Event

Safe, effective & comprehensive Use of Telemedicine

The George Institute for Global Health, India organized a series of online policy roundtable consultations on telehealth and virtual care for patients with chronic conditions. These consultations brought together experts representing key stakeholders across the entire ecosystem to discuss unmet needs, user expectations, identify barriers and enablers towards a sustainable telehealth ecosystem. The consultations will help develop a policy brief on “Safe, Effective & Comprehensive Use of Telemedicine” with a focus on chronic conditions, the policy brief will support the implementation and scale up of telemedicine in India and other low- and middle-income country settings.

2 July 2020| User Centered Virtual Care – Voice of Users

Our first virtual policy consultation explored perspectives from several users; doctors, hospital administrators and patients. The expert panel included Prof. Ravi Wankhedkar: Treasurer, World Medical Association, Ms. Aparna Mittal: Co-founder and CEO at PatientsEngage, Dr. K. Ravindranath: Chairman, Gleneagles Global Hospitals Group, and Ms. Ashna Ashesh: Patient Advocate, Survivors Against TB, Lawyer and Public Health Professional.

The panel echoed the urgent need to develop user centred telehealth and virtual consultation models through participatory approaches that includes patients, care givers, health professionals, policy makers, technology organizations, legal experts and community organizations as integral stakeholders.

16 July 2020| Telehealth for Strengthening Health Services Delivery

Our second virtual policy consultation delved into the role of technological innovations in improve outcomes, relevance of telehealth for primary health care, and investing in digital health to achieve universal health coverage.  The role of telehealth for Improving accessibility, affordability and quality health services delivery in the Indian context was highlighted.

The expert panel included Ms. Kavita Narayan FACHE, Technical Advisor, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, India, Dr. Kieran Walsh, Clinical Director, British Medical Journal, UK, Dr. Bastiaan Quast, Co-Secretary ITU-WHO Focus Group on AI for Health, ITU, Geneva and Mr. N.S. Viswanathan, Chief Financial Officer, MFine, India.

30 July 2020| Creating an enabling environment for a sustainable telehealth ecosystem

Our third virtual policy consultation explored the future directions for a telehealth ecosystem, digital health infrastructure and interoperability for continuum of care, certification and accreditation for telemedicine, telehealth and virtual care. An extensive discussion on the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020 and how telehealth could contribute to the building blocks of the National Digital Health Mission was outlined.

The expert panel included Professor Nikhil Tandon, Professor of Endocrinology, All India Institute of Medical Sciences, New Delhi, Mr. Mark Landry, Regional Advisor Health Information Systems, WHO South East Asia Regional Office, Dr. Atul M Kochhar, CEO, National Accredited Board for Hospitals and Healthcare, Dr. Louise Schaper, CEO, Australasian Institute of Digital Health and Dr. Sita Rama Budaraju, Medical Head, Tata Trusts.

These consultations were anchored and moderated by Dr. Oommen John, George Institute for Global Health India and Dr. Shenoy Robinson, Chairperson CII Technical Committee on Health.