Published: 11th Apr, 2024
Context
Telemedicine has emerged as a viable alternative to in-person consultations with doctors in many contexts.
Benefits of Telemedicine
- Easy and time saving: It saves patients time and expenses, which can be considerable if they are located in remote areas and/or are not well to do. In India, where 70% of the population lives in villages, a hospital visit often requires expensive long-distance travel to urban centres, which imposes its own considerable carbon footprint.
- Lower emissions: According to a recent study, India’s healthcare sector emitted 74 million tonnes of carbon dioxide in 2014, around 3% of India’s total emissions of the gasthat year. Vehicular emissions are a major contributor to local pollution and global warming. Telemedicine can be of help here.
- Filling Gap: Most Indians live in rural areas while most doctors operate from urban locations. This leads to a gap in health care access that can be solved with telemedicine.
- Economic impact: It can save time and money, lower fees and premiums.
- Making up to doctor-population ratio: WHO recommends a doctor-population ratio of 1:1000 while the current doctor population ratio in India is only 0.62 : 1000. The ratio is expected to remain low for a long time to come. This deficit is partly being made up by the active telemedicine services in various parts of the country.
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