Millennials Opting For Online Doctor Consultation To Seek Medical Opinions

The concept of service providers in the digital age is undergoing a paradigm shift across the spectrum and healthcare is no exception to the rule. Unlike the past, when the concept of consulting a pharmacist for self-medication or elders in the family was a primary source for healthcare needs, this institution is gradually declining with millennials opting for online consultation for medical opinions.

Without a doubt, lowering costs of high-speed internet & widespread accessibility brought about by users equipped with smartphones, have wiped out geographical boundaries and time constraints for a patient to connect with a doctor. They can now talk to a specialist doctor online, using healthcare apps for critical medical advice or routine medical needs. This has overcome the laborious queuing at consultation rooms and patients can access their healthcare records instantly.

It also aids in getting quick second opinions that reduce the healthcare bills in a country where there is a deficit of 600,000 government doctors to serve the patient population. According to a study undertaken by US-based Centre for Disease Dynamics, Economics & Policy (CDDEP), there is one government doctor for every 10,189 people in India.

Moreover, India as Asia’s third-largest economy is woefully short of its ambition to raise public health spending to 2.5 per cent of the GDP, which currently stands at only 1.15-1.5 per cent of the GDP. This data disparity calls for an increasing need to make quality healthcare more accessible. This can be achieved by not only increasing the productivity of doctors but also enabling them to reach patients in the geographies beyond their physical reach, through online consultations. This ensures that not only a select few privileged but entire masses can receive healthcare services.

With our online platform, we have witnessed a substantial growth from a mere 100 consultations per month in 2016, to a mind-boggling 2 lakh patients consulting 5,000 specialists doctors a month, from the comfort and privacy of their homes. The rise in online consultation could also be attributed to the busy schedules of young Indians in their professional life along with urban hazards of logistics that prevents them from physical consultation with a healthcare expert. According to our data, most patients seek medical opinions for sexual disorders, pain management, psychology, dermatology, chronic and viral infections, weight management among other segments.

Around 82 per cent of patients who have logged on DocsApp’s healthcare platform, fall in the age bracket of 20-30 indicating the trend that millennials are opting for. Our data also indicates that women under the age of 30 have reached out five times more than women in their 30’s to consult a gynaecologist.

This trend of online consultation is not restricted to India alone. USA and China are well ahead in their digital healthcare expenditure, with market size in the USA expected to exceed $3.2 billion by 2022. Meanwhile, in China, it was estimated at $23.8 billion in 2017 and could have well gone beyond 25 billion US dollars.

Coming back to India, the country is only at the cusp of the digital revolution and the rate is set to rise substantially in digital healthcare expenditure.

Satish Kannan

Guest Author Satish Kannan is the Co-founder and CEO of DocsApp, a one-of-its-kind app that connects doctors with patients on the go and provides efficient and convenient diagnostic services and medicines at their doorsteps.