Telemedicine is the delivery of healthcare from a distance with information and medical consultation via electronic media. Time Magazine calls it “healing by wire”. We saw it coming up as a boon during pandemic when doctor’s visits became a usual for some, and risky business for others, and the lockdown norms altered the way we approach medicine. The sheer terror of catching a disease whilst going out to fix another wasn’t fair for any of us. To keep patients and doctors safe, telemedicine apps have paved the way for safe, secure, virtual health care from the comfort of our homes.
The telemedicine industry has seen enormous growth in past few years, with many more providers choosing to care for their patients via telemedicine apps. Here is a comprehensive list of telehealth communication solutions categorized and suited for providers, patients, virtual therapy and more.
Recommended Patient Care Platforms for Providers
Mend
Mend describes itself as a Simple, secure, integrated telehealth & patient engagement solution for the modern practice
It offers providers a complete solution for telemedicine, powered by artificial intelligence. Mend has a unique Digital Intake Form that lets your patients complete forms on any app on the web or in the form of text and email. It simply copies the information directly, without any clipboards or PDFs.
Mend offers Predictive IQ, a thoroughly unique artificially intelligent algorithm that predicts cancellations and no-shows with 99% accuracy, according to Mend. Further, Mend has a platform for group video conferencing with group scheduling and a telepsychiatry software to keep the patients engaged, reducing no-show rates.
All major EHR/PMS software can be integrated with Mend, and patient appointment reminders and scheduling can be easily done with smart text, email, and phone call.
Cost: free and premium packages starting $3500 per year.
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Doxy Me
Doxy.me is an easy to use telemedicine app, popular with clinicians around the world. It offers multiple features to different schools of medicine to offer their practice as telemedicine. It is entirely accessible through a browser, requiring no downloads and it is free for all, forever!
We’ve made telemedicine simple and easy for you. Create your personal room and start practicing telemedicine today.
Doxy.me has a live chat option for providers to communicate with their patients, along with audio and video options. Doxy.me in fact offers a high quality HD video conferencing experience. And it shows providers a patient queue so you can see who is next in waiting. The patient check-in process by Doxy.me is categorically simple and easy to use.
Cost: free and premium packages starting $29 per month.
AMC Health
AMC Health Telehealth Care and Remote Patient Monitoring programs are created specifically for providers looking to extend care to patients in the comfort of their own home. AMC Health is one of the few FDA Class II cleared telemedicine platforms, and ensures complete compliance with the Federal regulations for remote monitoring.
Virtual Healthcare That’s Bottom-Line Healthy, Too.
With an RMP and Telecare management suite of virtual care, AMC Health offers monitoring to track vitals, and alerts with ease. It offers voice response and a data intelligence solution to get insight into the patient provider partnership. Daily vitals like BP, BG, weight, temperature, SpO2 can be directly traced through the AMC Health app, and reports can be directly uploaded in real time to the same app. From video calls with care teams, to texts and educational content, all can be served directly on the application.
Cost: AMC health offers a free demo, and customized premium solutions.
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Telehealth by SimplePractice
Telehealth by SimplePractice is a complete package for practitioners looking to merge their offline and online practice. It is a thorough practice management software that allows users to manage both virtual and in-office practice, in fact, it also can manage anything in between. It allows online booking, paperless intakes and integrates telehealth seamlessly.
Manage and grow your private practice, all in one place.
Users can centralize client communication with a secure, online portal and schedule appointments on their terms. The best feature offered by Telehealth by SimplePractice is its streamlined documentation. Not only does it allow paperless intakes, but also lets you document everything from scheduling to billing through its mobile app.
Cost: Starting $39 per month for solo practice.
Best On-Demand Visit Apps for General Medicine
AmWell
Amwell provides a well rounded platform for on demand medical services from a platform for a wholesome care ecosystem, to telepsychiatry. It helps members connect easily through the virtual primary care platform with a high performance provider network.
Amwell offers a simple and intuitive design with the one interface for any access point, and ease of adaptability with most devices. The unique feature is Amwell’s extensibility to offer multiple apps within its digital health ecosystem. Wherein, users can get multiple telemedicine apps (catering specifically to Pediatrics, Dermatology and various other departments) from the Amwell marketplace to suit their needs. Amwell offers integration with existing workflows, EHRs, patient portals etc. With custom interfaces and branding through open standard APIs.
Since Amwell provides a full spectrum telehealth solution, it commits to clients with twenty four seven, three sixty five customer support. And here, support is included for patients, providers and business units.
Cost: free and premium packages available for different apps.
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Doctor On Demand
Doctor on Demand is a 24/7 live access platform to connect with doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists and medical experts from different fields. They offer complete virtual care through cross platform access, personalized to the patient’s needs.
