As the world around us changes, it’s interesting to think about what actions feel more or less accepted. For example, imagine now walking into a meeting, shaking each person’s hand, then immediately grabbing a pastry with that same hand and then eating it. Right now, that feels shocking, repulsive, and risky. But, back in December of last year, I might have done this without even batting an eyelash.

It’s exciting to think about what changes are happening right now in health care that was once perceived as outlandish. One of the most obvious examples I’ve experienced is the implementation and adoption of rendering remote health care services - or telehealth.

Thousands of Patients Use pMD Telehealth Platform for Remote Visits

pMD began building our telehealth capabilities into our Free Secure Messaging, Clinical Communication, and Charge Capture products over a year ago. Since March, with the advent of the global pandemic, pMD has now helped thousands of patients complete remote visits over their mobile devices from the safety of their homes.

If you haven’t given telehealth a try yet, let me give you an idea of what it’s like to be one of the patients who has used pMD’s telehealth platform:

After scheduling your first telehealth appointment with your practice, you receive a text message reminder a few days before your appointment with a link to download pMD’s application. Once downloaded, all you need to do now is wait until your appointment - it’s truly that easy! Your provider initiates the video call, which will ring through to your phone just as any other call would except that the video will be conducted through pMD’s encrypted, HIPAA-compliant app, so your patient information remains completely safe.

After completing your call with your provider, you’ll be able to securely send photos of incisions, wounds, rashes, or even receive lab results via pMD. Any picture you take in pMD is not saved onto your phone's camera roll, keeping your information private!

Why Use pMD’s Remote Health Care Solutions

So, why use pMD instead of one of the other video solutions that have emerged in response to the need for remote health care? Beyond pMD’s 21 years in the mobile health care space, below are a few additional reasons:

Video Quality

Video quality is really important when completing telehealth visits and pMD is extremely committed to great quality and reliability in our app. Crisp video quality is required in many cases to make sure your provider is able to accurately assess the medical situation. pMD was built to be used on a mobile device which generally has a much better camera than older computers, as well as the ability to choose between wifi or cellular data usage - whichever allows for a better connection.

Ease of connection

Many other telehealth platforms require both the patient and provider to log into a portal at the same time to complete a remote visit. We know that might not always be the easiest, or the most private option, especially if your computer happens to be in a communal spot in your home. Because pMD communication is conducted within our HIPAA-compliant application, your information is secure and a video call rings right through to your phone via pMD’s app, so you don’t have to be logged into pMD to wait for a call.

Ease of use

pMD’s app only requires a one-time download from either the Google Play store or the App store. Once you download the app, you’ll be able to log into pMD with your cell phone number and biometric scanning (think fingerprint scanning or FaceID) or a password. Once you’re logged in, your secure communication abilities are endless! Gone are the days of having to wait for one-use verification links each time you log in or constantly being rerouted in order to connect with your health care provider.

Exceptional workflow features

If you’re a practice using pMD, you can have pMD automatically enroll your patients on pMD® Secure Messaging™, as well as remind them of their upcoming appointment a day or two ahead. After patients are invited, anyone in the practice can initiate a video call via pMD’s secure website or app to complete a telehealth appointment. Once the call is completed, both parties will receive an automated call receipt that includes the call duration. You’ll then be able to continue communicating via chat, voice call, or video call moving forward, if necessary.

As a patient, once you’ve downloaded the app, you are set to receive voice calls, video calls, file attachments, chats, and voice memos from your practice! Need to reschedule your appointment or send a picture of a medication that needs to be refilled? Don’t dial a number from a menu only to wait on hold for several minutes. Submit your question to the practice via pMD! You also have the ability to refer back to a message instead of trying to remember what the voice on the other line said about your pre-appointment instructions.  

So how do you feel about the future of health care? Is this a change that will stay for the long run? pMD thinks so! We believe there is great value in keeping communication easy, convenient, and secure for practices and their patients. Please let us know if we can help get your practice set up on pMD’s telehealth platform.

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