Telemedicine Practice Guidelines was notified on 25 March 2020. These guidelines finally clarify India’s position on the legality of teleconsultation. It is now legal to provide teleconsultation by a doctor to a patient residing in any part of India in line with the requirements of the Telemedicine Guidelines. In fact, the Telemedicine Guidelines specifically permit Doctors to provide teleconsultation for prescribing medicines, providing counseling, and imparting health education. A doctor may use any digital mode (text/audio/video) for patient consultation, e.g. telephone, mobile or landline phones, chat platforms like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, etc., other mobile apps or internet-based digital platforms for telemedicine or data transmission systems like Skype/ email/ fax, etc. Telemedicine Practice Guidelines do not ban social media for consultation. This was a strategic move by the Indian government to reach the last person in a remote village to provide care. The user-friendly ecosystem and widespread use of social media have necessitated this move to reach the public at large.


The notification of the Telemedicine Guidelines marks the dawn of a new era in the practice of modern medicine. The law has finally caught up with the reality and necessity of modern times.
The Telemedicine Guidelines enable doctors to confidently provide teleconsultation via any medium (such as email, phone call, message, fax, WhatsApp, other mobile and computer applications such as Skype, Google Hangouts etc.) to the patients. At the same time, they protect patient interest by mandating doctors to identify themselves before consultations, disclose their registration number, offer the same standard of care to patients as during in-person consultation and limit medicines that can be prescribed through teleconsultation. Indians will now be able to enjoy access to quality healthcare remotely, and doctors will be able to extend their services to many more needy patients.



If you want to learn more

subscribe to this channel -    / sureshbadamath​  

follow on LinkedIn -   / sureshbad.  .
​
follow on Facebook -   / sureshbadamath