Telehealth to revolutionse Indian medical tourism in 2023

New Delhi : When compared to other countries, India’s health care system stands out for its high quality, low cost, and compliance with international quality standards. India is a top destination for overseas patients seeking cutting-edge medical care, with USD $5–6 billion worth of MVT and 500,000 international patients visiting each year.

The Union Government has initiated a campaign called Heal In India to market India’s medical facilities and infrastructure on a worldwide scale, with the intention of standardising procedures and treatment packages for foreign nationals, with the goal of increasing MVT to 13 billion by 2026.

For the Benefit of Medicine For those who are able to take the time to visit India, telehealth has the potential to completely revolutionise the country’s healthcare system. The typical patient-doctor consultation has been replaced by telehealth. It’s a time- and cost-effective approach for patients to communicate with medical experts, regardless of where they happen to be located.

From April 2020 (before the pandemic) to April 2021 (after), telehealth consultations increased from less than 1 percent to an astounding 43.5 percent of primary care visits. Since the crisis, a new form of medical care has emerged thanks to the development of virtual care. It’s the safest method of treating patients, having cut down on hospital-acquired illnesses by as much as 80 percent.

One of Apollo Group’s senior vice presidents of corporate development, Dr. Harinder Singh Sidhu, said, “Apollo is one of the first companies in the world to use telemedicine to provide healthcare to patients all around the world. While international flights were limited during the Covid era, many patients from other countries benefited from Telehealth for disease management. In addition, Apollo TeleHealth is an industry leader in telemedicine and provides a wide range of telehealth services, including teleconsultations, teleradiology, telecardiology, telecondition management, and teleintensive care.”

Telehealth, often known as telemedicine, is the practise of providing medical and health-related information and services via the Internet, via video chats, email, instant messaging, and other electronic means. With advanced scheduling, patients and medical staff can speak face-to-face through video call.

Patients sitting in their Homes and miles away from doctors and Hospitals can benefit from this Digital Healthcare model. It can ensure the swift delivery of quality healthcare while reducing unnecessary health risks and eliminating traditional barriers to care.

With the help of advancements in medical technology, the length of hospital stays for patients is becoming increasingly shorter to reduce healthcare costs. For example, hospital stays for coronary artery bypass grafts averaged nine days 13-14 years ago, whereas the average stay in 2023 is five days. During prolonged postoperative periods, Telemonitoring could be significant in monitoring patients. Doctor team can manage the Vital signs of a patient’s condition with the help of Telemonitoring, which can monitor the patient’s condition post-discharge from the hospital, altering the medicine as per the patient’s vitals in aftercare, which further makes it possible an efficient system in healthcare model.

TeleHealth reduces the burden on Healthcare Resources and Workforce. Doctors, nursing staff, and other healthcare professionals benefit significantly from telehealth services. Today, telemedicine helps doctors and Healthcare professionals provide consultations and diagnostic services across geographies, broadening their reach globally.

According to Dr. Rahul Bhargava, Director of Bone marrow transplant FMRI,” There is a significant gap in the world which exists for optimal health care delivery leading to disparity in the outcome and robbing many from the basic tenet of a right of living. This gap ideally will not exist if health education and resources are uniform. Still, life is less than ideal, so bridging the gap is possible through telemedicine and telepathology.”

The telemedicine division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare tied up with CDAC (the Center for the Development of Advanced Computing) to launch the eSanjeevani OPD portal. The national telemedicine service was an instant hit in India, serving over 100 million patients. With over 200,000 providers, 15,000 hubs, and 115,000 operational spokes, this is the world’s most comprehensive implementation of a public telemedicine system.

Issues of privacy and protection of client health information may lessen the growth of Telehealth. Not only must personal records be protected, but they should also be safe from abuse or misuse of the electronic transmission of personal health information through effective privacy legislation and meticulous monitoring.

In Medical value travel, Patients travel great distances for efficient, high-quality medical care. Thus, the application of Telehealth in the medical tourism industry promises to bridge distances to deliver a more personalized service and represents a powerful platform for the medical value travel industry by making it an efficient Health care System.

Today’s primary concern for implementing and integrating home telehealth in the current health system is the ease of online payment, including international payment mode for International patients. Like National Telemedicine, an efficient telemedicine portal for international patients can make remarkable changes and boost the MVT.

Co-founder of International Healthcare consulting Company- Vaidam.com (Vaidam Health) Mr. Pankaj Chandna says, “Vaidam Health connects with many domestic and International patients over telecall daily basis. Patients tele-consult the desired Doctor with the assistance of the Vaidam health team, giving patients a better choice regarding their healthcare needs. With more than 100000+ patients from 125+ countries in the last eight years, Vaidam Health has provided the best healthcare access to the world.

About the author, Jenifer Choudhary heads marketing and branding at Vaidam.com, India’s leading medical travel assistance company. She has 15+ years of experience in the medical travel industry, having worked with some of India’s leading hospital brands.