Telemedicine in Handling Medical Emergencies in India: Exploring Hidden Potential of Current Health Infrastructure

Abstract

India is one of the most populous countries and is moving towards providing easily accessible and affordable health care to its citizens. In recent times, it has witnessed a transformation of emergency ambulance services which has saved more than a million lives in its urban and rural areas. The COVID-19 pandemic has provided a unique opportunity to strengthen its healthcare infrastructures. MOHFW legalized telemedicine in India in March 2020 which has provided an opportunity for doctors to provide consultation to patients who is in remote part of the country and for rural patients, getting consultation from specialists of choice from their homes. Recently, there has been a lot of focus on emergency medicine and NMC reforms made it mandatory for medical colleges to have a separate unit for this specialty. There is a need to combine telemedicine with emergency medical care in India as India is facing more than 2 million medical emergencies every year and in many cases, emergency medical care is needed immediately in the form of first aid advice and/or counseling to prevent possible complications. India has one of the world’s highest internet users, as well as India, has one of the world’s highest numbers of medical institutions which are producing more than 80,000 medical graduates every year. Now a day, India is witnessing growth in its telemedicine platforms available to its citizens. In moving next to strengthen its health infrastructure, all these dots can be combined effectively to create an ecosystem for dealing with medical emergencies via telemedicine.