eSanjeevani, the Telemedicine service by the government of India, has successfully conquered another feat by completing three million (30 lakh) consultations. It has helped the Indian healthcare delivery system with its digital healthcare divide that exists in both rural and urban India.

The National Telemedicine Service set up by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare shoulders two variants under eSanjeevani which are eSanjeevani AB-HWC, a doctor to doctor telemedicine platform based on hub and spoke model and eSanjeevaniOPD, a patient to doctor telemedicine platform that offers outpatient services.

eSanjeevani AB-HWC was unveiled during November 2019 with Andhra Pradesh being the first to receive its services. Since then, the platform has formed more than 1000 hubs and about 15000 spokes — set up in various states, ultimately competing around 900,000 consultations.

On another note eSanjeevaniOPD which was formed on 13th of April 2020, during the initial stages of the pandemic, had served more than 21,00,000 patients, whilst other OPDs were closed during the lockdown.

10 states including Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharashtra, Uttarkhand and Himachal Pradesh have taken eSanjeevani under their wing.

On a district basis, it was estimated that citizens hailing from 600 districts had been using its services. Salem with 123658, Madurai ( 60547), Hassan ( 43995), Meerut (35297) and Raebarelli with (34642). Nationwide, over 31,000 doctors and paramedics were trained and adopted eSanjeevani, 14,000 doctors practice telemedicine on the platform and 17,000 doctors and Community Health officers use eSanjeevaniAB-HWC. It was denoted that citizens from tier three and four cities had made more use of the platform.

Within a short span of time, the Indian Telemedicine platform has not only brought awareness on the shortage of doctors and specialists at ground level, but aided in reducing the burden of secondary and tertiary level hospitals as well. Also, eSanjeevani is immensely increasing the digital health ecosystem in India.

Over time, eSanjeevani has proved effective in successfully managing outpatients hailing remote areas. It has also made for a contactless service that has helped tackle risk during the pandemic, without compromising on the quality of its services.

Also, eSanjeevani is soon expected to have an iOS app of its own, to speed up its penetration of National Telemedicine Service in the country.