Telehealth video office visits are an indispensable tool during the period of travel and social distancing restrictions, and maybe beyond. There are LOTS of choices. I will cover just two that bubbled to the top after lots of research and several demos. Most video conferencing vendors have a set of pretty standard features. I deemed two additional features as necessary for a medical office: HIPAA compliance and a waiting room capability. This post is a summary of LetsTalkInteractive.com (LTI). See Part 1 of the post for a summary of Doxy.me.

This application has a large set of features at a cost of slightly more complexity than Doxy.me. The first provider/patient connection requires the patient to download an application called Zoom. The instructions are pretty clear but there are enough steps that a non-technical person could get confused, possibly requiring the help of the office staff to work through the details. As with any technology, especially internet/video related, there may be technical issues with the connection. LTI has a 24/7 help desk that can identify and resolve whatever issues might be encountered.

Beyond the basics:

• While I can’t say for sure, the Zoom video platform may be a little more stable and reliable than the WebRTC platform used by Doxy.me
• Each scheduled session is unique so people can’t keep “calling” a single office waiting room address (URL)
• Documents can be transferred both ways between the patient and provider, including a signature capability using a touch screen or mouse
• Provider training with on-boarding is provided
  • There are lots of how-to videos available
• Automatic text/email reminders can be setup
• 24/7 technical support for connection problems

This is a solid platform with a slight learning curve. Once that is accomplished, the system will be easy to use and has some very powerful features. They will be happy to give you a demo (I didn’t find a demo video) or you can just signup and try it out for a month. The account can be canceled after the first month or anytime after that.

Telehealth video office visits are an indispensable tool during the period of virus travel and social distancing restrictions. There are LOTS of choices. I will cover just two that bubbled to the top after lots of research and several demos. Most video conferencing vendors have a set of pretty standard features. I deemed two additional features as necessary for a medical office: HIPAA compliance and a waiting room capability. This post is a summary of Doxy.me. See Part 2 of the post for a summary of LetsTalkInteractive.com.

Doxy.me is by far the simplest video conference application for both patient and provider of all the ones that I looked at. It is intended for a medical provider and therefore is HIPAA compliant. You can try it out by just going to the website and setting up a free account … it is easy to be up and running in under 15 minutes.

The main features of all account types, including free are:

• Nothing to download by either the patient or provider. The patient just clicks on a custom URL (like doxy.me/DrOfficeName) to enter the waiting room
• The number of sessions and time length of each session is unlimited
• Text chat within the session is available
• Works with a slow connection

Some offices may be content with just the options available in the free account. There are two paid options: Pro & Clinic. The features are nearly identical as described on their Pricing page except on the “Groups” and “Add on” tabs. The significant additional features with paid accounts are:

• Text/email notifications of patients in the waiting room (vs. notification only when the provider’s doxy.me account is open in the browser)
• Group calls allowing several interested parties with different devices and/or locations to be on the call
• Support via on-demand chat or a schedule phone/video call (vs. just email)

The only application downsides that I have seen so far are:

• Once a patient knows the provider’s virtual address (doxy.me/DrOfficeName) they can try to connect any time. In a sense, it is like a telephone number that anybody can call, but it doesn’t have to be answered.
• A Doxy.me competitor mentioned that the Doxy video platform is WebRTC (I had to look that up: Web Real Time Communications) which he said could have a 20-30% failed engagement rate. I can’t speak to that other than I have a client that has been using Doxy.me for 20-40  patient encounters per day for two weeks. Based on their feedback, I would estimate the connection is made on the first try more than 95% of the time. There were a few performance issues the first week when it seemed the whole world was transitioning to work from home, but none since.

Doxy.me is a great way to get started with a Telehealth remote video call offering. Some may find that the basic features are all they need and will continue with the service in the future. For a more powerful, slightly more complicated service, see Seeing Patients Remotely – Part 2.