Why Skype/WhatsApp Isn’t the best Tool for Doctor-patient Communication?
“An oklahoma doctor was disciplined under violation act for prescribing treatment to patients using Skype”
In today’s world of on-demand services, we demand instant response and solution for our needs. Instant messaging tools have taken over the entire communication action into the next-level. In today’s healthcare world, interactivity is turning out to be complex, though the balance between physicians and patients is less (average of 1000:1)
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The Conversations are Changing and Challenging between the doctor patient communication tool
The overall communication between physicians and patients usually doesn’t seem to happen. The gap between what the physicians have to explain and what the patients need to listen to is growing wider than we expected. Due to a lack of communication gaps between physicians and patients, the trust breaks down.
So as to restore the trust, physicians decided to follow the trendsetter Instant Messaging tool to create better communication chances with patients at any time and anywhere
Physicians Joining Hands With WhatsApp and Skype!
People tend to communicate over the tools they’re familiar with. Skype and WhatsApp are the tools with having a lion’s share of market value when it comes to instant messaging and video calling. So physicians/doctors tend to deliver services over Skype or WhatsApp
Healthcare Services Over WhatsApp/Skype
The opportunity of delivering services over the instant messaging tools may seem to be overwhelming, but this creates a conundrum for doctors/physicians/healthcare professionals focusing on delivering medical services over video calling or chat over WhatsApp.
Unfortunately, Whatsapp doesn’t fill all the textboxes that are compatible with HIPAA compatibility.
Yeah, you’re right!
Doctors are legally obligated to keep all the sources of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
6 Key Points Before Treating Patient Digitally
- WhatsApp isn’t HIPAA Compliant and it can’t transmit PHI. Even though it makes use of encryption, it can’t be used as a communication tool between a doctor and patient.
- Skype doesn’t create PHI (Protected Health Information), but it does receive and transmit PHI. Skype is not HIPAA Compliant
- Skype for business can tend HIPAA Compliance if the Enterprise E3 or E5 packaged are purchased.
- To comply with HIPAA, Skype for business must obtain a Business Associate Agreement (BAA) from Microsoft.
- Skype must be configured thoroughly with parameters and security audits to prevent unauthorized access and disclosure of ePHI.
- Access control must also be configured and applied on all the devices skype being used to prevent disclosure of patient’s information.
Therefore, from the above points, there are a large number of chances and potential for HIPAA Rules to be violated using WhatsApp or Skype for Business to deliver healthcare services to patients.
Impact of HIPAA Compatible Video calling over Skype
A wide range of video calling apps are available in the market however not each one of them is safe. Considering this, leading in-app communication SDK providers like MirrorFly build their video, voice and chat features with HIPAA compatibility to secure user data and their conversational privacy. They help you build white-label video calling apps, with the assurance that every Personal Health Information (PHI) shared by the doctors or patients across the app is completely safe.
Know The Penalties To Stay Away from Violating HIPAA Rules
After all, HIPAA violations come with pretty hefty price tags ranging from $100 to $50,000 per violation or per record and with a maximum penalty of $1.5 million per year for each violation
How Doctor Patient Communication Tools benefits for patients
Today, the modern telemedicine technology in the healthcare industry has unlocked the potential of an improved healthcare infrastructure.
The telemedicine has come into existence because of the doctors, Yes! In the beginning, the doctors were using WhatsApp in case of emergency consultation without having a plan of “chat with a doctor on whatsapp” can turn out to be an app for the future.
But, as every business needs a start at some point, the same way this has turned the developer’s attention to build this doctor patient communication tool, which has eventually encouraged the patients to be mindful in terms of their health and made them to accept it regularly.
When it is about the benefits that the healthcare provider get with this doctor patient communication tool, some of them are,
- Can have a regular check-up on patients
- Having a track over their medications
- Can check up the relative improvement as compared to the patient’s previous follow-ups
- Can examine more number of patients
- Can consult with other doctors across the world and get the guidance to perform the treatment over the patient
How Doctor Patient Communication Tools benefits for patients
The same way at the beginning the patient used to whatsApp doctor or sometimes the doctor whatApp patients for immediate guidance. But later it was found to be risky with PHI security issues. Thus, the introduction of this doctor patient communication tools has grabbed the attention of patients as well. Let’s have a look at some of the benefits that this telemedicine app provides to the patient,
- The patient can communicate with the doctor via this doctor patient communication tool and forward all their medical records, X-rays, diagnostic report, or even video format to proceed further with the treatment.
