With social distancing as the new norm and hospital visits becoming riskier, telemedicine solutions emerged as a convenient alternative. In 2020, many hospitals, individuals, corporates, and e-pharmacies in India adopted telehealth. Telemedicine is a convenient way to evaluate and treat patients without being exposed to infection, and it is expected to continue growing significantly in the post-Covid era. The market size for telemedicine in India was around $830 Million in 2019, and it is projected to increase to $5.5 Billion by 2025, growing at a CAGR of 31 per cent during 2020-25.

To ensure access to medical advice during social distancing norms, the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines were released jointly by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare and NITI Aayog in March 2020. These guidelines, along with the government’s teleconsultation services, eSanjeevani and eSanjeevani OPD, have leveraged information communication technologies to enable the diagnosis, treatment, and management of diseases. eSanjeevani has provided telemedicine services to more than 100 million patients across India, with over 57 per cent of the beneficiaries being women and around 12 per cent being senior citizens.

The recently rolled out eSanjeevani 2.0 has enhanced the telemedicine experience with new features and improved security and scalability. India has also achieved a significant milestone in its National Tele Mental Health Programme. The Tele-MANAS Helpline, launched in October 2022, has already received over 1,00,000 calls. More than 38 Tele MANAS Cells are operational across 27 states and union territories, providing mental health services in more than 20 languages. A total of 1,600 trained counselors are offering first-line services.

Telemedicine and e-health are considered potential solutions for addressing the limited access to healthcare facilities in semi-urban, rural, and remote areas, where there is a low presence of doctors. With extensive smartphone penetration and improved mobile connectivity in India, telemedicine has the potential to bridge the healthcare gap. Timely telemedicine consultations can save lives and reduce downstream costs. It also offers the opportunity for individuals, especially women, to seek medical attention from the privacy of their homes, which they may hesitate to do in traditional healthcare settings.

The scope of telemedicine services is expanding to cover a range of health problems beyond the post-Covid era. Efforts are being made to extend telemedicine coverage to rural and remote areas. Strengthening the telemedicine initiative could involve integrating AYUSH (Ayurveda, Yoga & Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy), developing solutions for identifying counterfeit or expired medicines, informing patients about medicine availability and price, providing qualifications of consulting doctors, and including patient testimonials on the platform.

Tele-radiology is also an emerging area, with foreign hospitals consulting Indian experts to provide opinions to patients. Public-Private Partnerships (PPP) have been adopted by many hospitals to render services through telemedicine. A developed telemedicine market in India has the potential for future export of healthcare services. Furthermore, the use of Artificial Intelligence, wearables, mobile technologies, and the Internet of Things can enable affordable and quality healthcare, improving outcomes for patients with multiple co-morbid conditions through remote monitoring and virtual care services.

Before Covid-19, the health-tech industry primarily focused on wearable gadgets, diagnostics, and medicine delivery solutions. Post pandemic, new opportunities have emerged in the health-tech space, such as emergency care tools and technology-based optimisation of medical infrastructure. Wearable devices are being expanded to track health conditions, and patient facing mobile health applications can be developed, along with greater integration of AI, robots, and blockchain technologies. The approach to medicine could drastically change in the future, with machine intelligence increasingly assisting doctors, potentially handling a large number of cases, while more complicated cases require doctor consultations.

Technology-enabled healthcare companies offer critical care at home, including services such as respiratory ventilation, sleep apnea treatment, palliative care, cancer-related services, post-accident care, specialised rehabilitation services, and end-of-life services for terminally ill patients. Home healthcare solutions are at a nascent stage in India but have tremendous potential for growth due to a rising elderly population, increased incidence of chronic diseases, demand for personalised care, and nuclear family structures in urban areas. These trends indicate a shift towards the digital transformation of healthcare in India. The future holds connected care as the norm, where patients are not limited by geography when accessing care. With the latest technologies, doctors and hospitals will be well equipped to deliver accurate diagnoses and treatment to patients.

Views expressed by Urvashi Prasad, Director, NITI Aayog

Disclaimer: The views expressed are personal and not of the organisation.

References:

• https://www.niti.gov.in/sites/default/ files/2021-03/InvestmentOpportunities_ HealthcareSector_0.pdf
• https://pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage. aspx?PRID=1899855
• https://pib.gov.in/PressReleaseIframePage.aspx?PRID=1919200
• https://www.india-briefing.com/news/indias-healthcare-ecosystem-key-segmentsmarket-growth-prospects-26225.html/

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