eSanjeevani, the common man's life-saviour

In a landmark achievement towards digitisation of health services in the country, the central government' national telemedicine platform 'eSanjeevani' has provided tele-consultation services to 10 crore beneficiaries across the country, especially in the remotest corners. The Union Health Ministry launched eSanjeevani service in November 2019 as a doctor-to-doctor consultation facility. Initially, it was meant to provide doctors in primary health centres and rural hospitals access to specialised opinion from medical colleges and tertiary care hospitals, particularly when dealing with complicated cases.

Within months of its launch, came the major healthcare crisis in the form of coronavirus pandemic. A direct bearing of this was that outpatient departments (OPDs) in government as well as private hospitals remained inaccessible across the country as a preventive measure against physical contact. This rather precarious situation, however, came as a shot in the arm for telemedicine services, whose popularity was on an upswing as patients could get direct access with doctors and medical specialists for non-Covid and Covid medical conditions from the comfort of their drawing rooms.

In April 2020, a patient-to-doctor telemedicine facility aptly titled 'eSanjeevaniOPD' was added to the service, allowing a person to virtually consult doctors at a government hospital through a mobile app or the eSanjeevani website. A few months into the pandemic, eSanjeevaniOPD seemed to be working wonders.

Data from the Union Health ministry showed that the e-SanjeevaniOPD portal logged in a mindboggling 2.37 lakh patient calls in July 2021, when the second Covid-19 wave was at its peak. On January 10 this year, Union Health Minister announced that nine crore consultations had been carried out on eSanjeevani since its launch. Of these, one crore consultations were recorded in the preceding five weeks. Now, it has crossed the 10 crore milestone. It is no mean achievement when taken under any yardstick. It can safely be assumed that through ICT, eSanjeevani has democratised healthcare. It is reassuring to note that over 57% of the beneficiaries of eSanjeevani are women and around 12% senior citizens. This platform also reflects that it is penetrating into newer horizons and reaching the more vulnerable sections of the population where its effect has the maximum impact.

This speaks volumes about the telemedicine platform and the extent to which it has reinvented itself over time in order to cater to the growing demands of healthcare in India with a touch of professionalism.

When it comes to adopting eSanjeevani, the top ten states are Andhra Pradesh (3.17 crore), Tamil Nadu (1.24 crore), Bengal (1.23 crore), Karnataka (1.13 crore), Uttar Pradesh (54.99 lakh), Maharashtra (47.80 lakh), Telangana State (45.91 lakh), Madhya Pradesh (40.16 lakh), Bihar (32.20 lakh) and Gujarat (29.88 lakh).

The cloud-based eSanjeevani platform was introduced in two modes, the eSanjeevaniAB-HWC (a provider-to-provider telemedicine platform) as an assisted telemedicine system that connects patients through health workers and medical officers in health &wellness centres to doctors and specialists in hubs established in secondary/tertiary level health facilities or medical colleges, based on a Hub-and-Spoke model; and eSanjeevaniOPD (a patient to provider telemedicine platform) empowering citizens to access outpatient services through smartphones or laptops. No doubt, the initiative has enabled digitalisation of health information, which can aid policymakers to come up with effective and timely health policies.

It is a fact that the indigenously developed eSanjeevani technology has brought in a significant shift in the sphere of health informatics by enabling the digitalisation of health information. Apart from the direct benefit of being able to facilitate care on demand, and leveraging the potential of information technology, eSanjeevani overcomes challenges of geography, accessibility, cost and distance to provide equitable and quality care to populations across India, wherever and whenever.

It is also shaping into the harbinger of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission that aims to develop the fulcrum for the country's integrated digital health infrastructure. Now, the ministry is rolling out the next version of its national telemedicine initiative eSanjeevani. The eSanjeevani 2.0 will provide an enhanced telemedicine experience as it will have new features both in terms of technology and innovation, making it more secure and scalable to undertake additional demands.

After tapping the potential of tele-consultations, it is all set to add the logical next dimension of tele-diagnosis in the new avatar of eSanjeevani.

This entails seamless integration of a vast spectrum of Point of Care Diagnostic devices (PoCDs), also known as near patient testing. PoCDs will provide results of various clinical tests, including physiological parameters within minutes of a test thereby facilitating rapid diagnosis and quick decisions. eSanjeevani 2.0 will be a timely addition to the magical medical world of tele-consultation services.