With the ever-escalating gap between coverage and rising cost of healthcare services in the country, telemedicine with its potential to provide remote diagnosis, monitoring and treatment of patients via videoconferencing on Internet has proved to be a boon in addressing this gap.

In the existing healthcare system, there is a wide range of problems pertaining to the doctor availability and access to healthcare since majority of people complain against taking time off work to visit their primary care doctor. Besides this, shortage of doctors in rural areas as compared to urban areas leads to considerable travel expenditures of rural patients. This is very difficult for the chronically ill, who require complex and expensive long-term monitoring and treatment strategies. Telemedicine offers best solutions to address these shortcomings in the existing healthcare system.

One major speed bump in telemedicine growth is the problem of adoption and engagement. Even though Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the Indian government strongly support telemedicine and independent research studies show that 70 per cent of the OPD cases do not require any in-person visit, yet people in India may still take the trouble of physically visiting the doctor.

However, slowly and steadily people are accepting this fact and soon with increasing Internet/Smartphone penetration and lower data costs, it is believed that telemedicine will disrupt the status quo of Indian healthcare system. The practice of telemedicine – through transmission of digitized data, audio, video and images – is getting popular all over the world as it provides hitherto unavailable access to tertiary level specialist healthcare even in geographically remotest areas without displacement of the patient, physician or the equipment. It is not only cost-effective to the patient but also to the society.

The healthcare industry is an integration of sectors within the economic system that provides goods and services to treat patients with curative, preventive, rehabilitative, and palliative care. It includes the generation and commercialization of goods and services lending themselves to maintaining and re-establishing health. India, being the second most populous country in the world, still lacks an efficient healthcare system. Low ratio of doctors to patients in India and such other developing countries is one glaring gap and

therefore the healthcare system needs alternatives to the conventional brick and mortar model. In the last few years, growth is seen as a result of increasing Internet penetration and smart phone user base.

The growth contributors are changing the mindset of people, young population with an average age of 27-28 and innovativeness of health-tech Players.The modern healthcare industry is divided into many sectors and depends on interdisciplinary teams of trained professionals and paraprofessionals to meet health needs of individuals and populations. The healthcare industry is one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing industries.

The growth of a sustainable telemedicine network in India depends upon introduction of legal frameworks, development of national e-health policies, trained human resource and regular funding. Improved access to specialists, increased patient satisfaction with care, improved clinical outcomes, reduction in emergency room utilization, cost savings are certain key benefits of telemedicine. Telemedicine is an upcoming field in health science arising out of the effective fusion of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) with Medical Science having enormous potential in meeting the challenges of healthcare delivery to rural and remote areas besides several other applications in education, training and management in health sector.

The health-tech market in India is still in nascent stage and there are ample opportunities. Different players are trying to solve different issues, ranging from discovering doctors to fulfillment of medicine to providing instant health consults. Telemedicine is a rapidly developing application of clinical medicine where medical information is transferred through phone or Internet or through some other channel for the purpose of consulting, remote medical procedures or examinations. Telemedicine may be as simple as two health professionals discussing a case over the telephone, or as complex as using satellite technology and video-conferencing equipment to conduct a real-time consultation between medical specialists in two different countries.With the advent of Internet of Things in healthcare (Fitness Devices, Heart Rate, BP and Diabetes Monitors), the healthcare startup market will keep on experiencing a steep growth in India.

With the advent of Internet of Things in healthcare (Fitness Devices, Heart Rate, BP and Diabetes Monitors), the healthcare startup market will keep on experiencing a steep growth in India

Efforts are being made in the field of medical e learning by establishing digital medical libraries. Some institutions that are actively involved in telemedicine activities have started curriculum as well as non-curriculum telemedicine training programs. To support telemedicine activities within the country, the Department of Information Technology has defined the Standards for Telemedicine Systems and the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has constituted the National Telemedicine Task Force. There are various government and private telemedicine solution providers and a few societies and associations actively engaged to create awareness about telemedicine within the country. With its large medical and IT manpower and expertise in these areas, India holds great promise and has emerged as a leader in the field of telemedicine.

More and more doctors and patients are resorting to the use of telemedicine due to its advantages of convenience and cost-saving. The practice of telemedicine, however, has brought with it several complicated issues. These issues not only involve healthcare workers and consumers but also the society, technologists and the lawmakers. Those interested in the specialty of telemedicine need to address these issues.