TELEMEDICINE - A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF ITS FUTURE IN INDIA

Background:There are enough statistics on the internet for current & future telemedicine usage pattern across geographies in terms of market size, consult volume, mobile penetration, enhanced network bandwidth, advancement in biomedical devices etc. On the other hand, there are enough differences of opinion because of challenges like patient experience, doctor adoption, accessibility, lack of centres, quality of connectivity, setup cost etc. Despite all the concerns pertaining to technology, experience, compliance and effectiveness, during the covid-19 pandemic, patients and caregivers, across countries, relied heavily on the platform to provide essential health care services to patients. During the Covid-19, telemedicine usage was an accessible and cost-effective approach to deliver high-quality care. Objective:To get an overview of the state of affairs for telemedicine in India and its future outlook, i.e., to understand if the usage of the telemedicine platform was a temporary phenomenon during covid-19 only or continue to stay. Further, associated queries were – Is it only for some specific specialties or is it going to be limited to some geo-regions or is it restricted to patients in a particular age group or is it a function the nature of visit (first or follow up).Apart from analysing above considerations, the paper also highlighted important features of a telemedicine platform. Finally, the paper also studied the role of government as a regulatory body as well as an enabler of telemedicine platform in India. Methodology:More than 1 year of telemedicine data for a JCI-accredited tertiary care hospital in India was studied. Additionally, physicians and patient perspective on experience and impact across multiple specialties, age group, gender and regions of the patient was further analysed. Tele-consultation trends were further compared during wave 1 and wave 2 of the covid-19. Doctor and patient experience on the usage of telemedicine were objectively assessed with questionnaires.