Though formally announced and approved by the Government of India in March 2020, Telemedicine has been around in this country for over 2 decades. Doctors have been practicing it informally for a pretty long time. Practice of Telephonic consultations (audio platform) , especially for follow-up advice, has been quite commonplace in spite of lack of clarity of its legitimacy and legality. After WhatsApp and other applications became popular, it was routine for patients to send images of their wounds, swollen limbs, investigation reports and so on. ECG tracings were WhatsApped to cardiologists for their opinion.
I remember a patient whom I had operated for perianal abscess. Much to my disapproval (and distaste!), he used to send me photographs of his anal lesion daily at 8 am to keep me informed of the progress! If this is not Telemedicine, then I do not know what is! Essentially the point…