Doctor on Demand offers urgent care for users looking to get in touch with medical experts in minutes in the comfort of their home. It also has a platform for emotional support through and after the treatment. Patients can go ahead and choose their preferred doctor or type of treatment from a list of rated practitioners. Doctor on Demand claims to have an array of providers with an average rating of 4.9 out of 5 stars.
Cost: The app is free with premium services and consultations varying per session basis.
MDLIVE
MDLIVE is an easily accessible telemedicine app that allows you to get medical consultations on the go for over 80 common conditions. MDLIVE currently offers consultations categorized as medical, dermatology and behavioral. They offer insurance claims, and 24/7 convenient healthcare through smartphone, tablet and computers.
MDLIVE’s urgent care includes allergies, birth control, COVID 19 related complications, etc. Behavioral health includes addictions, bipolar, LGBTQ+ support, OCD, life changes etc. and dermatology includes acne, cysts, boils, keratosis, warts etc. MDLIVE has a list of diseases providers on its platforms can address, you can find it here. During pandemic MDLIVE offered specialized COVID 19 care and at-home COVID 19 tests, which served the need of the hour well. MDLIVE also offers many plans for businesses.
Cost: Starting $0 for certain types of consultations. Costs largely vary depending on the nature of consultations.
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PlushCare
PlushCare is another wonderful telemedicine app, and it has been a source of help and consultation for almost half a million patients till date. It caters to both, on-going medical conditions, and urgent surprising situations. It also takes care of everyday care.
Their urgent medical care includes problems related to STDs, Pink Eye, Sore Throat etc. Ongoing medical conditions include Thyroid, Hypertension, Anxiety, Diabetes etc. And everyday care includes Birth Control, prescriptions, prescription refills, etc.
PlushCare has a team of highly-skilled online doctors trained at some of the top fifty medical schools. PlushCare claims to offer a medical consultation experience like a traditional family doctor would. It does carry a trusted and diverse set of doctors, you can find more about it here.
Dentulu
Dentulu is a free teledentistry solution, for both patients looking for a dentist on demand, and dentists and dental professionals looking to offer their practices. It has been awarded by the The American Dental Association, and offers mobile and onsite dentistry to the location of patients’ choice.
Dentulu has a patient resource center to educate patients about dentistry, available both in English and Spanish. It offers a channel of secure messaging with patients, synchronous teledentistry via video calls and asynchronous teledentistry via photo consultations and more. Dentulu’s patent pending intraoral cameras are all the buzz, these really give patients and dentists an all round perspective. With the pandemic causing paranoia amongst many patients, this feature is extremely helpful for consumers.
Dentulu also offers a store to shop for dental needs around the world.
Cost: Free registration with 0% payment plans on approved credit available.
Lemonaid
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Lemonaid is a complete telemedicine portal for patients that deals with everything from first step care to actually ship prescriptions. It gives patients an online questionnaire to fill out at the first step, this includes medical history and ongoing conditions. Then a medical team from Lemonaid based in the US reviews it, and sends the patients personalized follow up questions. After determining the problem, the medicines are shipped with free delivery and in discreet packaging.
Lemonaid offers a state of the art symptom evaluator for pre diagnostics, ePrescriptions, billing and prescription delivery. It’s medical professionals are licensed to practice in all 50 states in the United States. And professionals from the entire spectrum of medicine from primary care, to women’s health, dieticians, behavioral health, all are available on demand on Lemonaid.
Cost: Free app with premium services, costs vary based on the nature of consultation starting $10+ for lab tests, and $25 and more for telehealth appointments.
HealthTap
HealthTap is another popular virtual care platform that connects patients and US board certified and licensed medical consultants. They train their consultations with a comprehensive training program designed to familiarize and skill them for online care and treatment. This way, they are able to get some of the best doctors on their platform to provide virtual treatment at a fraction of in person visits.
Healthcare on your terms. The best and most affordable virtual care.
HealthTap AI is an online symptom checker which along with the Doctor Q&A creates a patient’s health profile on HealthTap. After which, patient’s can select a plan of their choice, with or without insurance. Patients can further choose for urgent care, which maps them to a doctor in a minute or less. Or else, choose for primary care for an ongoing treatment, and book an appointment with a doctor of their choice. Health records are accessible 24/7 to patients on HealthTap along with a treatment plan after every virtual visit.
Cost: Membership starting $15 per month.
Teladoc
Teladoc is a virtual care service that takes care of everything from wellness and prevention to complex medical needs. It uses proprietary tools to create a wholesome platform for its users and offers them personalized interaction to give them the full spectrum of care.
From everyday to complex care, we’ve got you covered. Connect to the right care by phone, video, or app.
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Teladoc uses a unique engagement engine to deliver industry leading utilization and satisfaction in virtual healthcare. It claims to have a three times higher registration rate in the industry. Teladoc offers mental health services, chronic condition management solutions, and expert medical care on it’s integrated virtual care platform.
