A Doctor’s Perspective: Understanding Telemedicine
Since the service we are researching is the public telemedicine platform e-Sanjeevani, it is essential to understand the points of view of medical advisors and advice seekers. When we spoke to a few doctors from our contacts about telemedicine and platforms that enable it, a bunch of interesting points came up.
For doctors practising telemedicine (independently, not through any platform), building trust with the patients is the top priority. The doctors spend a lot of quality time with the patients, over phone calls, reassuring and counselling them and not sticking solely to the medical case. The consultation is conversational in nature.
Some doctors brought up the aspect of training medical professionals before they can join telemedicine platforms to equip them with the soft skills needed to carry out online consultations
Doctors mentioned how telemedicine was used primarily for non-emergent or lifestyle diseases which can be managed from a distance (life diabetes, running a mild fever and so on)
Some doctors questioned the ethicality of telemedicine
Doctors mentioned how they preferred going through multiple photos and videos and reports before diagnosing.
These conversations sensitised us to how fragile the entire concept of healthcare is and how many aspects go into ensuring that all the users experience the best of the service.
If you’ve interacted with e-Sanjeevani, worked in public healthcare, telemedicine, or government digital services, or have perspectives we should be considering, we’d be glad to learn from you. You can write to us at [email protected]. Until next time!
This blog documents the work led by three design students about an ongoing service design project exploring public healthcare and a government-led telemedicine service in India.
