Apollo Hospitals group is planning to begin 1,000 telemedicine centers in India and abroad within the next 3-years. They still haven’t finalized about the investments. Currently they have 103 functional telemedicine centers, 9 of which are located abroad. Telemedicine is a process through which patients can consult doctors located at very distant places without visiting them. So far 69,000 tele-consultations have been done by Apollo. The telemedicine process is expected to grow within the next 2-3 years due to the 3G rollout in the country. Apollo has recently launched tele ambulances services and now is also planning to launch a pilot project on telemedicine through mobile phones.
The biggest challenge for telemedicine is that about 80% of India does not have access to broadband services.
Source-Medindia