Getting Started with CometChat: Telehealth Chat Development Guide

In an era where the healthcare landscape has been drastically transformed by the COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth applications have emerged as critical tools in making healthcare more accessible. They've converted living rooms into virtual consultation rooms, and essential health services are now available at our fingertips. Central to the efficacy of these telehealth applications is the pivotal role played by their communication infrastructure.

A robust, efficient communication infrastructure is vital to delivering seamless virtual healthcare. It forms the backbone of all telehealth interactions, bridging the gap between healthcare providers and patients. Here's why it's imperative to adopt the right communication infrastructure:

Streamlined doctor-patient interactions

The essence of telehealth lies in facilitating seamless, real-time interactions between doctors and patients. Integrated infrastructure for text, audio, and video communication ensures that these interactions are efficient and uninterrupted, directly influencing the effectiveness of healthcare delivery.

Remote telehealth made easy

A user-friendly, modern interface can significantly enhance the user experience on telehealth platforms, making it more likely to be adopted by both patients and healthcare providers. Remote live consultations, appointment scheduling, and medical notes, all in one easy-to-adopt messaging interface.

HIPAA compliance

In the world of telehealth, compliance with health information privacy regulations such as HIPAA isn't optional - it's mandatory.

HIPAA-compliant in-app chat safeguards patient data, secures communication between patients and healthcare providers, and builds user trust, making it an indispensable feature for any telehealth application.

By making patients and doctors communicate within the app, telehealth businesses can eliminate the need for other 3rd party communication applications, these apps are largely non-hipaa compliant.

Telehealth, a key area supported by CometChat, spans multiple use cases within the broader healthcare realm:

1. Digital-first telehealth startups:

CometChat provides a robust solution for digital-first startups aiming to disrupt the healthcare sector by offering accessible healthcare services.

These startups typically operate by providing healthcare consultations via text, phone, or video calls through their web and mobile applications.

Examples: Companies like JumpingMinds, BeyondBMI, and RecoveryOne use CometChat for seamless real-time communication between healthcare providers and patients.

2. Traditional healthcare institutions

Large hospitals implementing telehealth or providing aftercare support through telehealth apps benefit from CometChat's efficient communication capabilities, facilitating interactions within these institutions.

Example: Kokilaben Hospitals employs CometChat for immediate patient care and internal communication.

3. Healthcare SaaS applications

SaaS applications incorporating a messaging module enhance their user experience and functionality using CometChat's feature-rich communication platform.

Examples: Healthcare SaaS providers like Cloud9telehealth and MDProspects integrate CometChat for real-time updates and secure communication that complies with HIPAA.

In conclusion, whether you're a startup, a large healthcare institution, or a healthcare SaaS provider, CometChat streamlines your telehealth communication services, delivering efficient, secure, and user-centric solutions.

Compliance is a cornerstone of our offerings at CometChat, particularly for healthcare. We uphold HIPAA and PIPEDA regulations, reinforcing our commitment to data security and privacy.

Before diving into specific use cases and capabilities, it's important to lay the groundwork for a seamless integration with CometChat. Here are a few prerequisites and global setup guidelines to help you build your communication app with CometChat.

1. User creation and connection management

Each user on your platform needs a corresponding user profile on CometChat. With CometChat's user roles, you can assign different roles and specific access controls to your users.

For instance, you can create three distinct roles - Doctor, Care Team, and Patients - each with unique access controls. For example, doctors could have admin access and moderation control, which may not be applicable for patients.

Every time a new user registers on your platform and is added to your database, you need to create a corresponding user on CometChat. You can use CometChat's Rest APIs for this purpose.

Additionally, you can also update user information whenever there are changes or additions and delete the user from CometChat if they are no longer using your app.

2. For user login

After successful user authentication on your platform, you need to generate an authToken for the user using CometChat's Rest APIs. Once you have the authToken, it should be passed to the frontend where you can log into CometChat using the authToken. This ensures a seamless login experience for your users and keeps their data secure.

