Telehealth in India: The Apollo contribution and an overview

The universal phenomenon of urban rural health divide is particularly striking in India. We have centres of medical excellence in the metros, better than the best. However 700 million Indians, have no direct access to secondary and tertiary care as 80% of India's specialists, primarily cater to 20% of the population. Additional brick and mortar hospitals is not a viable solution, as there is an acute shortage of both funds and health care personnel. In 1999, the author among others, foresaw that it could be possible, to extend the reach of urban doctors to suburban and rural India, virtually. This article traces the author's personal experience in introducing and developing telehealth in India over the last 14 years.1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 Simple video conferencing, has given way to eHome Visits,10, 11 and 12 providing international teleconsults,13,14 tele CME programmes,15, 16 and 17 deployment of internet enabled peripheral medical devices, promoting Health Literacy through eEmpowerment,18,19 multi centre Grand rounds and, virtual visits to the ICU.20–22 With 894 million mobile phones mHealth is certainly the future.23 The Pan African, SAARC, ASEAN and the Central Asia e Network projects13,14,24–29 initiated by the Govt. of India has resulted in India's health expertise, being made available to many countries virtually. With exponential growth in Information and Communication Technology (ICT), a rural tele-density of 43%,23 India may eventually show the way to achieve quality, affordable, accessible health care to everyone, anytime, anywhere making distance meaningless and Geography History, by deploying telemedicine.