Health Ministry’s eSanjeevani app to provide free medical consultation to rural masses via CSC

Common Services Centre's (CSCs) and the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare have joined hands to bring OPD consultations to citizens in rural and remote areas of the country through a network of over 3.74 lakh CSCs.

The web-based application,‘eSanjeevani', developed by the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), provides free video-based tele-consultation in the local language by doctors empanelled in each state.

Once the patient visits the CSC, the Village Level Entrepreneur (VLE) will register the patient and fill in the details on the OPD app. The VLE will then receive 16-digit Patient ID and a token. Once the SMS is received, the VLE will log in with the patient ID. When the 'Call Now' button is activated, the VLE can initiate the video call and help the citizen get consultation. Following the consultation, the VLE can download the e-prescription sent by the doctor.

Elaborating on the Application, Dr Sanjay Sood, Group Director, C-DAC Mohali said, “More than 60 lakh consultations have so far been done through eSanjeevani. Almost all state hospitals and Army hospital doctors are available on the platform to provide tele consultation. eSanjeevani has facilitated quick digital transformation and widespread uptake of telemedicine across the country because of a unique bouquet of benefits that it offers: Free services; Simple processes and workflows for users (patients and doctors); India’s premier institutions like AIIMS, State Health Departments are amongst the services providers.”

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said, “The Government came up with telemedicine guidelines during the first wave of the Covid-19 pandemic for providing access to primary healthcare for citizens in rural and remote areas. The guidelines helped us develop and release the eSanjeevani OPD Application."

“CSCs have stepped in to assist citizens during the Covid-19 pandemic, be it through access to telemedicine consultations, banking services and education. eSanjeevani OPD with its customised platform and a panel of state-level doctors on call will solve the problem of shortage of doctors in rural areas and enhance our efforts to reach out to rural citizens with quality healthcare," Dinesh Tyagi, MD, CSC Special Purpose Vehicle, said.