New Delhi: India is leading in Health care with its world-class hospital infrastructure, highly advanced Medical technology, Expert skills, Compliance with international quality standards, and reduced cost compared to many countries. With USD 5-6 billion size of Medical value travel (MVT) and 500000 International patients annually, India is among the global leader destinations for international patients seeking advanced treatment.
To boost Indian Health care globally and to make MVT size 13 Billion by 2026, Union Govt has launched Heal In India campaign, which aims to promote India’s medical facilities and infrastructure Globally with plans to standardize processes and treatment packages for foreign nationals.
To promote Medical Value Travel in India, Telehealth can make a paradigm shift in India’s healthcare industry. Telehealth has changed the traditional way of patient consulting Doctors. Patients with no geographic boundaries can engage with healthcare professionals making it an efficient way to access healthcare.
During the pandemic, in April 2020, telehealth consultations grew from less than 1 per cent of primary care visits to a remarkable 43.5 per cent. The current trajectory of virtual care has created a new model of medical care after the crisis. It has helped reduce the number of incidents of hospital-acquired infections by up to 80 per cent, making it the safest mode of patient care.
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Dr Harinder Singh Sidhu, Sr.VP of Corporate Development, Apollo Group, mentioned,
Being one of the global pioneers of telemedicine, Apollo serves both National and International patients by enhancing the accessibility of quality healthcare. Many international patients benefited from Telehealth in managing disease when international flights were restricted during Covid times. Further, Apollo TeleHealth specializes in integrated healthcare delivery to provide services such as TeleConsultations, TeleRadiology, Tele Cardiology, Tele Condition Management, and Tele-ICU services, among others.
Telehealth is the remote delivery of healthcare and health-related information services through electronic methods such as video calls, email, chat, or other electronic means. The Patient and Doctor Team can communicate face-to-face in real-time through Video calls with prior bookings.
Patients sitting in their Homes and miles away from doctors and Hospitals can benefit from this Digital Healthcare model. It can ensure the swift delivery of quality healthcare while reducing unnecessary health risks and eliminating traditional barriers to care.
With the help of advancements in medical technology, the length of hospital stays for patients is becoming increasingly shorter to reduce healthcare costs. For example, hospital stays for coronary artery bypass grafts averaged nine days 13-14 years ago, whereas the average stay in 2023 is five days. During prolonged postoperative periods, Telemonitoring could be significant in monitoring patients. Doctor team can manage the Vital signs of a patient’s condition with the help of Telemonitoring, which can monitor the patient’s condition post-discharge from the hospital, altering the medicine as per the patient’s vitals in aftercare, which further makes it possible an efficient system in healthcare model.
TeleHealth reduces the burden on Healthcare Resources and Workforce. Doctors, nursing staff, and other healthcare professionals benefit significantly from telehealth services. Today, telemedicine helps doctors and Healthcare professionals provide consultations and diagnostic services across geographies, broadening their reach globally.
According to Dr Rahul Bhargava, Director of Bone marrow transplant FMRI,
There is a significant gap in the world which exists for optimal health care delivery leading to disparity in the outcome and robbing many from the basic tenet of a right of living. This gap ideally will not exist if health education and resources are uniform. Still, life is less than ideal, so bridging the gap is possible through telemedicine and telepathology.
The telemedicine division of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare tied up with CDAC (the Center for the Development of Advanced Computing) to launch the eSanjeevani OPD portal. The national telemedicine service was an instant hit in India, serving over 100 million patients. With over 200,000 providers, 15,000 hubs, and 115,000 operational spokes, this is the world’s most comprehensive implementation of a public telemedicine system.
Issues of privacy and protection of client health information may lessen the growth of Telehealth. Not only must personal records be protected, but they should also be safe from abuse or misuse of the electronic transmission of personal health information through effective privacy legislation and meticulous monitoring.
In Medical value travel, Patients travel great distances for efficient, high-quality medical care. Thus, the application of Telehealth in the medical tourism industry promises to bridge distances to deliver a more personalized service and represents a powerful platform for the medical value travel industry by making it an efficient Health care System.
Today’s primary concern for implementing and integrating home telehealth in the current health system is the ease of online payment, including international payment mode for International patients. Like National Telemedicine, an efficient telemedicine portal for international patients can make remarkable changes and boost the MVT.
Co-founder of International Healthcare consulting Company- Vaidam.com (Vaidam Health) Pankaj Chandna says,
Vaidam Health connects with many domestic and International patients over telecall daily basis. Patients tele-consult the desired Doctor with the assistance of the Vaidam health team, giving patients a better choice regarding their healthcare needs. With more than 100000+ patients from 125+ countries in the last eight years, Vaidam Health has provided the best healthcare access to the world.
About the author, Jenifer Choudhary heads marketing and branding at Vaidam.com, India’s leading medical travel assistance company. She has 15+ years of experience in the medical travel industry, having worked with some of India’s leading hospital brands.
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(This story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via the Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity, which is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.
