A Message From Your Friends At The Southeast AETC: Our hearts go out to those in our community who were affected by the hurricanes. If you have patients that are having trouble accessing HIV services during this time, we urge you to utilize HRSA’s Find a Ryan White Provider tool to help navigate them to services nearby.

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Telehealth Resources Center

Telehealth is Critical to Reaching People with HIV Across the Southern United States

COVID-19 exacerbated the need for telehealth services across the nation, but telehealth will continue to grow beyond the pandemic. Telehealth is particularly crucial in rural areas that lack sufficient health care services, specialists, and resources. This page features resources to help healthcare providers and administrators implement high quality telehealth services that comply with both federal and state regulations. Have questions? The SE AETC is here to help.

Telehealth is especially critical in rural and other remote areas that lack sufficient health care services, including specialty care.

Telehealth is defined as the use of electronic information and telecommunication technologies to support long-distance clinical health care, patient and professional health-related education, public health, and health administration. Technologies include video conferencing, the internet, store-and-forward imaging, streaming media, and terrestrial and wireless communications.

The range and use of telehealth services have expanded over time, along with the role of technology in improving and coordinating care. Traditional models of telehealth involve care delivered to a patient at an originating (or spoke) site from a specialist working at a distant (or hub) site. A telehealth network consists of a series of originating sites receiving services from a collaborating distant site.

Written By: Billy Sample, Medical Advocacy and Outreach | Montgomery, AL

Telehealth is broken into two major categories: Hardware-based telehealth and Software-based telehealth

Hardware-based telehealth

The top 3 hardware-based telehealth systems are:

Poly
Cisco
AMD Global Telemedicine

Software-based telehealth

Software based telehealth is a much more moving target. Products all seem to have a similar price point and most offer similar features. A list of most utilized or familiar features is provided below. Other features of software-based telehealth solutions include:

Ease of Access

Most software based solutions are cloud based, meaning that you do not have to have an extensive infrastructure to use these solutions. They are usually app or browser based so any device on the internet with a camera can be used for a telehealth consult.

Virtual Waiting Room

Most software platforms have patients wait in a virtual waiting room for the provider to let them into the video call. This allows patients to arrive to their telehealth appointment early, while at the same time maintaining the privacy of the patient with whom you are currently in a call.

Scheduling System

Most software platforms have a scheduling system that works with your Outlook or Google calendar. This makes keeping up with appointments easier. Some of these platforms can even integrate into your EMR scheduling system as well.

Patient Reminders

Most systems offer a patient reminder system through text, phone and or email. This will help reduce appointment no show rates.

Listed below are 11 software-based telehealth solutions. However, please remember that there is an ever-growing list of solutions out there and there may be another platform that suits your needs more effectively.

  • Agnes Telehealth
  • Amwell
  • Doctor on Demand
  • Doximity
  • Doxy.me
  • Kareo Telemedicine
  • MDLive
  • Mend Telehealth
  • Polycom Websuite
  • Teladoc
  • Zoom for Healthcare

Please remember that there is an extensive and ever-growing list of solutions out there and while one of these may be right for you, there may be another platform that fits your needs better. The most important thing to consider when selecting a platform will be security. There are several things to consider when evaluating Patient Data Security or HIPAA requirements.

Is there privacy/identity protection?

Only specific people in your agency should have access to the information in your software solution. Ensure that patient data are not stored. Never record a telehealth encounter without prior authorization and patient consent.

Is there end-to-end encryption?

End to end encryption of both the audio and video is paramount to ensure that the no one has access to the visit. This prevents anyone from seeing or hearing what is conducted during the call.

Is the data center for the cloud service secure?

The data center that controls the cloud behind you solution should be a secure, hardened data center. This will ensure minimal interruptions or crashes to your service.

Does your telehealth software have up to date security certificates?

The software you select should continue to update their security and be able to provide evidence that they have undergone security and privacy audits by a trusted independent third party.

Is the software solution HIPAA compliant?

Ensure that your software solution follows the complete HHS guidance for HIPAA compliance and not simply the relaxed guidance.