Despite the need for a well-trained emergency medicine (EM) workforce in India, there are still many shortcomings. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the limelight the critical importance of digital health data, tools, technologies, and services in monitoring and combating adverse health effects of the pandemic. On the other hand, relevant health care stakeholders have often been underprepared to embrace digital health solutions wholeheartedly and rise to the pandemic challenge.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFBackground: Countries, including India, were quick to adopt telemedicine for delivering primary care in response to the widespread disruptions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This expeditious adoption was critical and the challenges faced during this exigency could guide the design and delivery of future telemedicine applications toward strengthening primary healthcare services.
Methods: To identify the challenges in delivering primary care via telemedicine technology in the Indian context, a scoping review was conducted.
Background: Although well recognized for its scientific value, data sharing from clinical trials remains limited. Steps toward harmonization and standardization are increasing in various pockets of the global scientific community. This issue has gained salience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThis viewpoint summarizes the discussion that occurred during the "Translating Policy to Practice in Telehealth-Lessons from Global Implementation Experiences" panel that was held virtually at Telemedicon2020, December 18-20, 2020. This panel brought together policy and implementation experts from some countries of South Asia, Kuwait, and the European Union to share their experiences in the development and implementation of telehealth standards and of the scale up of telehealth interventions within health systems. Several common themes arose from the discussion, including the significant role of people; encouragement by respective government policymakers; addressing concerns, particularly related to privacy, confidentiality, and security; and capacity building of human resources.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFIndia's journey in the digital health arena and its contribution to the landmark resolution on digital health by the World Health Organization has been recognized globally. India has demonstrated its commitment to leverage digital health as a health system strengthening intervention, as outlined in the National Digital Health Blueprint based on which, the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is currently being piloted by the National health authority. Further, the Sandbox environment of NDHM is actively encouraging all the ecosystem partners to familiarize with the evolving national digital health infrastructure.
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