthcare app with an e-prescription feature will enable online therapy professionals to generate and send prescriptions without any error. This not only improves customer satisfaction but saves a lot of time as well. An outline of some of the other advantages of this feature are:

• Generate a complete list of medicines along with details and doses.

• Doctors not only can understand the patient's present medical history, but also the history of all the doctors they may have consulted in the past .

• Streamlines the process of effective treatment by writing new prescriptions or renewing old ones from just about anywhere.

• Provides a detail of all the pharmacies from where the prescribed drugs can be procured.

e-prescriptions, when integration with the patient's EHR can help log in the information required for a patient's care over a period of time.

View doctor profile

A critical part of a patient's journey to access the right online therapy treatment is finding the right physician. An app which showcases the doctor's profile, expertise, professional degrees and experience in the required field should be kept in mind while downloading the app. It should also include location and contact details. Reviews and ratings from the past will be an added advantage.

Knowing the doctor's profile saves time for both the patient and the physician and improves the accuracy of matching the patient and the doctor. Apart from this a snapshot of the physician and his workplace can be of help. Surprisingly, most of the leading virtual therapy sites don't include this feature yet. 

Efficient payment system

An efficient electronic payment system needs to be incorporated in an app to allow the patients to pay for their online therapy services in a convenient manner. You should make sure that the one you choose offers a secure mode that has the updated e-payment options.

On your part you should first liase with a reliable money transfer company to integrate their software into your app.The online therapy service providers should on their part offer flexibility to the users by integrating these important online e-payment services on their portal.