Telehealth company American Well has unveiled a software development kit (SDK) that will allow hospitals, insurers, retailers, or medical publishers to embed online doctor visits directly into their health apps. 

The SDK will first be made available to existing American Well partners and customers and then will be made more broadly available. American Well says a few clients are lined up, including at least one health system.

“The SDK is a game changer for how consumers will access online healthcare in the future,” American Well CEO and cofounde Dr. Roy Schoenberg said in a statement. “For the first time, any company with a consumer-facing health application can embed online doctor visits into that app – making telehealth an integral part of their own brand experience. Not only does this build brand loyalty with consumers by offering a compelling service, it makes online healthcare easier to access than ever before.”

American Well says they foresee the integration being used with patient portals, health plan member apps, retail pharmacy apps, or health content apps. It's pretty easy to imagine health content apps like WebMD and iTriage jumping onboard. Walgreens already offers in-app telehealth through a partnership with MDLive, and both iTriage and WebMD have expressed a desire to incorporate telehealth into their apps, with the latter expressing the desire on a conference call just yesterday.

Correction: The original version of this story noted that Cerner was embedding the telehealth feature in its patient portal app, but MobiHealthNews has since learned we were misinformed and this is not the case.