Journal of Education and Health Promotion

Telemedicine in India: A tool for transforming health care in the era of COVID‑19 pandemic

Authors

. Neema Agarwal
. Payal Jain 1
. Rambha Pathak 2
. Rakesh Gupta 3

1 Medicine

2 Community Medicine

3 Paediatrics, Government Institute of Medical Sciences, Greater Noida, Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract
Although telemedicine has been used spottily in Indian health care so far, the 2020 Covid‑19 pandemic
provided the nation’s health systems an unprecedented opportunity to make a concerted effort to
increase access and coverage. Health‑care providers can incorporate telemedicine systems to reduce
doctor‑patient visits and help in breaking the chain of transmission of infections. Anticipating the
increased need of telemedicine by health‑care providers, the Medical Council of India released practice
guidelines in March 2020. In this article, the literature pertinent to telemedicine and its applications
with special reference to recently released practice guidelines were reviewed and summarized in a
historical and current context. Telemedicine is bound to grow and be adopted by more health‑care
practitioners and patients in a wide variety of forms due to ease and availability. At the same time,
it cannot replace in‑person consultation or emergency medicine.

Keywords

COVID‑19
health care
telemedicine
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Journal of Education and Health Promotion
Volume 10, Issue 7
July 2020
Pages 1-5

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