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.