3. Integrate UI kits

CometChat's UI Kits are designed to expedite your time to market, offering pre-designed UI components embedded with business logic, thereby eliminating the need for front-end design and development. With a modern design that matches industry standards, these kits offer a visually pleasing and seamless user experience.

CometChat's UI Kit comprises pre-built UI components divided into smaller modules, each customizable to suit your specific requirements. Whether you want to modify the color scheme, adjust the layout, or change the functionality, our UI Kit allows for extensive customization.

Setting up the UI Kit is as simple as installing the UI Kit dependency into your project.

4. UI kit setup guide

For an in-depth understanding of how to effectively use our UI Kit, check out our setup guide.

5. Sample app

To see our UI Kits in action, check out a sample app built with our latest UI Kits. This practical example can provide you with inspiration and insights for your own app development.

Toolkit

As we delve deeper, let's now turn our attention to the various use cases for incorporating in-app chat and calling in your telehealth application.

There are numerous ways to implement in-app communication within a telehealth setting, and in this section, we'll explore how you can use CometChat's HIPAA compliant chat SDKs to establish chat and calling features specifically tailored for your telehealth app.

Primarily, we focus on facilitating seamless communication between patients, doctors and healthcare teams. We'll also explore how you can utilize our advanced features to streamline operations, moderation, improve patient engagement and even provide avenues for you to monetize your app based on communication usage.

Let's dive in and learn how CometChat can augment your telehealth solution.

Smooth patient onboarding & matching

The initiation of in-app chat in a telehealth app can largely depend on the overall workflow of the application.

Apps that prioritize the discovery and matching of suitable doctors to patients based on specific criteria may integrate in-app chat to simplify the onboarding and matching process.

This reduces workflow friction and positions the chat interface as the primary medium for communication and engagement. Here's how CometChat can streamline this aspect of a telehealth workflow:

Automatic group creation after assignment:

Following the assignment of an appropriate doctor to the patient using your unique matching algorithm, a group conversation between the patient and the doctor is automatically generated.

If there's an existing care team linked with the doctor, such as office staff, nurses, or a diagnostics team, they can be automatically added to the group, further streamlining the process.

Groups can be tagged at the time of creation or post for ease of access and reporting.

Customized welcome message:

A welcome message is automatically dispatched to the group, providing context for all parties involved. This assists in setting communication expectations and easing patients into initiating a conversation within the chat environment.

This could be a standardized text message or a customized message to fit particular communication structures.

Efficient sharing of patient history:

Patient history can be expedited by automatically attaching existing patient records to the conversation. This could be executed through an API pulling the required file from your EHR or core product database.

Workflow optimization through chat:

Managing incoming patient requests becomes significantly easier when the process of accepting or rejecting these requests is integrated directly into the chat experience.

CometChat's interactive cards can display new patient requests, visible only to the doctor or care team. They can then trigger specific actions based on their response.

For example, if the doctor clicks 'deny', the system can restart the matching process and assign a new doctor to the patient. On the other hand, clicking 'accept' adds the patient to the same group chat with the doctor. This approach helps to manage patient requests efficiently within the chat experience.

In-chat appointment scheduling:

Once the group is established and the context is set, a scheduling flow can be initiated within the chat. This paves the way for a live consultation meeting as the next step, while asynchronous patient history gathering and introductions are taking place.

The interactive scheduling message feature simplifies the process by integrating a calendar scheduling flow directly into the chat interface.

Toolkit

Pre-consultation: streamlining preparation & context setting

Persistent chat for asynchronous communication:

Persistent chat forms an integral part of all telehealth services - it's not just about live consultation, but also about retaining past conversations for future reference and asynchronous communication between doctors and patients.

CometChat's messaging system is designed to be persistent by default, complete with a conversation view that allows you to create an inbox view at either end.

