1. What Is Telehealth?
Telehealth involves the delivery of healthcare services using electronic communications, information technology, or other means between a healthcare provider and a patient who are not in the same physical location. Services provided through Ayah Health may include asynchronous messaging, clinical evaluation, diagnostic lab requisitions (Quest Diagnostics), and prescription routing, all delivered through our third-party patient platform, PushHealth.
2. AI-Assisted Intake Process
To make your intake faster and more thorough, Ayah Health may use AI-assisted technology to collect and organize the information you provide during intake and to prepare draft clinical summaries and optional draft suggestions for Dr. Akram's convenience.
The technology does not diagnose, prescribe, place orders, authorize treatment, or independently make clinical decisions. Dr. Ahsan Akram independently reviews the patient's information and is solely responsible for the diagnosis, clinical interpretation, treatment plan, prescribing decisions, and management of the case. AI-generated material is a drafting aid for the physician's convenience and is not a substitute for the physician's professional judgment.
The intake may switch automatically to a structured, non-AI question flow if the AI service is unavailable or slow. This does not change who makes clinical decisions or the standard applied to your care. Information you submit through either flow becomes part of your medical record and is protected as described in Section 6. If you prefer not to use AI-assisted intake, contact us so an alternative can be arranged.
When voice input is offered, a recording is transmitted securely for speech-to-text processing before the resulting transcript is used as your answer. The transcript, not the microphone recording itself, is intended to become part of the intake record. You may always type instead.
3. Benefits & Expected Outcomes
- Improved and convenient access to medical evaluation without traveling to a clinic.
- Efficient review of non-emergent medical concerns and prescription refills.
- Direct access to board-certified physician evaluation and lab testing requisitions.
As with any medical evaluation, telehealth care through Ayah Health does not guarantee a specific diagnosis, treatment outcome, or cure. Medicine involves inherent uncertainty, and Dr. Akram's clinical judgment governs every recommendation.
4. Potential Risks & Limitations
While virtual care offers high accessibility, there are inherent limitations compared to an in-person physical examination:
- Delays in medical evaluation or treatment could occur because of internet interruption, platform outage, transcription error, software failure, or other technology/equipment limitations. If the intake appears stuck, you should retry, refresh and resume, or contact Ayah Health rather than assuming it was received.
- In rare instances, security protocols could fail, causing a breach of privacy of personal medical information, despite reasonable administrative, physical, and technical safeguards.
- Lack of access to a complete physical examination or hands-on diagnostic testing may require you to seek in-person medical care elsewhere.
- Information conveyed by you (symptoms, history, images) may be incomplete or insufficient for a fully informed diagnosis, which could affect the accuracy of evaluation and treatment.
- As with any medical care, there is a possibility of adverse reactions to prescribed medications, misdiagnosis, or a delay in diagnosis.
5. Patient Acknowledgments
By requesting care through Ayah Health and its secure patient platform, you attest and acknowledge that:
- You are physically located in the State of Texas or the State of Florida at the time of your consultation, and you are solely responsible for accurately disclosing your location.
- You have provided accurate, truthful, and complete medical history, allergy details, and current medication lists, and you understand that incomplete or inaccurate information may affect the safety and accuracy of your care.
- You understand that any AI-assisted technology used during your chat intake (see Section 2) is a tool used only to gather and organize your information, and that Dr. Ahsan Akram personally reviews that information and is solely responsible for every diagnostic, treatment, and prescribing decision.
- You understand that a chat intake is not complete until the interface confirms that it has been saved. An unfinished intake may be kept temporarily so you can resume it, and is automatically made unavailable after the applicable temporary-session period.
- You understand that Dr. Ahsan Akram does NOT evaluate or prescribe DEA Controlled Substances (narcotics, stimulants, benzodiazepines, or sedatives) under any circumstances.
- You understand that if your condition is determined to be unsafe for virtual care, or outside the scope of telehealth, you will be advised to seek in-person, urgent, or emergency medical evaluation, and that Dr. Akram may decline to treat you for this reason at his sole clinical discretion.
- You understand you have the right to withhold or withdraw consent to telehealth care at any time without affecting your right to future care or treatment.
- You are at least 18 years of age, or, if the patient is a minor age 2 through 17, you are that minor's parent or legal guardian and are providing this consent and all requested information on the minor's behalf. Ayah Health does not provide telehealth services to children under the age of 2.
6. Confidentiality, Records & Third-Party Platforms
Your telehealth visit, including messages, clinical notes, and any lab or prescription orders, becomes part of your permanent medical record, documented and retained to the same standard as an in-person visit. This information is protected under HIPAA and applicable state law (Texas or Florida, depending on where your visit takes place) to the same extent as records from any in-person medical practice — see our HIPAA Notice of Privacy Practices for full detail.
Ayah Health uses PushHealth as its telehealth technology and patient-messaging platform, and Quest Diagnostics for laboratory testing. By using this service, you consent to the necessary sharing of relevant health information with these service providers for treatment, payment, and health care operations as permitted by law. Patient messages and submitted intake responses are maintained as part of the clinical record. If you choose voice input, the audio is processed to create a text transcript as described in Section 2; Ayah Health does not intend to retain the raw microphone recording as the clinical record.
As described in Section 2, Ayah Health may also use AI-assisted technology running on Google Cloud infrastructure to collect and organize intake information and prepare physician-facing drafts. Google Cloud acts as a Business Associate under HIPAA for this purpose and is bound by a written Business Associate Agreement to protect your PHI. These drafts are conveniences for Dr. Akram's independent review; the physician's own clinical interpretation and decisions govern management.
7. Financial Responsibility
Ayah Health operates on a direct-pay basis and does not bill health insurance, Medicare, or Medicaid. You are financially responsible for any fee disclosed and agreed to prior to treatment. Fees are charged only upon your explicit approval of a treatment plan; if Dr. Akram is unable to treat your concern via telehealth, no treatment fee is charged. You may request an itemized receipt for possible out-of-network reimbursement, though reimbursement by any third-party payer is never guaranteed.
8. Assumption of Risk
By proceeding with a telehealth consultation, you voluntarily assume the risks described in this consent, including the inherent limitations of virtual evaluation described in Section 4. You confirm that you have been given the opportunity to ask questions about telehealth as a method of care delivery, that those questions (if any) have been answered to your satisfaction, and that you are choosing telehealth as a voluntary alternative to in-person care, having been informed of that alternative. Nothing in this consent limits any right or remedy available to you under applicable law, including in connection with professional negligence.
9. Duration & Revocation of Consent
This consent applies to your current request and to any future telehealth encounters you initiate with Ayah Health, unless and until you revoke it. You may revoke this consent at any time, verbally or in writing, without affecting your right to future care; however, revocation will end your ability to receive further telehealth services through this platform until consent is renewed.