In November 2019, the Parliament revealed that India has one doctor for every 1,445 people. The World Health Organisation’s prescribed norm states one doctor needs to be available for every 1,000 people.
What makes things worse is that most of these doctors are based out of the metros, making it all the more difficult for people residing in rural areas get access to quality healthcare services.
Advancements in technology have enabled doctors from urban India to treat patients in rural areas remotely through video-call consultations.
With newer threats like the recent novel coronavirus, video-call consultations aren’t enough. This is where telemedicine comes in, which includes services like self-monitoring devices, disease screening solutions, and healthcare management solutions.
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Now, the real question is whether telemedicine has really solved the problem it set out to address – provide quality healthcare services to rural India?
The success stories
In India, telemedicine started in 2001 when the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) began a pilot project, linking the Apollo Hospital in Chennai with the Apollo Rural Hospital at Aragonda Village in Andhra Pradesh. Since then, things have come a long way.
At present, Apollo TeleHealth runs about 700 healthcare centres in Public-Private-Partnership mode across India majorly spread across Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand, touching more than 11.4 million lives.
In rural India, a handful of healthtech startups are already attempting to establish a sustainable telemedicine system. Practo – one of the first success stories in the Indian healthcare segment – allows patients to chat with experienced doctors online.
Startups from beyond the metros like Kota-based MedCords connects patients, doctors and pharmacies for smooth access and sharing of medical data. It caters its services to more than nine lakh users, across Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, and Chhattisgarh.
According to Founder Shreyans Mehta, the team chose Kota as its base since it is better to be close to its users. The startup targets Tier-III cities and below, including towns and villages with a population of three lakh and below.
Then there is Kollam-based Waferchips Techno Solutions, which developed Biocalculus, an ambulatory cardiac monitoring device that works as a wearable electrocardiography (ECG) device. Having a base in a Tier-II city enables the startup to reduce its operational expenses by utilising the top infrastructure.
Founders Sonia and Archu S Vijay say, “Even though it (Kollam) is a rural area, we are provided with more visibility in the startup ecosystem. Moreover, this also allows us to provide job opportunities for youngsters from our hometown itself.”
In 2017, Waferchips was one of the 10 startups from India that showcased its products at Slush, a startup event in Finland.
Source: Inventiva
