Since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the telehealth industry has had to go further than ever before.
What used to be limited to online appointment scheduling only, has now expanded to include new aspects of healthcare such as live chat, tracking patient data from third-party apps such as Google Fit, and other digital avenues that improve the physician-patient experience.
Needless to say, competition in the telehealth industry has never been more heated, and the stakes have never been higher.
Using Technology to Deliver Better Care and Improved Outcomes
The need to develop new methods of connecting healthcare professionals to their patients has prompted many companies to introduce new services and APIs to their development cycles. However, there is another hurdle that these APIs need to clear: HIPAA and government compliance.
HIPAA compliance describes the current standards for protecting sensitive patient information. Dealing with people in vulnerable medical situations means that security and privacy must be top priorities. This adds an extra layer of work for developers to ensure that patients and physicians can use these telehealth apps without fear of data leaks, and their legal and financial repercussions.
In this article, we’ll explore the best APIs for telehealth apps that enhance their functionality and overall UX without compromising on medical data and personal information on patients.
Take a look at our top picks below:
1. ChironHealth API
The ChironHealth’s telehealth API enables scheduling, medical device management, and insurance reimbursement, as well as connecting patients with healthcare providers and medical professionals with each other.
Built to seamlessly integrate with other frameworks and apps, this API allows developers to add reimbursement codes to videos to simplify billing.
2. Eligible
Eligible provides APIs that make it easy to add insurance billing experiences into your health applications. Eligible helps telehealth app developers provide complete information about over a thousand insurance companies, and simplifies processing of application forms and payments.
This API is ideal if your focus is on streamlining insurance verification, claims, and payment processes on behalf of patients when they access healthcare services.
3. Amwell
The Amwell platform has a mobile SDK that allows developers to embed its API into existing iOS and Android apps.
This means any business with a customer-facing health application can now incorporate online doctor visits, lab test results, medical histories, and prescription refill reminders, making for a smoother user experience while providing easier access to telehealth.
4. Eviti Web API
NantHealth provides a RESTful API, Eviti, which is a RESTful web API that helps developers build apps that provide access to healthcare data such as diagnosis and procedure codes.
This API is mainly for helping doctors choose the best possible treatment for a specific situation, including the patient’s diagnosis and type of health insurance.
5. Human API
The Human API is a digital self-health solution that allows users to sync all of their health information from disparate sources, including fitness tracker data from Apple Watch or Fitbit, into a single platform.
They can integrate their medical records, lab results, and prescriptions from various providers. This data can then be shared easily with third parties such as healthcare professionals, wellness experts, or insurance providers.
6. MDLIVE
MDLIVE is a telehealth company based in Florida. They released an API that has, in partnership with retail giant Walgreen’s, made prescription management easier than ever before.
The biggest draw of the MDLIVE telehealth API is its prescription management system combined with its ability to integrate health records. When pairing these two features with secure video calling, instant messaging, and mobile payments, you get a fully comprehensive telehealth system.
7. DrChrono API
The DrChrono’s open FHIR API is a REST API that allows users of telehealth apps to create and modify appointments in a physician’s calendar, physicians to gather and monitor patients’ vital information, create vaccine orders, and much more.
DrChrono’s EHR Healthcare developer platform provides a solution for transmitting patient information in a secure and transparent way, as in the Apple Health platform.
8. Patient360 API
The Patient360 telehealth API enables developers and healthcare providers to retrieve medical records from thousands of different care websites such as CommonWell and CareQuality.
This API is part of one of Health Gorilla's RESTful API suite, which deals with complete clinical datasets. The key here is that it cuts out the middleman. Healthcare administration can be a complete nightmare. But by integrating Patient360 into your own telehealth app with the FHIR-based API, your app users can retrieve medical records and clinical data instantly.
9. Validic API
Wearable technology has become more popular in recent years. These provide a wealth of health information for healthcare providers to tap into. This is where Validic API comes in.
The Validic telehealth API is a standardized connection that establishes relationships between healthcare providers and more than 200 health apps available on smart devices today.
Some of the information available using the Validic API includes things like fitness records, data on eating routines, sleep measurements, weight, and much more. This REST API helps healthcare businesses to connect with top mobile health apps like Fitbit, RunKeeper, MapMyRide, and others.
10. Truepill
With a focus on making prescription drug delivery easier, Truepill’s API allows pharmacies, health brands, and other companies to ship prescription pills directly to a patient’s doorstep within hours.
The Truepill API is an invaluable tool for developers looking to create telehealth platforms, pharmacy management systems and health marketplaces.
11. MyTelemedicine API
While it’s great that so many telehealth apps connect physicians and patients online, what if there’s a need for more than one healthcare provider to attend a consultation?
The MyTelemedicine API integrates with most technologies including mobile apps, wearables, and even IoT-based devices. When this API is in action, multi-party sessions between three or more participants can be handled securely, allowing patients to invite consultants or even family members to their sessions.
Other capabilities include the ability to update critical medical records, manage medication prescriptions, monitor vital signs, and oversee other parts of the patient care process.
12. HealthTap APIs
A big part of medicine is Big Data. Developers and physicians alike can dive deeper into big data using the HealthTap telehealth app. HealthTap is a platform that mixes different chat options with the ability to track patient data, search the world’s largest library of questions answered by doctors, and more.
HealthTap also offers a clinical CRM with automated reminders and other options that allow healthcare workers to follow up with patients.
13. CometChat API
For healthcare providers looking for the best way to connect with their patients, CometChat Chat API are a powerful option with a comprehensive suite of features.
By creating opportunities for text, audio, and video chat, CometChat enables physicians and patients to share resources and build stronger care relationships.
Where CometChat’s APIs go one step further than most APIs is their live streaming capabilities. With this API, healthcare providers can create online talks, councils, and more for thousands of participants. These could be perfect for patient-doctor, or doctor-doctor engagement activities such as webinars, podcasts, etc.
Key Takeaways
The majority of these APIs and platforms are REST-based, which makes them compatible with a variety of programming languages and existing frameworks. This also means that integration times may vary. One API may take up to four weeks to set up, while some may take much shorter.
We already know that telehealth adoption is increasing around the world, and that the expectations for the industry are high. What matters most is that developers pay careful attention to privacy regulations and HIPAA compliance laws and that they go the extra mile towards protecting patients’ medical data and personal information. It is important to choose the right API partners for your app, which is why we’ve kept our API free for up to 25 users. So you can sign up and build your app using our service before scaling up your business.
About the Author
Nabeel Keblawi, a deaf entrepreneur, runs a Content Marketing and SEO agency that helps B2B SaaS companies grow organically in their industries around the world. His previous work experience involved software development, renewable energy, and cloud computing. In his personal life, Nabeel loves to go hiking with his family, and dust off his skis to hit the slopes given the chance. He is also an avid reader of fictional history.
Nabeel Keblawi
CometChat
