Table 3.
Examples of Telemedicine Technology Applications and Their Functions
| Application | Manufacturer (Location) | Pros | Cons | HIPAA Compliant | Integrates with EMR |
| American Well | Amwell (Boston, MA) | Integrates with EMR for billing and documentation | Higher cost; greater server requirements | Yes | Yes |
| MDLink | MDLink, Ltd. (Kingston, Jamaica) | Yes | Yes | ||
| Polycom RealPresence | Plantronics (Santa Cruz, CA) | Yes | Yes | ||
| SnapMD | SnapMD (Glendale, CA) | Yes | Yes | ||
| CyraCom | CyraCom (Tucson, AZ) | Low cost | No EMR interface for billing or documentation | Potentiallya | No |
| Zoom | Zoom Video Communications (San Jose, CA) | Potentiallya | No | ||
| FaceTime | Apple (Cupertino, CA) | No | No | ||
| Skype | Microsoft (Redmond, WA) | No | No | ||
| Facebook (Menlo Park, CA) | No | No |
EMR = electronic medical record; HIPAA = Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act
a
Standard or basic services with these telecommunication applications may not be HIPAA-compliant, although advanced packages with encryption and password protection can be made to comply with HIPAA security standards.