eSanjeevani initiative

About eSanjeevani-

• It is a national telemedicine service that offers tele-consultations enabling patient to doctor consultations from the confines of their home, as well as doctor to doctor consultations. 
• In 2018, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare had conceptualized the use of telemedicine to aid implementation of Ayushman Bharat scheme. 
• The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare had launched two variants of e-Sanjeevani namely – 

• e-Sanjeevani AB-HWC which is meant for doctor – to – doctor tele consultations
• e-Sanjeevani OPD which is meant for patient – to – doctor tele consultation

• The former is being implemented under the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centre (AB-HWCs) programme. 
• The telemedicine platform is hosting over 40 online OPDs, more than half of these are speciality OPDs which include Gynaecology, Psychiatry, Dermatology, ENT, Ophthalmology, antiretroviral therapy (ART) for the AIDS/HIV patients, Non-Communicable Disease (NCD) etc. 
• E-Sanjeevani OPD (out-patient department) is a telemedicine variant for the public to seek health services remotely and was rolled out on 13th of April 2020 during the first lockdown in the country.
• It enables virtual meetings between the patients and doctors & specialists from geographically dispersed locations, through video conferencing that occurs in real-time.
• At the end of these remote consultations, eSanjeevani generates electronic prescriptions which can be used for sourcing medicines.
• Andhra Pradesh was the first state to roll out e-Sanjeevani AB-HWC services in November 2019.
• Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand etc were the early adopters of this first of its kind of telemedicine initiative.