India’s telemedicine market
By Kealan Finnegan
India’s telemedicine market has witnessed significant growth in recent times, largely because of its potential to provide world class clinical and medical services to distant and rural locations across the country.
At present, 80% of India’s population has no direct, physical access to specialist healthcare, which means a huge potential for telemedicine.
Telemedicine activities in India took off in 1999. The Indian Space Research Organization has been a pioneer, deploying a nation-wide SATCOM-based telemedicine network. The national government has also implemented various projects and has in fact extended telemedicine services to South Asian and African countries.
The high demand for telemedicine in India has incentivized a lot of activity among regulating bodies: the Department of Information Technology has defined the Standards for Telemedicine Systems and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has constituted a National Telemedicine Task Force.
Activities have also picked up in curriculum and non-curriculum telemedicine training programs. These efforts are consistent with India’s goals to make healthcare accessible and affordable to all.
Market insights
India’s Telemedicine market is estimated at $10-12 million and is expected to grow at a CAGR of around 20% over the next five years. It is estimated that 150 thousand people in India are already benefitting from telemedicine every year.
Some of the key players, including organizations with the facilities able to provide telemedicine services include theApollo telemedicine enterprises, Narayana Hrudayalaya, the Asia heart foundation, Fortis Escorts Heart Institute and Aravind Eye care, among others.
Growth in the telemedicine market is expected to be driven by India’s lacking healthcare infrastructure and shortage of hospitals and doctors, especially in the rural areas. Other key growth drivers include the widespread use of wireless and web-based services, and improving technology which includes the adoption of 3G and upcoming availability of 4G spectrum and optic networks.
Challenges: viability and implementation
Infrastructure challenges such as poor bandwidth in some areas are indeed a hindrance. However, implementation and viability seem to be some of the biggest issues at the moment.
In order to implement telemedicine, training is needed at the village end for technicians, IT staff, and local doctors. While at the consulting doctor’s end, a lot of pushy administration and coordination is required.
So far, telemedicine in India has been largely a free offering by large hospital groups. Partially as a CSR initiative, but also because it helps increase their bed occupancy as some tele-patients become real inpatients. Large hospitals are able to offer these services at no extra charge because of their in-house expertise. However, time for consultations is an issue, and there is a lack of incentive due to no fees being recovered.
In terms of patient acceptance however, telemedicine seems to have good acceptance in India, especially after benefits are seen. A global report conducted this year by CISCO found that:
- 94% of those surveyed in India are comfortable with storing their health records with a high degree of security in the cloud,
- Over 50% of consumers would find it valuable if their health care provider presented appointment reminders, information for managing drug side effects and treatment reminders via social media, and
- 62% of Indian consumers had a willingness to share a range of information regarding their health, against a 42% global response rate
Business opportunities in India’s telemedicine:
- Telemedicine technologies
- Training programmes
- Affordable delivery models
- Growing demand for light and small sized equipment and devices, but high in performance
- Patient and data privacy and security solutions
References
Apollo readies higher dose of telemedicine
Cisco report focus shifts telemedicine india
Public health system disease surveillance providers
