The Disease Management Association of India (DMAI) wants prime minister Dr Manmohan Singh to adopt the National Digital Health plan (NDHP) in India to enhance and provide better and effective implementation of health care services throughout the country. To ensure that steps are taken to initiate this progressive objective at th earliest, the association also proposed to the government to set up an inter-ministerial group to give this plan a definite shape.

Digital health means telemedicine, mHealth and technology backed healthcare delivery system which is considered as one of the biggest technological break-through in the recent time to address one of the greatest national challenge of the country i.e. timely accessibility health care. DMAI stressed that NDHP can be used as an effective medium to ensure universal access to affordable healthcare services to nook and corner of the country.

“Accessibility to reliable health care services especially in the rural area has become a huge challenge that needs to be tackled. Due to the major role it plays in the life of common man it has developed into a major political issue with everyone promising to do something or the other in this front. What we need is not just any policy to appease the people of the country, but a strong revolutionary approach that has the power to change the lives of the people in a larger way. Thus we strongly believe that for a developing country like India, mHealth is the only option available to ensure effective delivery of health care system through out the country. Thus the government should take pro active steps to initiate plans to drawn up a national telemedicine policy or strategy as soon as possible ”

As per the latest data of planning commission’s approach paper for the 12th five year plan, over 800 million people live in rural India and about 640,000 villages, thus Gupta feels that it is imperative for the government to build a  national road map for telemedicine in India. This, he believes will help in addressing  major issues of accessibility and affordability with sustainability on one side, and leveraging a global business opportunity for Indian entrepreneurs on the other hand.

He added, “Now is the right time for the policy makers to ensure that technology is embedded in all programs that the government is planning to roll out for healthcare delivery. In specific, mHealth has tremendous potential to reduce costs, improve the reach and access to Health Care, make the healthcare system more outcomes driven, and more importantly, help in establishing an ‘empowered patient’.

Today only some states in the country have accepted and adopted telemedicine and mHealth, DMAI point out that a rural telemedicine service provider in India has done about 200,000 consultations with 30 to 40 per cent repeat visits, across the states of UP, Bihar, Karnataka and Maharashtra at the same time. The EMRI--108 services in Andhra Pradesh which is on a PPP model, receives 58000+ calls  per day with 4800+ emergencies a day and has saved 20165 lives, a true example of successful mHealth and telemedicine in India. Even the health management research institute (HMRI -104) in AP  provides information on health, counseling and health care services via health helpline.