Cost: Starting $0, fees vary.
Top Apps for Standalone Telehealth Communications
Spruce Care Messenger
Spruce is a complete telehealth communications solution for virtual care and collaboration all in one place. It offers a channel for secure messaging, video calling, photo, video, and file sharing, voicemail, and e-fax. Spruce also offers a shared team inbox, tags, bulk messaging, schedule messages, and workflow automation.
Stay connected with your patients with secure messaging that’s easy to use.
Spruce has created a platform for medical professionals to offer the full spectrum of telemedicine and virtual healthcare. It stands for patient satisfaction on every level, offering video visits, digital screenings, notifications and digital payments.
Cost: Starting $24 per month.
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Werq
Werq is a telehealth communications platform for simple, cost effective doctor, patient interactions. It supports multi platform access through mobile and desktop devices. Werq Telemed is accessible anywhere in the world, offering a truly global platform. It was founded by busy doctors looking to facilitate their own communications, now they are dedicated to helping other practices.
A product for every need.
Doctors, staff, patients – Our growing range of products makes life easier for everyone involved.
Werq is working with physicians, nurses and other healthcare consultants and professionals and encouraging them to share knowledge, and make global connections during the ongoing COVID 19 pandemic using Werq chat. Werq supports texts, and referrals. Doctors and front line workers can send appointment reminders via SMS and exclude the need for follow up calls for scheduling.
Cost: free beta trial with premium services.
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UpDox
Updox Communication Platform is a single, unified inbox for medical consultants to communicate with patients. It integrates easily with most EMRs and helps medical consultants manage work and communications in a safe and efficient way. It offers video chat, secure texting and SMS, electronic fax and patient reminders.
Enhance your patients’ experiences, boost office productivity, and drive organizational profitability—all from one location.
Updox allows users to manage all communication outside EHR and works seamlessly with other health systems. Inter departmental communication is extremely easy with Updox as it allows users to send documents to charts, file it and route it to all other departments. The workflow offers increased efficiency and secure remote communication.
Cost: free demo and custom pricing available on request.
Teleon
Teleon Health is a patient engagement and communication telehealth platform. It offers tools for staff management and virtual care engagement with patients and families. Teleon enables medical consultants to deliver telehealth visits over webapps and mobile applications. It is made to improve operations with paperless workflows.
Teleon includes SMS broadcasting, digital forms, audio calling, video conferences, integrated secure messaging amongst other things. It is a complete solution for digital workflows and engagement. Teleon is yet to release their scheduling tool which is coming soon!
Cost: A la carte pricing, with a free started messaging plan.
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Leading Apps for Virtual Talk Therapy
Brightside
Brightside offers clinically proven support with a custom plan built to help you on the path of medical treatment for mental health. It claims to offer better health within 12 weeks. Brightside therapists help break exhausting cycles that are dragging patients down with unique approaches.
Connect with your licensed Brightside Therapist, an anxiety and depression specialist for expert-level empathy, guidance and insights.
Brightside offers precision prescribing, unlimited access with hand selected providers, science backed, evidence based approach to virtual therapy with a measured care platform. Users can track their progress on the app, and choose from custom plans.
Cost: Starting $45 for the first month.
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BetterHelp
BetterHelp offers professional virtual counseling for individuals, couples and teenagers through its platform. It offers the largest network of professional, licensed, and vetted counselors for its users to deal with a range of issues from relationships, anxiety to trauma and grief. Users get matched to their choice of therapists, depending upon the nature of their issues.
Patients can choose their way to communicate, from messaging to chat, to audio phone calls and video conferencing with a licensed professional to get help. BetterHelp offers smart provider matching, however patients can easily switch providers and get help from anywhere. Users get digital worksheets and group sessions.
Cost: Starting $60 per week.
Talkspace
Talkspace is a highly rated online therapy that also includes psychiatry through its virtual medication management platform. Talkspace offers a brief assessment with a few questions and preference inputs, and gives the patient the option to select from a list of recommended licensed therapists.
Patients can start therapy with video conferencing and messaging, for everything from family conflicts to substance abuse, bipolar, anger management, OCD etc. Talkspace offers 24/7 access and flexible plans to meet individual needs. Users can seamlessly switch therapists at no extra costs.
Cost: Starting $260 a month.
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Bloom
Boom is a mobile only digital therapist app for CBT based therapy and self care. It offers cognitive behavioral therapy exercises and personalized coaching sessions for daily mental health management. Users can avail help for stress, anxiety, improve sleep and to build better habits. It combines interactive video classes with journaling.
Bloom offers an emotions and thoughts analysis and a personal well being tracker through its application. It is a wholesome hyper personalized digital therapy experience.
Cost: Starting $59.99 per year
Doctor-Patient communication with Q-consultation
