The ‘eSanjeevani’ digital platform of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has completed 2 lakh tele-consultations.

This milestone was achieved in a short time period of ten days only since the 9th of August when Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare presided over a meet to commemorate the completion of 1.5 lakh tele-consultations. In what can be seen as a big push for the ‘Digital India’ initiative of the Prime Minister, the eSanjeevani  platform has proved its usefulness and easy access for the caregivers and the medical community, and those seeking healthcare services in the times of COVID.

The platform has been implemented so far by 23 States (which covers 75 per cent of the population) and other States are in the process of rolling it out. The top five States which have been utilizing the e-health services being offered through this platform are Tamil Nadu (56,346 consultations), Uttar Pradesh (33,325), Andhra Pradesh (29,400), Himachal Pradesh (26,535) and Kerala (21,433). Andhra Pradesh leads in having the most HWC-medical college interactions with 25,478 consultations while Tamil Nadu leads in the OPD services with 56,346 consultations.

About eSanjeevani

e-Sanjeevani is a low-cost integrated telemedicine solution developed by C-DAC Mohali. Key features of the latest version of e-Sanjeevani are as follows:

    1. Centrally hosted

    2. Web Based application compatible with mobile also

    3. Enables doctor to doctor consultation

    4. Supports in-built video conferencing & text chatting

    5. Uses SNOMED CT terminology

    6. Supports DICOM viewer for X-RAY/CT-Scan/MRI

    7. Provides option to MLHPs at Health Sub Centres to have Telemedicine consultation with PHCs or with HUBs as the case may be.

    8. Integrated e-Prescription feature

    9. Provision to have the list of drugs available at various levels of public health facilities such as HSCs / PHCs as Inbuilt list visible to the

    10. Doctors using at the HUBs or PHCs so that prescription by them to the MLHPs becomes very easy

    11. Seamlessly (wireless) captures over 12 readings (test results and physiological parameters) from an integrated diagnostic device

    12. Hosts a comprehensive dashboard (with useful information / indicators) for users

    13. Enables patient-end physician/paramedic to set order of preferences w.r.t. medical specialists at far end and maximum turn-around time

    14. In case of no-reply from a specialist, automatically transfers the case to the next preferred specialist

    15. Integrated with MoHFW’s MyHealthRecord (Personal Health Record Management System - PHRMS) to enable lifetime archival of health records in patient’s PHR profile

    16. Updates users through SMS notifications and alert

    17. Will be seamlessly integrated in the CPHC – IT Application. 

eSanjeevani platform has enabled two types of telemedicine services

    • Doctor-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani)

        ◦ It is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWC).

        ◦ It aims to implement tele-consultation in all the 1.5 lakh Health and Wellness Centres in conjunction with identified Medical College hospitals in a ‘Hub and Spoke’ model.

        ◦ States have identified and set up dedicated ‘Hubs’ in Medical Colleges and District hospitals to provide tele-consultation services to ‘Spokes’, i.e SHCs, PHCs and HWCs.

    • Patient-to-Doctor (eSanjeevani OPD) Tele-consultations

        ◦ It enabled patient-to-doctor telemedicine owing to the COVID-19 pandemic in April 2020.

        ◦ It has proved a boon in containing the spread of COVID while simultaneously enabling provisions for non-COVID essential healthcare.

(The author is a trainer for Civil Services aspirants)