CometChat offers a default six month message retention for all users with an option to increase the retention limits if need be.

This conversations view is chronological, with an unread message count to prompt action, making it easier for doctors and patients to manage and review their communication history.

Interactive forms for simplified patient information collection:

CometChat's interactive form element simplifies the process of collecting information from patients, all within the chat interface. The pre-built UI eliminates the need for additional design efforts.

Forms can also be customized according to your specific requirements and can include various input types – text, number, radio button, checklist, and more.

The 'submit' button is also customizable, allowing for an API call trigger or a bespoke thank-you message. The possibilities are endless with CometChat's flexible interface.

AI voice bot for engaging information collection:

Collecting patient history can be made more engaging and efficient with CometChat's AI Voice bots.

Acting as virtual assistants, these bots capture history from the patient and convert it into medical notes for the doctor, enhancing the patient experience and efficiency.

Appointment reminders via chat and notifications:

Yet another compelling use-case of CometChat's extensibility is the notifications module. With support for Push, Email, and SMS notifications, you can ensure that patients are notified of new messages in the chat.

More strategically, this feature can be utilized to send appointment reminders, ensuring that both patient and doctor are always in sync.

Toolkit

Live Consultation: Powering Secure & Engaging Interactions

1:1 live video call and group conferencing

Video communication forms the backbone of any telehealth app. Housing this feature within the app, rather than resorting to external platforms like Zoom or Google Meet, ensures a consistent user experience.

CometChat's HIPAA compliant video conferencing API makes it simple to add video communication to your telehealth app. Unlike separate video infrastructure products, CometChat integrates chat and video functionalities, reducing the need for separate maintenance.

A new 1:1 or group call can be initiated with the link added to the chat window, or users can connect over a video call in a similar manner to Facetime or WhatsApp. The former approach is typically preferred for telehealth workflows.

Notable feature to have:

Credit-based and payment based on call duration:

Utilizing our 'meeting started' and 'meeting ended' webhooks, calls can be timed. This allows for checks against the user database for available credits in a credit-based payment model, or sending a post-call invoice/payment link based on the call duration.

Screen sharing and whiteboarding:

Enhance patient-doctor communication and collaboration by sharing screens and using whiteboards during video consultations. This can be particularly useful for discussing medical reports or health education.

AI summarized clinical notes:

With CometChat’s AI summarizer, you can automatically convert transcripts into SOAP notes, reducing the time spent by doctors or their administrative staff in compiling these summary notes.

This not only streamlines the post-consultation process but also ensures the doctor's focus remains on patient care rather than administrative tasks.

Toolkit

Post-consultation: collaborative care & continuous support

Collaborative care plan creation:

CometChat allows for the creation and sharing of personalized care plans. With its document collaboration features, healthcare professionals can collaboratively create a comprehensive care plan and share it directly within the chat interface.

This ensures patients have easy access to their personalized care plans and facilitates open communication about any concerns or changes that may be needed.

File sharing within chat:

CometChat's integrations with diagnostic systems provide a seamless experience for patients to access their diagnostic reports.

Reports can be shared directly within the chat interface, providing convenient and immediate access. This feature can save patients the trouble of navigating through multiple platforms or interfaces to access their health information.

Interactive AI bot to answer frequently asked questions:

AI bots can be implemented to address common patient queries and dispense fundamental information, reducing the workload on healthcare professionals.

This allows for immediate patient support and reduces response time. Whether it's questions about medication, follow-up appointments, or basic health concerns, CometChat's AI bots enhance patient support in a telehealth environment.

Telehealth-specific support groups:

CometChat enables the creation of dedicated chat groups for patients dealing with similar conditions. These forums can facilitate peer-to-peer support and foster a sense of community among patients.

By sharing experiences and coping strategies, patients can benefit from communal support and solidarity, supplementing the professional care they receive.

In addition, healthcare professionals can also be part of these groups, providing expert advice and moderation when necessary.