A telemedicine app is an app through which a patient consults a doctor by video call, voice call or chat, and then orders the prescribed medicines and lab tests from the same screen. It is also called a teleconsultation app or an online doctor consultation app. In India, many people get it free from their employer, as part of their health benefits.
How does a consultation work? The patient picks a kind of doctor, such as a general physician, a skin doctor or a children's doctor. The app finds a suitable doctor who is free, often within 10 to 15 minutes. The two talk on a video call inside the app. The doctor can see the patient's earlier reports, if the patient has uploaded or linked them. At the end, the doctor writes an e-prescription, a prescription in digital form that carries the doctor's name and registration number. The patient can then order the medicines and tests with one tap.
Say a sales executive in Ranchi has had a fever and a sore throat for two days. His company's group health insurance includes free online consultations. At 9 p.m., he opens the app and asks for a general physician. Twelve minutes later, he is on a video call with a doctor in Hyderabad. The doctor asks about his symptoms, looks at his throat through the camera, and prescribes a medicine for the fever and lozenges for the throat. Because the fever has lasted two days, she also asks for a blood test. He orders the medicines, worth ₹340, from an online pharmacy inside the app, and they arrive the next morning. At 8 a.m., a worker from a home sample collection service comes to draw his blood. The report appears in the app that evening, and the doctor reviews it in a free follow-up chat.
Online consultations in India follow the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines, issued in 2020. They allow registered doctors to consult and prescribe online. They also limit which medicines may be prescribed in this way. For example, a doctor may not prescribe certain controlled medicines in an online consultation.
Before the call, many apps first ask about the symptoms through an AI symptom checker, which suggests the kind of doctor to see. Some apps also let the patient link records to the ABHA number, the national health ID, so that the next doctor can see them.
Who pays? Some patients pay for each consultation, often a few hundred rupees. But much of the business comes from employers and insurers, who buy consultations in bulk for their staff or their policyholders. The government also runs a free national telemedicine service, called eSanjeevani.
How is it different from a doctor appointment booking app? A booking app helps the patient choose a particular doctor and book a visit. A telemedicine app usually connects the patient, on a call, to a suitable doctor who is free now.