Govt's free telemedicine service reaches 100 mn beneficiaries: Mandaviya

The central government's free telemedicine service has clocked over 10 crore teleconsultations till now, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Thursday said.

An initiative of the Union Ministry of Health, eSanjeevani, had among its beneficiaries 57 per cent women and around 12 per cent senior citizens, the minister said.

"This platform also reflects that the platform is finding its reach in the more vulnerable sections of the population where its effect is to fetch maximum impact.

"This speaks volumes about the telemedicine platform and the extent to which it has reinvented itself over time to meet the growing demands of healthcare in India," Mandaviya said.

The National Telemedicine Service, "eSanjeevani," a digital health initiative of the ministry supports two types of teleconsultation services Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani) and Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) teleconsultations.

The eSanjeevani was rolled out in November 2019 as an important component of the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWCs) programme. "The Government of India's national telemedicine platform eSanjeevani- registered another landmark by providing teleconsultation services to 10 crore beneficiaries," Mandaviya said.

The leading 10 states in terms of adoption of eSanjeevani are Andhra Pradesh (3,17,01735), Tamil Nadu (1,23,74,281), West Bengal (1,23,11,019), Karnataka (1,12,93,228), Uttar Pradesh (54,98,907), Maharashtra (47,80,259), Telangana (45,91,028), Madhya Pradesh (40,15,879), Bihar (32,20,415), and Gujarat (29,88,201).