Emerged as one of the most popular video-conferencing services during the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis, Zoom Video Communications introduced new features for healthcare customers. Organisations with a Zoom for Healthcare licence will access features and products such as Zoom Chat, cloud recording for clinical applications, and Zoom Phone under Zoom's updated business associate agreement (BAA).
Zoom's HIPAA-compliant healthcare licence has helped to facilitate and conduct virtual doctors' visits to connect medical communities over video calls. This expanded offering is likely to give healthcare organisations and providers access to more HIPAA-compliant features and capabilities - along with the ability to customise features to be allowed or disabled within the network.
With Zoom's BAA licence, healthcare customers and administration will have access to Zoom Phone, Zoom cloud VoIP phone solution featuring secure HD voice, call forwarding, recording, delegation, and voicemail transcription. Zoom Chat can be quickly and securely used to communicate with colleagues, onsite or on the go. Zoom sessions can be recorded in the cloud. Along with the services, Zoom claims to provide a secure location for patient health information and reporting on the administrator dashboard. Additionally, administrators will have the flexibility to turn these settings on and off at the organisation level depending on the policies.
Focusing on protecting privacy and security, Zoom has put in a few safeguards. Firstly, data in motion is encrypted at the application layer using the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES). When enabled, Zoom's advanced chat encryption will allow for a secured communication where only the intended recipient can read the secured message. Other features allow to control session attendee admittance with individual or group entry, waiting rooms, required meeting passcodes, and locked room functionality.
The demand for telehealth - and the need to be confident when working with data that contains PHI - is increasing. "So it's important for providers and healthcare organisations to have the tools they need to stay connected and compliant, now and in the future. Zoom's platform enhancements are part of their commitment to enabling virtual care delivery, medical innovation, collaboration, education, and research, as unique healthcare applications and use cases continue to evolve," says the company in a press statement.
Founded in 2011, San Jose, California, headquartered Zoom is currently serving large businesses, government, schools and educational institutes, and individual users. With an office in Mumbai and two data centres in Mumbai and Hyderabad, the company plans to open a technology centre in Bengaluru.