DIGITAL HEALTHCARE IN CORONA TIMES- (Blog)


In these back-breaking times of unprecedented medical crisis, where it has become impossible to reach out to all the people in need of healthcare facilities, the strenuous efforts of the government are focused on the digital healthcare facilities to attenuate the effect of this pandemic. Amidst this chaos, one of the concerns of the government is regarding the suspected cases which can be broadly divided into two groups. Firstly, those people who have the concerned prodromes but the blood test reports are on hold. Secondly, the ones that came in contact with the positive patients but they have not been tested positive yet and are strictly advised to isolate. These people are required to visit the doctor daily until the final diagnosis report is out.

This makes even the doctors more exposed to the virus as on average, 22% of the healthcare workers get infected by the virus. In several such cases, this complication has been deciphered with the introduction of virtual health care programs that are announced for the suspected people whose situation is not at all critical. An example of such virtual programs is the one developed by an acute care management firm, day-today health in Mumbai. 

This program involved an app that provides a virtual care team. In the present scenario of COVID-19, the Government of India has emphasized and actively promoted the use of digital health care as on 14th April, the Prime Minister urged the countrymen to download the Aarogya Setu app. This initiative of developing this application by the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology along with a team of 20 experts, has been appreciated by the WHO and World Bank. The app has come into existence to link the common man with the essential health services and make them aware of the risks and advisories concerning the restrictions of COVID-19.7 Based on the health status of an individual, this app 'Aarogya Setu' executes a form of digital contract tracing.8 Although this app has been criticized on the ground of security by French ethical hacker Robert Baptiste, claiming that the security of 90 million Indians was at stake.9 Justice B.N. Srikrishna, the former Supreme Court judge, also stated that the government cannot make it mandatory for people to download the app as it had no legal backing.

However, this app has become the most downloaded healthcare app as it reached fifty million users in just thirteen days. Analyzing the post lockdown scenario in the country, a significant number of hospitals have adopted to telemedicine and the registered medical consultants have opted for tele-consultation that has made the communication between the doctors and patients, safe and easier. The officials of major tele-health platforms like Practo and Apollo have confirmed that the number of queries on such platforms has increased by more than 50%. Thus, during this pandemic, mainstreaming the tele-consultation and virtual healthcare has turned out to be a very cathartic and transformative change adopted by the government and hospitals.

 

-Ishika Prasad   &   Jyoti

ICFAI Law School , Hyderabad.

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