Reference

Telemedicine glossary

120+ terms with crisp, cited definitions, aliases, and cross-references to deep-dive articles. From HIPAA, BAAs, and PHI to FHIR, SMART on FHIR, WebRTC, EPCS, and WCAG 2.1 AA — every compliance rule, interoperability standard, and clinical-video concept in one place. Search by name, filter by chapter, or jump straight to a letter.

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42 CFR Part 2

US federal rule giving extra protection to substance-use-disorder treatment records, stricter than baseline HIPAA.

#

Access control

Who may see what, enforced technically — unique user IDs, role checks, session timeouts. A named HIPAA technical safeguard (45 CFR §164.312(a)).

A

ADA Title II web rule

The 2024 DOJ rule requiring state and local government web content and apps to meet WCAG 2.1 AA, with compliance dates phased in 2026–2027.

A

Administrative safeguards

The HIPAA Security Rule's process controls (45 CFR §164.308) — risk analysis, workforce training, access management, incident procedures.

A

AI triage

Models that collect symptoms and route patients before a clinician is involved. Kept as decision support — crossing into diagnosis invites FDA device scope.

A



Ambient clinical documentation

AI that listens to a consult and drafts the clinical note automatically; the highest-ROI AI feature in telehealth in 2026.

A

Anomaly detection

Models watching RPM streams for readings that break a patient's own pattern, escalating to the care team instead of paging on every threshold.

A



ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition)

Turning spoken audio into text; powers live captions, transcription, and the AI scribe.

A



Asynchronous care

Care delivered without both parties present at once — a patient submits data or media that a provider reviews later.

A



Audit log

An immutable record of who accessed which PHI, when, and from where; required by the HIPAA Security Rule.

A

B2B2C telehealth

Telehealth sold through employers or insurers to their members. Eligibility checks, SSO, and reporting to the paying organization dominate the integration work.

B



BAA (Business Associate Agreement)

The contract required between a covered entity and any vendor that handles PHI; without it, using the vendor is a HIPAA violation.

B

Bandwidth estimation

How WebRTC probes available network capacity and adapts send bitrate. It decides what video quality a patient's home Wi-Fi actually gets.

B



Breach Notification Rule

The HIPAA rule requiring notification of affected individuals and HHS after a PHI breach, generally within 60 days.

B

Build vs buy

The core sourcing decision per platform layer — build on open source (mediasoup, LiveKit), buy CPaaS, or mix. Cost, control, and BAA coverage decide it.

B



Business associate

A vendor or partner that handles PHI on behalf of a covered entity — your startup is usually one.

B

Captioning

Live captions rendered for participants — an accessibility requirement under WCAG and a comprehension aid when audio degrades.

C

C-CDA

Consolidated Clinical Document Architecture — the XML document format for clinical summaries exchanged between EHRs.

C

Chronic care management (CCM)

Longitudinal management of chronic conditions between visits. Medicare pays for it through dedicated CCM and RPM billing codes.

C

Clinical Decision Support (CDS)

Software that informs a clinician's decision while leaving the decision to them. FDA's CDS guidance draws the line between support and a regulated device.

C

Clinical peripherals

Exam tools that stream into a consult — digital stethoscopes, otoscopes, dermatoscopes — turning a video call into an examination.

C

Clinical pilot

A scoped live deployment with a partner clinic that measures safety, workflow fit, and outcomes before a wider rollout.

C

Codec

The algorithm that compresses and decompresses audio or video — Opus, VP8/VP9, H.264, AV1. Codec choice trades quality, CPU, and device compatibility.

C

Connected care

An umbrella for device-connected care delivery — RPM hardware plus care-team coordination built on top of the readings.

C



Consent

A patient's documented agreement to the visit and to any recording or data use; legally required in healthcare.

C



Covered entity

Under HIPAA, a healthcare provider, health plan, or clearinghouse that handles PHI directly.

C

CPaaS

Communications Platform as a Service — rented video and voice APIs (Twilio, Vonage, Daily). For PHI use, only the configurations covered by a signed BAA count.

C



Data residency

The requirement that data physically stay in a given jurisdiction; shapes cloud-region and media-server placement.

D



De-identification

Removing identifiers from health data so it is no longer PHI; via HIPAA Safe Harbor or Expert Determination.

D



Digital health

The widest umbrella term for technology in healthcare, from telemedicine to wearables, health apps, and AI.

D