Accelerate Your Telemedicine Software Implementation by Learning From Buyers With Experience

While remote provision of medical services has become normal, healthcare providers still face technological barriers, privacy concerns, and clinical limitations when providing remote care to patients. Dedicated telemedicine software can overcome these issues by allowing healthcare professionals to connect with patients virtually, exchange medical information securely, and manage patient care remotely. 

However, it is important to know the correct set of features, the average software price, and the common challenges users face when purchasing telemedicine software.

Each year, Software Advice's advisors speak with thousands of software buyers evaluating new telemedicine software for their businesses. We've mined those conversations to provide insights that will help small businesses understand the budget requirements, feature needs, and pain points of current users to finalize the best tool for their needs.

Prospective buyers and current users prioritize the same feature

To gain insights into user preferences, we analyzed thousands of telemedicine software reviews available on Software Advice to identify the features that the users of the software consider most critical for their daily work. Our findings reveal that both the buyers and current users of the software prioritize the same feature in telemedicine software.

• Around 51% of current software users consider HIPAA compliance as the most essential feature in telemedicine software. Likewise, 95% of buyers seek a HIPAA-compliant video platform in a telemedicine tool.

• These findings indicate that both software buyers and actual users of telemedicine software find immense value in HIPAA compliance functionality. The feature protects the confidentiality, integrity, and security of patients’ protected health information (PHI) when using telemedicine platforms. Healthcare providers can leverage this to communicate securely with the patients and prevent unauthorized access to PHI stored within the platform.

Current pain points for telemedicine software buyers

When our advisors asked buyers what methods they were currently using to handle their day-to-day telemedicine operations, here's what they found:

• Around 43% of buyers do not have a system in place to automate their day-to-day operation workflows. 

• While 38% of buyers rely on third-party tools, nearly 6% use manual methods, including paper records and manual data entry for their telemedicine practices.

These discussions shed light on businesses' real-life challenges with their existing methods. These included limited functionality (35%), new business opportunities (22%), and user-friendliness (16%).

• Limited feature options: While manual methods and third-party tools may seem to be cost-effective options for managing telemedicine practices, these usually fall short of providing comprehensive features for efficient practice management in the long run. Third-party tools often focus on specific aspects of telemedicine practice management, such as billing and appointment scheduling. However, these lack advanced features, such as remote monitoring, patient triage, electronic health records (EHR) integration, and prescription templates. Moreover, both these methods lack advanced analytics and reporting features specific to telehealth practice management. 

• Unlocking new business opportunities: With the growth of telehealth practices, businesses may need a solution that offers them the latest technology and features to offer a wide range of virtual care services, including virtual consultations and teletherapy. As compared to both manual methods and third-party software, a dedicated telemedicine tool allows practitioners to offer targeted services by developing specialized telemedicine programs tailored to patient conditions and requirements. Moreover, it facilitates remote monitoring, allowing telehealth practitioners to offer virtual consultations and services in remote areas. 

• Complex user interface: Conventional methods, such as spreadsheets and paper-based records typically require telehealth practitioners to use separate documents for different aspects of practice management, such as documenting patient information and maintaining payment records. Likewise, third-party tools may require complex configuration and set up processes, requiring practitioners to customize settings, user permissions, and workflow configurations to match their practice needs. This can be difficult for practitioners, especially those without technical expertise.

Reasons for switching to a dedicated telemedicine system

Compared to the existing methods used by professionals, a dedicated telemedicine software solution offers the following benefits: 

• Intuitive interface: Unlike third-party tools and manual methods that may offer standalone services for managing specific aspects of telehealth practices, a dedicated tool offers a unified platform that integrates multiple functionalities into a single interface. This eliminates the need to switch between different tools and interfaces to perform different tasks. Moreover, the software incorporates a user-friendly design that prioritizes telehealth workflows and intuitive navigation, allowing telehealth practitioners to perform common tasks, such as appointment scheduling and patient documentation with ease. 

• Scalability: A dedicated telemedicine tool allows healthcare professionals to accommodate growing patient volumes, data transactions, and concurrent sessions without experiencing performance degradations or system failures. On the contrary, both manual methods and third-party tools may struggle to keep up with the growing business demands, such as increasing the number of users and virtual consultations over time. 

• Better functionality: As compared to manual methods and third-party tools, telemedicine software offers high levels of customization capabilities, allowing users to configure workflows, templates, and user profiles to match the specific needs and preferences of the healthcare practice. These tools also automate routine tasks, such as appointment scheduling, prescription management, information documentation, and billing, reducing administrative burden and improving efficiency. Additionally, these provide advanced reporting and analytics capabilities, allowing healthcare practitioners to generate custom reports and track patient outcomes. 

• Advanced features: In contrast to third-party solutions that often include a broader range of functionalities and may lack in-depth options to support telehealth practice management, a dedicated telemedicine solution is designed to address the unique needs and challenges of these practices. It offers a comprehensive list of features, including integrated video conferencing, documentation templates, remote patient monitoring, patient portal, and appointment scheduling to enhance the delivery of virtual care.

Average budget for telemedicine software buyers across industries

The budget for purchasing telemedicine software varies from industry to industry based on factors such as the licensing model, number of users, customization level, integration capabilities, and the required functionality.

However, the average industry budget for purchasing telemedicine software was approximately $79 per user, per month. 

The chart below highlights the average buyer budget per month for the top five industries interested in telemedicine software.

Use cases for telemedicine software

Based on our advisors’ interactions, these are the top five industries using a telemedicine tool for different use cases: 

• Psychology and therapy practitioners need telemedicine solutions to offer continued services to patients during times when in-person sessions are not possible. Therefore, they may look for features, such as secure video conferencing, encrypted messaging, and appointment scheduling with automated reminders in a telemedicine tool.

• Other specialty practitioners may need a telemedicine platform to improve operational efficiency, expand their reach, and improve patient access to care. Such healthcare professionals may look for features, such as integration with medical systems, customizable documentation templates, appointment scheduling, and billing and payment processing functionalities. 

• Family medicine practitioners need telemedicine solutions to simplify administrative tasks and offer accessible healthcare services to patients. Therefore, they may prioritize appointment booking, patient portal, EHR integration, and communication tools in telemedicine software. 

• Mental and behavioral health practitioners require telemedicine systems to conduct virtual therapy sessions with patients and provide remote counseling. Some of the essential telemedicine features they may look for include secure video conferencing, patient portals, specialized therapy tools, medication management, and support for remote psychiatric evaluations. 

• Internal medicine practitioners need a telemedicine tool to offer ongoing support to patients with complex medical needs. Their feature requirements may include patient triage, HIPAA-compliant video consultations, medication management, e-prescriptions, and remote examination tools among others.