As COVID-19 pushes people indoors, health consultation apps get a boost

In times of social distancing and pandemic scare, the need for offering adequate healthcare for all has dominated conversations. In a huge country like India, where the number of doctors is very low considering the massive population, telemedicine could be the way forward.

Telemedicine lets patients and doctors connect with each other remotely, using tech tools such as the internet, apps and smartphones. It is an area that received a lot of investor attention last year, with an India venture report by Bain and Company seeing a surge in healthcare investments across wellness and health platforms, e-pharma and telemedicine-focussed players.

On account of Covid-19, online health platform Practo has seen a marked increase in eConsults over the last two weeks, with maximum queries coming from Bengaluru.

Consults for GP (General Practitioner) on Practo’s online consultation is witnessing an average increase of 16% week-on-week, which was growing at 20% per month, a month ago, according to Alexander Kuruvilla, Chief Health Strategy Officer, Practo.

Bengaluru is leading with maximum queries on the platform, followed by Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Mumbai, Pune and Chennai. “Two crore people come on the platform every month for appointments and eConsults, with more than 20 lakh people from Bengaluru alone. The city has seen a 20% increase in seeking eConsults on the platform, amidst the pandemic, as compared to usual,” said Kuruvilla.

Around 53% of all GP eConsults last week on Practo were related to Coronavirus, with most queries coming from people in the age group of 20 to 30. Queries regarding fever, cough, cold, sore throat and body ache have increased by 30%.

On the other hand, more than 20% of GP consults on the platform are emerging from Tier-2/3 cities. Most of the queries are surfacing from - Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Bhubaneshwar, and Indore.

Practo has increased its doctor base by close to 50% in the last 4 weeks, said Kuruvilla, in order to enable more and more consults for the people. “The senior medical team at Practo is training GPs on the protocol to handle coronavirus symptom-related online consultations to ensure high-quality consultations.”

“We have reached out to more doctors and hospitals to use Practo’s platform to provide teleconsultation. It will not only help avoid gathering and overcrowding at hospitals but also keep the medical staff safe if say an infected person shows up announced,” he said.

Practo has launched a monthly healthcare plan which offers unlimited online doctor consultations. “This helps people consult with doctors without worrying about the fee every time they do. Idea is to encourage people to consult doctors and not self medicate or ignore their symptoms,” said Kuruvilla.

On the reliability of online evaluation, he said, “I don’t think you are going to achieve anything more during physical examination. The most important strategy right now is to not let the virus spread. First, go through teleconsultation and then, only if necessary, go to a physician.” Another player in this space, mfine, an on-demand online healthcare service has worked on a similar strategy. It has developed an AI tool that collects basic information from users by guiding them through a set of questions to ascertain their health, the symptoms, age, medical history and so on. “It lets a doctor consult with the patient and enables them to see more patients without being exposed to the virus themselves,” explains mfine CEO Prasad Kompalli.

“We have seen a spike of about 20% in traffic as a result of the raging pandemic,” Kompalli says.

(With inputs from Nikhil Varma)