Telemedicine: Superhighway Connecting Rural Population To Urban Healthcare

Anurag Khosla Jun 15, 2021

Until the pandemic, Healthcare in India was a subject well written but seldom discussed. With 75 per cent of the Indian population living in villages, over 75 per cent of the doctors practice in urban areas, 23 per cent in Semi-Urban areas, and only 2 percent in villages. According to Invest India’s Investment Grid, there are nearly 600 investment opportunities worth USD 32 billion (Rs 2.3 lakh crore) in the country’s hospital/medical infrastructure sub-sector. The big question here remains, where will these investments go - urban or rural centres?

In the great Indian urban-rural healthcare divide, our urban centres boast of large hospital chains offering world-class medical facilities with cutting-edge technology, whereas our rural folks rely on mostly public hospitals and primary health centres which lack even the basic infrastructure. Access to quality healthcare remains a big challenge facing rural communities due to the dearth of provider network and hospitals that lack trained doctors and other healthcare personnel.

This is where telemedicine holds the key and can help narrow the rural-urban healthcare divide using the growing penetration of the internet and lower data costs in rural India. In the Indian context, it is even more suitable as telemedicine can become an important conduit to impart medical knowledge and awareness to train local healthcare workers in remote areas who otherwise may not have access to such researched content.

There is this concept called ‘assisted telemedicine’, which is the presence of rural health workers at PHCs and mohalla clinics including Anganwadi & ASHA workers who help villagers connect with a doctor in a large city hospital through teleconferencing or video conferencing to better assist the patient. They can also help the patient in getting necessary diagnostics tests done and send back the results to the city doctor for follow-up.

Assisted telemedicine holds much promise because about 70 per cent of OPD cases do not need in-person visits as indicated by independent researches. Further, statistics show that 85 per cent of the patients treated through telemedicine did not require further treatment at a hospital.

Another catalyst that can help bridge the urban-rural divide is to bring digital service assistance providers like citizen service centres, under the telemedicine ecosystem. Citizen Service centres through their centers at tier 3 and 4 locations educate and help rural communities access essential services digitally.

A pivotal aspect of telemedicine success in improving access and quality of care in rural areas is patient engagement. Increasing the level of patient engagement is critical to improving the quality of care that a rural patient receives right from motivating medication adherence to communicating with their caregiver regarding a chronic condition to drastically decreasing hospital readmission rates.

How to enhance patient experience?

- Affordable and accessible healthcare service by offering video or audio consultations. Telemedicine appointments for non-emergency reasons typically cost around Rs 250, compared to above Rs 500 and for an in-person visit to a doctor’s clinic or Rs 1000 OPD appointments.

- Cost-effective or innovative solutions can attract service providers. A patient spends a lot of money in a speciality hospital. If a nursing home close by can provide the same service through telemedicine he/she would definitely prefer this option.

- Enhance patient satisfaction and loyalty by offering patients a secure, on-demand and seamless experience on telemedicine, thus driving high patient satisfaction that keeps them coming back. A study of patient satisfaction with telemedicine services found that 94-99 per cent were very satisfied.

- Reduce wait time for patients on telemedicine for non-critical appointments to improve patient satisfaction. On average, patient’s wait time hovers between 10 to 30 minutes to see their physician.

- Help patients stay healthy even after they leave a health facility by encouraging better patient compliance and prevention by delivering discharge instructions, health tips, and reminders through telemedicine. A study found that cardiac patients achieved 94 per cent better treatment compliance using telemedicine

As technology becomes more advanced and the rural patient population continues to lack affordable, convenient access to high-quality healthcare, it will be critical for new telemedicine technology to think outside the box for frugal solutions that can meet the needs of rural patients.