Over 12 mn consultations facilitated through govt's telemedicine service

The Centre's National Telemedicine Service, eSanjeevani, has clocked over 12 million consultations so far, with Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka among the 10 states that have made maximum use

The Centre's National Telemedicine Service, eSanjeevani, has clocked over 1.2 crore consultations so far, with Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka among the 10 states that have made maximum use of the service, the Union Health Ministry said on Tuesday.

The service is catering daily to around 90,000 patients across the country signalling a wide adoption by patients as well as doctors, and specialists across the country.

The leading 10 states in terms of adoption of eSanjeevani are Andhra Pradesh (37,04,258), Karnataka (22,57,994), Tamil Nadu (15,62,156), Uttar Pradesh (13,28,889), Gujarat (4,60,326), Madhya Pradesh (4,28,544), Bihar (4,04,345), Maharashtra (3,78,912), West Bengal (2,74,344), Kerala (2,60,654), the ministry stated.

The service is operational through two modes -- eSanjeevani AB-HWC (doctor-to-doctor telemedicine platform) that is based on hub and spoke model and eSanjeevani OPD (patient to doctor telemedicine platform) which provides outpatient services to citizens in the confines of their homes.

The eSanjeevani AB-HWC has completed around 67,00,000 consultations. It is being implemented at Health and Wellness Centres under the Ayushman Bharat Scheme, the ministry said in a statement. It was rolled out in November 2019.

Andhra Pradesh was the first state to roll out eSanjeevaniAB-HWC services. Since its roll out, over 2000 hubs and around 28,000 spokes have been set up in various states, the statement said.

The eSanjeevani OPD is a telemedicine variant for citizens to seek non-COVID-19 and COVID1-9 related outpatient health services. It was rolled out on April 13, 2020 during the first lockdown in the country when all OPDs were closed.

So far, over 51,00,000 patients have been served through eSanjeevaniOPD which hosts over 430 online OPDs which include general OPDs and specialty OPDs, the statement said.

Premier tertiary level medical institutions like AIIMS in Bathinda (Punjab), Bibinagar (Telangana), Kalyani (West Bengal), Rishikesh (Uttarakhand), King George Medical College, Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh) etc., are also providing outpatient health services through eSanjeevan iOPD, it said.

"The Government of India's eSanjeevani - National Telemedicine Service is plugging the digital health divide that exists in urban and rural India. It is addressing the shortage of doctors and specialists at ground level while reducing the burden on secondary and tertiary level hospitals. In line with the National Digital Health Mission, this digital initiative is also boosting digital health ecosystem in the country," the statement said.

It is an indigenous telemedicine technology developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Mohali.The C-DAC team in Mohali is providing end-to-end services.

Considering the usefulness of telemedicine and in planning for the unforeseen event of outbreak of another wave of COVID-19 infections, the initiative is being augmented further to enable 500,000 consultations per day.