- Can schedule the appointment at their convenience
- Select any specialist doctor of their choice anytime, anywhere without restrictions
- Cost effective as the patient need not spend on traveling expenses to visit doctor’s place
It’s Your Time Your Healthcare Messaging Solutions
Most of the messaging solution providers come with a pack of features that assist the healthcare industry in any possibility to offer the utmost experience to patients and enhance physicians to effectively treat patients.
The in-app messaging solution makes the patients and doctors stay in the loop to offer care just beyond their offices and clinics. To summarize the overall impact of messaging solutions for healthcare communication over Skype, here’s a brief pictorial explanation.
Physicians Experiences over Healthcare Messaging Solution
The old saying “Better Safe Now Than Being Sorry” applies to the approach from Skype to secure messaging solutions. When you attend to offer a professional and secure telecom service to patients, enterprise in app messaging solutions for healthcare are the key that comes with a package of features, comply with HIPAA compliance and saves you from HIPAA violation that comes with hefty price tags.
Doctor Patient communication app With A Better Secure Self hosting Choice
Nowadays, instead of visiting the doctor in person, people prefer to communicate with their doctors via some doctor patient application, where they can easily keep a track of doctors appointments, etc. Thus, choosing the best healthcare application has become a top priority for these healthcare industries looking forward with high end security and privacy.
These securities are measured via 3 levels of software security type that the healthcare providers must be aware of while choosing a doctor patient communication app.
1) Communication Apps with Encryption
2) Move along with HIPAA compliant
3) Self Hosting your application
Top 10 Reasons Why Mirrorfly Is The Best Choice To Build Your Telehealth Apps!
Here are a few criteria why our video, voice and chat SDKs will work best for your telehealth app.
MirrorFly provides both SaaS and self-hosted solutions to build in-app communication features. We have classified them below accordingly.
MirrorFly SaaP Solution
- 100% customizable video, voice and chat features
- Lets you build white label telehealth apps
- Available for a one-time license fee
- Give complete ownership to features and security
MirrorFly SaaS Solution
- Provides FREE chat SDK
- Available for a monthly subscription
- Gives you a devoted space in its cloud server to host your telemedicine app
- Supports multi-tenancy architecture
Both
- Secures user conversation with E2E encryption, HIPAA & GDPR compliance
- Lets you hire a dedicated support team
Conclusion
To sum up, I believe this article gave you clear insights on the communication tools you need for building a highly scalable telehealth app. As mentioned it is necessary that you choose a provider that is fast, secure and affordable at the same time.
MirrorFly provides end-to-end encrypted video, voice and chat SDKs that forge the fastest in-app communication with 99.999% uptime SLA and average response time less than 100 ms. Apart from cloud deployment, MirrorFly also supports a self-hosted solution that enables you to build whitelabel telehealth apps with 100% customization and on-premise hosting for a one-time license cost!
Want to know more? feel free to connect with us
All the best!
Alex Sam is a digital marketer by choice & profession. He munches on topics relating to technology, eCommerce, enterprise mobility, Cloud Solutions and Internet of Things. His other interests lies in SEO, Online Reputation Management and Google Analytics.
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Hello, Our client asked us to build a custom telehealth platform to help people from remote communities in Australia to get the health care they need during the COVID-19 pandemic. Our client would like to get a web platform for their doctor and a mobile application for the patient with Video Consultation Functionality included After doing a bit of research we cound your platform. We have a set of question our development team raised: What level of data security does your solution provide ? Is it possible to fully host the solution on our end and having our software team customize the product based on our client needs? What’s the license fees associated with your product? What functionalities would be included with your solution? – Are we fully able to re-skin / brand the platform with the branding of our client?