In little over a year, Andhra Pradesh has ranked #1, among the states in India, for recording the highest number of consultations through the eSanjeevani service. As per a report from TOI, 20 lakh telemedicine consultations, from Andhra Pradesh, have been carried out to date. According to officials, this is more than 25% of the total consultations that have been conducted in India.
These results are the fruits of the 13 telemedicine hubs for the eSanjeevani service, established by the Health Department, covering all the districts in Andhra Pradesh. The telemedicine hubs, which offer primary health care facilities via video conferencing, were set up to aid patients who cannot physically reach any health care facility.
Reportedly, 50 lakh consultations across India were recorded on the eSanjeevani’s telemedicine services as of 13 May 2021. These services were launched in April 2020, by the Union Ministry. Within a very short span of time, these services have started aiding the digital health divide that exists in urban and rural India.
During the first lockdown, in 2020, when OPD’s were closing down in the country, the patient to doctor remote consultation services were the only scope of rescue. These telemedicine hubs have two medical officers and three specialists; one from General Medicine, Pediatrics and Gynaecology departments respectively.
The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare set up the National Telemedicine Services. This service comprises two variants of eSanjeevani; namely eSanjeevani AB-HWC and eSanjeevani OPD. The former is a doctor to doctor telemedicine platform that is based on a hub and spoke model. The latter is a patient to doctor telemedicine platform which provides outpatient services to the citizens in the confines of their homes. As part of the National Digital Health Mission, eSanjeevani is also boosting the digital health ecosystem in the country.
eSanjeevani Information Desk
According to a press release, by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the iOS app of eSanjeevaniOPD will be made available on iOS App Store very soon.
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