National Telemedicine Service of India: eSanjeevani

• 07 Dec 2022

For Prelims: eSanjeevani, Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDHM), Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) Programme, eSanjeevaniOPD

For Mains: Need for Universal Health Coverage in India and the Related Initiatives.

Why in News?

Recently, National telemedicine service of India, eSanjeevani achieved 8 crore teleconsultations.

• It surpassed records by registering 1 crore consultations in approximately 5 weeks.

What is eSanjeevani?

• About:
  • It is a national doctor to doctor telemedicine service that strives to provide an alternative to the conventional physical consultations via digital platform.
  • eSanjeevani is a cohesive part of Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDHM), and more than 45,000 ABHA IDs have been generated via eSanjeevani application.
  • Leading ten states for usage of this platform are: Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Telangana and Gujarat.
• Two Verticles:
  • Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres (AB-HWCs) Programme:
    • It endeavors to bridge rural-urban digital health divide by providing assisted teleconsultations.
    • It ensures that e-beneficiaries of Ayushman Bharat Scheme are able to avail of the benefits they are entitled to.
    • This vertical operates on a Hub-and-Spoke model wherein the AB-HWCs set up at state level, act as spokes, are mapped with the hub (comprising MBBS/ Specialty/Super-Specialty doctors) at zonal level.
    • This model has been successfully implemented in 1,09,748 AB-HWC and 14,188 Hubs, hence, achieving a total of 7,11,58,968 teleconsultations.
  • eSanjeevaniOPD:
    • It caters to citizens in both rural and urban areas.
    • It leverages technology via smartphones, tablets, laptops enabling doctor consultations to be accessible from the patient’s residence regardless of location.
    • eSanjeevaniOPD has trained and onboarded 2,22,026 specialists, doctors and health workers.
      • This platform has an impressive record of having served over 4.34 lakhs patients in one day.
    • eSanjeevaniOPD – Stay Home OPD has been developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) Mohali, a premier R&D organization of the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).
• Significance:
  • These platforms can be a gamechanger for people in the rural areas who do not have easy access to medical specialists located in cities.
  • Telemedicine saves time and cost. Further, these platforms are in line with the government’s vision of ‘Digital India’ and necessary to tackle situations like Covid-19.

UPSC Civil Services Examination, Previous Year Questions (PYQs)

Prelims

Q. With reference to Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, consider the following statements: (2022)

1. Private and public hospitals must adopt it.
2. As it aims to achieve universal, health coverage, every citizen of India should be part of it ultimately.
3. It has seamless portability across the country.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?

(a) 1 and 2 only
(b) 3 only
(c) 1 and 3 only
(d) 1, 2 and 3

Ans: (d)

Exp:

• Under this mission, citizens will be able to get their Ayushman Bharat health account number, which can be linked to their digital health records. Ayushman Bharat is a flagship scheme of the country, which was launched as per the recommendation of National Health Policy 2017 to achieve the vision of Universal Health Coverage (UHC). Hence, statement 2 is correct.
• It aims to provide digital health IDs to all Indian citizens to help hospitals, insurance firms and citizens access health records electronically when required. It will be provided to every citizen which will also act as their health account. This health account will contain details of each test, each disease, doctor's appointment, medicines taken and diagnosis.
• Health ID is free and voluntary. It will help in analysing health data and ensure better planning, budgeting and implementation of health programmes.
• It is portable, which means the beneficiary can avail treatment in any of the states that have implemented the scheme. Hence, statement 3 is correct.
• It leverages capacities available in both public and private sector hospitals, while providing standardised high-quality care, with strong fraud protection mechanisms. Hence, statement 1 is correct.
• Therefore, option D is correct.

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Mains

Q. Appropriate local community-level healthcare intervention is a prerequisite to achieve ‘Health for All’ in India. Explain. (2018)

Source: PIB