New Delhi: In what shows the potential and benefit of the use of technology, eSanjeevani, the Central government’s National Telemedicine Service, has completed 1.2 crore (120 lakh) consultations rapidly shaping into the country’s most popular and the largest telemedicine service. Currently the National Telemedicine Service is serving around 90,000 patients across the country, signalling wide adoption by patients as well as doctors, and specialists across the country.
Ministry of Health & Family Welfare’s National Telemedicine Service eSanjeevani 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 the citizens in the confines of their homes.
eSanjeevani AB-HWC has completed around 67,00,000 consultations. It is being implemented at Health & Wellness Centres under Ayushman Bharat Scheme. It was rolled out in November 2019. Andhra Pradesh was the first State to roll out eSanjeevani AB-HWC services. Since its roll out, over 2000 hubs and around 28,000 spokes have been set up in various States.
eSanjeevani OPD is a telemedicine variant for citizens to seek non-COVID19 and COVID19 related outpatient health services. It was rolled out on 13th of April 2020 during the first lockdown in the country when all the OPDs were closed. So far, over 51,00,000 patients have been served through eSanjeevani OPD which hosts over 430 online OPDs which include general OPDs and specialty OPDs. 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 eSanjeevani OPD.
The 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 the digital health ecosystem in the country.
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 of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is being augmented further to enable 500,000 consultations per day.
Leading 10 States in terms of adoption (12033498) 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).
