teleconsultation
Bengaluru: Karnataka has emerged as the country’s biggest user of e-Sanjeevani’s outpatient department (OPD) teleconsultation service, recording 54.1 lakh consultations from 2021 till July 30 this year, according to data tabled in the Lok Sabha. The state has clocked almost 3.1 crore teleconsultations overall, including 2.5 crore through e-Sanjeevani Ayushman Arogya Mandirs (AAMs), placing it among the top states in the country. Karnataka has 38 telemedicine hubs and 6,198 spokes. Health department officials said 4,433 doctors conduct teleconsultations, including 2,900 general physicians, over 600 specialists such as gynaecologists and paediatricians, and 100-200 super-specialists, including neurologists and nephrologists. “We introduced the service here in 2021 during the Covid-19 pandemic. The service started with eight to nine consultations a day and gradually rose to 30. With around 6,000 ANMs, the aim was to generate 6,000 consultations daily while ensuring they learnt how to facilitate the service. The number has now risen to around 10,000-12,000 consultations a day.
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Initially, we were struggling to get an on-ground response,” a senior health official said. The service operates from 8am to 8pm, and those who want to use it should use the e-Sanjeevani app,” the official said. officials said it remains difficult to know whether patients buy the medicines, particularly in rural areas where availability can be an issue While prescriptions are generated after consultations. “If we can have a govt-verified medicine delivery channel, then the service will become a full circle,” the official said.
However, e-Sanjeevani did not take off immediately in the state. At the time, the state had its own Aptamitra helpline, which it was actively promoting. The state then appointed district leprosy officers as nodal officers for e-Sanjeevani and set a target of at least one consultation a day per district. The department also initially made one teleconsultation a day compulsory for auxiliary nurse midwives (ANMs). Dakshina Kannada, Chikkamagaluru, and Chikkaballapur are among the districts recording high usage, which officials attributed to greater awareness and a shortage of specialists in these areas. Incentives for doctors “Patients can also follow up with the same doctor. Teleconsultations can be conducted through video, phone or chat, and doctors can prescribe only those classes of medicines permitted under the Centre’s telemedicine guidelines. Download the TOI App.
The state also provides doctors incentives for teleconsultations — Rs 25 for MBBS doctors, Rs 50 for specialists, and Rs 100 for super-specialists per consultation. The national telemedicine platform gained traction over time. For doctors to receive the incentive, the consultation must be considered complete. It must last at least two minutes and include the patient’s history, allergies, diagnosis, investigations and prescription.