How to Build a Secure HIPAA Compliant Healthcare Messaging App?

Hospitals, Doctors, patients and Apps

Do these words sound logical and sensible in a single sentence? The fact is, it is as serious as the healthcare business itself. Healthcare applications make medical assistance quick and effective. By origin, most messaging techniques were used like telegrams to make only important communications. Over the course of its development, instant messaging has become a major source of entertainment and business in applications that support shopping and dating. Due to this extreme exploitation of messaging apps in many areas, we may think it is a bad idea to use that in a serious place like healthcare; in fact, when it comes to healthcare, instant messaging is as important as the precious telegram, only faster. Chats in healthcare systems can offer quick and precise help for patients in need. With the right customization and clear patient information, the integration of chats in healthcare websites and applications can assist doctors in making timely decisions that can save lives.

How COVID 19 made us realise the importance of messaging apps

Covid 19 has changed the course of our routine. After a number of waves, variants, lockdowns and relaxations, the new normalcy is still being defined. One evident change all over the world is the usage of the internet and mobile applications. Digital technologies are becoming critical in the fight against the ongoing pandemic.

We prefer to work from home and make video calls over physical meetings. It saves a lot of time and effort. And, you can imagine how important time is in the medical field! The pandemic has accelerated the rise of digital health. In order to maintain safety, people started to prioritize their reasons to visit the hospital. Buying medicines, follow-ups and minor monitoring are considered simpler with the digital interfaces now. This also reduced the burden on healthcare.  

The significance of adding a chat feature to your application

Integration of chat apps into the medical system greatly improves the overall communication in the healthcare industry. A better patient-doctor communication enhances the desired medical outcome. 

Chat applications help bypass the long queues and waiting hours to seek medical attention. This immediacy can save lives and avoid unwanted delays in getting emergency counselling. A simple chat integration in your healthcare website/ application can seamlessly connect patients & doctors and better their experience. 

The integrated chat will be end-to-end encrypted making it a secure medium to communicate. It serves as a safe interface to share medical details and make payments securely. 

Based on user convenience, one can opt for a text or voice or video chat. Elders, kids, pregnant women and those seeking prescriptions can use a simple chat application to find solutions for their medical problems.

How to build a secure healthcare messaging app

Before building a healthcare application, one needs to ensure an efficient performance along with security and compliance to industry standard regulations. Healthcare needs prompt assistance, and the information in hand is very sensitive, hence the performance and security standards cannot be compromised. 

To build a quality chat application for healthcare services, here are some points to bear in mind:

• Creating and managing users – a robust user management and support system should be in place. Both the SDKs and the backend servers are required to have the basic functions like new user signup, authentication, password setup and retrieval

• SDK plugins – it is essential to have reliable chat SDKs to integrate a chat feature into an existing application. A customizable chat SDK can offer unique chat features with rich text, image and file transfer. It should also ensure a secure communication platform to safeguard sensitive patient & doctor data

• Secure video and audio services – you can enhance your healthcare services and improve patient satisfaction with valuable audio and video chat integrations. With reliable WebRTC module and customizable video chat APIs, you can improve patient experience with secure video calling features

• Healthcare service management – you can use custom module objects to create customized tables and data structures. These structures can define your own healthcare logic to manage consultations and prescriptions. Additionally, the message modules within the chat APIs can send push notifications to manage consultations/ prescriptions and keep patients & doctors updated

• Personal data and information security – patient information is extremely sensitive and it should be protected with encryption, multiple regulations and safety standards. Enable your application with end-to-end security with the help of HTTPS/TLS protocol and HIPAA compliance standards

• Billing management – create customised mechanisms to generate and store billing information. Since it involves third party integration, apply necessary security protocols.

Enrich patient-doctor communication within your healthcare application with Innoinstant’s customizable and scalable APIs and SDKs

What we discussed here is a careful compilation of all the essentials to create an outstanding chat application for healthcare services. To meet the necessary and to even push beyond that, Innoinstant is the ideal choice.

Innoinstant is one of the leading solution providers that offers 100% customizable chat APIs and SDKs; build a seamless chat application with compatibility across devices and browsers.

Use cases of chat applications in healthcare space

• Real-time messaging – create a well connected patient-doctor interface with the help of instant messaging. With Innoinstant’s customisable APIs, design an instant and secure digital healthcare service

• Voice and video chat – make follow-ups and consultations smooth with remote doctoring. A patient-centred clinical service can be achieved with WebRTC technology’s robust voice and video calling capabilities

• Media sharing – view medical records in real-time with the ability to securely transfer X-rays, images, MRIs, proscriptions and more

• Access control – ensure robust encryption and authentication using TLS & SSL protocols. Delegate access controls and maintain account authentication to protect data

• Focus groups and channels – facilitate useful medical discussions with group chats and dedicated channels

• Live location sharing – deliver/ receive medical updates and monitor on-call staff with accurate live location sharing.

Secure chat integration 

Innoinstant warrants to protect sensitive data and user privacy at any cost. 

• Secure data transmission with end-to-end encryption
• Store and protect healthcare data with HIPAA compliance
• Safe communication establishment with signal protocol
• Transparent policies and enterprise grade security

Final thoughts

Building a healthcare service is complex and sensitive. With customisable chat APIs and SDKs from Innoinstant, you can create a comprehensive healthcare communication system that makes the complex medical process simple and satisfying.