Since its launch in December 2019 in Karnataka, eSanjeevani, the Government of India's flagship telemedicine consultation project, has completed 6 lakh free online consultations as of March 15.
Developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) in Mohali, the app available on the Android play store, was launched to provide free health OPD health consultations to people, even in remote areas, on a hub and spoke model.
The person can either log in to the app on their own at home or visit a PHC and the doctors there can log in to consult specialists in district hospitals or super speciality hospitals in Bengaluru for expert advice.
"There are 38 hub centres including super speciality hospitals like Jayadeva Institute of Cardiovascular Sciences, Indira Gandhi Institute of Child Health, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Chest Diseases and more, as well as 2500 spoke centres including Primary Health Centres and health and wellness centres," said Dr. Vasanth Kumar, assistant deputy director, e-health, Health and Family Welfare department.
Specialists in cardiology, ENT, Ophthalmology, Psychiatry, Neurology, Pediatrics and many more are available for consultation for telemedicine consultation and they can upload prescriptions as well. The patients at their end can also scan and upload documents like ECG reports, apart from manually entering their symptoms and medical history.
"There is data security in the app and it is free of cost. For example, if a daily wage labourer is ill, he will lose the day's wages if he takes the day off to go to the nearby PHC. If he goes to the PHC and the doctor or nurse is not available, they will have to spend on ticket fare to go to the district hospital. With eSanjeevani, he can avoid the above and get medical consultation at home," Dr Kumar added.
30 percent of the sub-centres in Karnataka are covered by this programme and 3000 more will be added by this month. In the 2020-2021 budget, Rs 19 crores was allocated for developing telemedicine at PHCs and wellness centres. Owing to COVID, this was kept on hold but officials are now preparing the file, to send it for approval. The money will be used to purchase Information and Computer Technology (ICT) equipment such as computers, web cam, headphones, etc and also recruit human resources.