The Ultimate Remote Collaboration Hardware and Software Toolkit for Healthcare

Care teams hand off to multiple providers as practices experience physician shortages and adopt flexible models of care, says Holly Wiberg, assistant professor of public policy and operations research at Carnegie Mellon University’s Heinz College.

As care team members work with patients that are more geographically distributed rather than in a single office with a single provider, collaboration has become more important, according to Wiberg.

“There’s a lot more diversity to the ways that patients receive care now, and so collaboration is necessary to ensure that there’s continuity to patient care, that we don’t have gaps in their records or redundant efforts across multiple care team members,” Wiberg explains. “And the way that we can create this continuous care across teams is through collaboration and particularly remote collaboration tools.”

Here is a look at the most trusted hardware and software in healthcare that aid collaboration.

Features of the Top Remote Hardware and Software for Telehealth

Hardware for telehealth includes mobile carts and workstations such as Capsa’s mobile workstations and Ergotron’s mobile medical carts. These carts include screens that allow doctors to conduct telehealth sessions and also conference with specialists. A key feature of Ergotron’s carts is ergonomics, allowing for neutral posture with elbows close to the core, shoulders open and the chin and forearms in line with the floor.

Connected medical devices such as glucose monitors and digital stethoscopes also contribute to telehealth sessions. 

Video bars such as the Cisco Room Bar Pro offer artificial intelligence technology and compatibility with the Apple Vision Pro. Room Bar Pro connects to Cisco Spatial Meetings, which can aid remote surgical planning and training.

In addition, HP Poly Studio premium video bars support multiple cloud platforms such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams and Google Meet. Cameras from companies such as HP Poly incorporate AI to allow participants to see who is speaking and enable speakers to be heard above ambient noise or background sounds. 

Telehealth and telework tools can ensure that digital health tools are equitable and offer meeting parity, in which participants in person have the same quality of experience as those that are remote on video calls.

“Design of shared spaces must ensure that there is an equitable collaboration experience for in-person and remote participants,” Simmons says. “It is vital that conferencing equipment be easy to install, use and support, and must work seamlessly with your organization’s standard collaboration platforms, such as Zoom, Microsoft Teams or Google Meet.”

In addition, application programming interfaces allow platforms like RingCentral to integrate other tools such as electronic health record systems and nurse call systems, Poli says. Providers can record summaries of phone calls and include them in EHRs.

“If that phone call is in the health record, we will screen-capture that record summary, and an application allows you to do the most manageable tasks for that record in real time on that screen, so that the contact center does not have to pivot to another app,” Poli explains.

As health systems choose which collaboration tools to work with, ensuring HIPAA compliance will be essential, and health systems should only provide access to the necessary providers and staff, Wiberg advises.

“That kind of flexibility of credentials and access is quite important,” she says.

HIPAA-compliant video capabilities allow specialists to join a call with other physicians and speed up the discharge of a patient, Poli explains.

“We’re seeing those kinds of care coordination and patient engagement activities that are integrating directly with the environments and the tools on the floor of the hospital or the clinic,” he says.

Collaboration tools such as RingCentral also incorporate analytics to capture information from patient interactions to help with insurance, billing and reimbursements from CMS, Poli adds.

Meanwhile, Cisco has recently unveiled Webex AI Agent, which is a self-service concierge to manage patient inquiries using natural dialogue and conversational intelligence. In addition, AI features in Webex Contact Center include AI-powered analytics to allow healthcare leaders to gather insights. AI features make interactions between supervisors and administrators and patients more seamless. Collaboration platforms such as Webex also integrate with EHR platforms including Epic to aid patient engagement and telework for physicians.

Zoom also offers custom integrations for healthcare, such as compatibility with handheld digital scope cameras. Channels in Zoom Team Chat allow providers to send direct messages and upload files to enable physician collaboration.

Digital Workspace Solutions for Telework in Healthcare

Healthcare professionals now need collaboration platforms for telework to improve customer experience for virtual check-ins, registration, patient relations and benefits counseling, Simmons says.

Telework involves filing claims, scheduling and revenue cycle management, and this work is shared across locations. Still, telehealth is the most common, noticeable form of telework for health systems, Wiberg notes.

Key features of remote work tools include the ability to integrate with existing platforms and workflows as well as remote device provisioning and management, Simmons says. Systems such as Poly Lens help integrate IT support processes and systems and remotely manage devices.

Collaboration in contact centers and interactions with the front desk are now more digital and integrated as part of the health record, Poli says. 

This collaboration with patients comprises multiple dimensions, he adds. That could include chatbots and patient portals.

“This dispersion of care across multiple channels has created a new and particularly pressing need for collaboration tools,” Wiberg says.

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Future of Telework in Healthcare

AI will play a key role in collaboration in the future as providers use generative AI to aid conversations and help patients with scheduling appointments, according to Poli.

“It could be a human asking you how things are going this week and talking about our next set of activities, but all of that might be digital in the future through AI,” Poli says. “Being able to be much more proactive with patients is very powerful as we move into the future of AI and healthcare.”

Going forward, Wiberg would like to see health systems lower the barriers of difficulty for patients using collaboration tools, such as logging in and connecting with providers. That could involve unifying the tech stack, including EHR platforms.

Although having multiple modalities of care and provider levels creates more efficiencies in care, it makes maintaining a consistent patient narrative difficult, according to Wiberg.

“That’s where these collaboration tools really will come in to save the day,” she says.