Global telehealth market to reach $191 bn in 2022

Hyderabad The global telehealth market is estimated at $38 billion this year and it is expected to reach $191 billion by next year. Hyderabad-headquartered Apollo TeleHealth (ATH) has become the first-ever telemedicine provider in the world to receive the certification of ISO 13131:2021 presented by the British Standards Institution (BSI).

Telehealth refers to the use of digital technologies to deliver healthcare services to multiple people in remote areas. Apollo Hospitals Group has been providing technology-enabled healthcare services such as monitoring, assessment, communications, education and prevention to people across eight states in the country under public-private partnership (PPP) mode.

Prathap C Reddy, Founder-Chairman of Apollo Hospitals Group, said: "We invest heavily in quality programmes and this certification recognises our industry leadership in developing and deploying user-friendly technological solutions and the high standard for medical services across our platform. With ISO-certification, ATH has demonstrated that it has adopted the best practice for its telehealth services."

He further said: "India can become a global healthcare destination and telemedicine is the answer to healthcare services in rural parts of the country. The impact of telemedicine is significant as many people from the age group of 30-40 years are prone to non-communicable diseases. During the two waves of Covid-19 pandemic, millions of people were happy with telemedicine services."

Dr Sangita Reddy, Managing Director of the group, said: "ATH is the oldest and largest multispecialty telemedicine network touching more than 13 million people in rural and sub-urban areas of the country. Today, it has emerged as the single largest telemedicine provider with over 800 public health centres, 100 franchised tele-clinics and point of presence through 3.5 lakh common service centres."

Malaysia was the first government to accept ATH, while its services are pervasive in Bangladesh and countries in Africa. Dr K Ganapathy, Director of ATH, said that more than 90 per cent of illnesses can be supervised though tele-healthcare services. ATH has the potential to cover 80 per cent ruaral and urban areas of the country.

Currently, ATH is providing around 24,000 consultations per day. It aims to provide over 2 lakh consultations per day by 2025. The consultations also include pharmacy, counseling and medical advice. At present, about 1,000 dedicated doctors are available on the platform apart from the specialists and super-specialists of the hospital group. It has plans to onboard more dedicated physicians over a period.