Vikranth H. Nagaraja , Biswanath Ghosh Dastidar , Shailesh Suri , Anant R. Jani
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引用次数: 0
Abstract
Background
India has committed to formulating a roadmap for realising a resilient health system, with digital health being an important element. Following the successful implementation of a free telemedicine service, eSanjeevani, India published the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines in 2020 to scale telemedicine use in India. The current study aims to understand the perspective and use of telemedicine by medical doctors in India after the release of these guidelines.
Methods
Data were acquired through an anonymous, cross-sectional, internet-based survey of medical doctors (n = 444) at a pan-India level. Replies were subjected to statistical analysis.
Findings
Telemedicine was used for various non-mutually exclusive reasons, with the top two reasons being live audio or video consultations (60.4 %) and online payments (19.1 %), and smartphones were the most frequently used device type (60.6 %). Among various benefits of telemedicine, almost all respondents (93 %) recognised the potential for telemedicine to reduce COVID-19 infection risk for healthcare professionals. Interestingly, nearly 45 % of respondents felt that limited and fragmented insurance coverage was an important limitation to the practice of telemedicine in India, and 49 % believed reduced patient fees for teleconsultations could help incentivise telemedicine use.
Interpretation
This study helps to appraise the use of telemedicine in India after the publication of telemedicine guidelines in 2020. Furthermore, the findings can inform the development of telemedicine platforms, policies and incentives to improve the design and implementation of effective telemedicine in India.
期刊介绍：
Health Policy and Technology (HPT), is the official journal of the Fellowship of Postgraduate Medicine (FPM), a cross-disciplinary journal, which focuses on past, present and future health policy and the role of technology in clinical and non-clinical national and international health environments.
HPT provides a further excellent way for the FPM to continue to make important national and international contributions to development of policy and practice within medicine and related disciplines. The aim of HPT is to publish relevant, timely and accessible articles and commentaries to support policy-makers, health professionals, health technology providers, patient groups and academia interested in health policy and technology.
Topics covered by HPT will include:
- Health technology, including drug discovery, diagnostics, medicines, devices, therapeutic delivery and eHealth systems
- Cross-national comparisons on health policy using evidence-based approaches
- National studies on health policy to determine the outcomes of technology-driven initiatives
- Cross-border eHealth including health tourism
- The digital divide in mobility, access and affordability of healthcare
- Health technology assessment (HTA) methods and tools for evaluating the effectiveness of clinical and non-clinical health technologies
- Health and eHealth indicators and benchmarks (measure/metrics) for understanding the adoption and diffusion of health technologies
- Health and eHealth models and frameworks to support policy-makers and other stakeholders in decision-making
- Stakeholder engagement with health technologies (clinical and patient/citizen buy-in)
- Regulation and health economics
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