The report ‘Understanding COVID-19: Comparing all three waves in India’ analyses how Indians accessed healthcare during the three covid waves
The average time spent by a patient with a doctor online during this time was 30 minutes, which is comparable to in-person visits.
India, April 7, 2022: In the last two years, digital healthcare has played an important role in managing the Covid-19 pandemic. With speculations about the impending fourth wave going on, it is necessary to understand the health trends from the first three waves so that we, as a community, are better prepared for it.
Report findings during all three waves:
- 70% of all online consultations for COVID-19
- Second wave was the deadliest with a 690% surge in online consultations at its peak
- 57% of all telemedicine users experienced it for the first time
- 54% of all online consultations were from millennials and Gen Zs
- There was 50% growth in alternate medicine like Ayurveda and Homeopathy
- Specialities like Dental, Psychiatry and Sexology saw growth in in-person appointments
- Dolo 650mg, Zincovit, Limcee 500mg, Azee 500mg, Pan D capsule were the most ordered medicines
- Covid-19 swab test, Complete blood count test, Thyroid profile and HBA1c were the most ordered diagnostic tests
Covid cases vs Covid Consults across all three waves in comparison with pre-covid times Prof. Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Author of the best-seller: ‘Digital Health – Truly Transformational’ and Chairman – Digital Health Academy & Health Parliament, said, “For most of us who have been championing digital adoption over the past two decades, this digital health revolution is not just evolutionary; it is revolutionary – either corporates or technologists have led the first two revolutions, and this time, this is being led by patients. A bottom-up movement always trumps all barriers. This study reveals that digital health adoption is growing exponentially across urban, rural areas, specialities, and age groups. As work from home (WFH) becomes a reality, Consult from Home (CFH) is also becoming prominent. The hybrid model of care is a reality now.”
Enclosed below are some key Speciality-specific insights:
- Top specialities during the three waves
- General Physician
- Gynecology
- Pediatrics
- A few specialities grew sharply during the second wave due to severe side-effects of the Delta variant
- Cardiology
- Pulmonology
- Gastroenterology
- Post-COVID Impact
- Diabetology
- Ophthalmology
- Orthopedics
Practo’s Insights Report is based on transactions by crores users in the below mentioned time period
First wave | September 2020 – October 2020
Second wave | April 2021 – May 2021
Third wave | January 2022
Dr Alexander Kuruvilla, Chief Healthcare Strategy Officer, Practo, said, “India’s healthcare system saw a paradigm shift in its approach to deliver care during the COVID-19 pandemic. In managing the crisis – especially through all three waves in India – there has been tremendous growth in telemedicine, raising the possibility of a future where digital healthcare services will coexist with in-clinic visits in a hybrid set-up. At a time when hospitals and care delivery units were overwhelmed by the rising number of positive COVID cases, telemedicine served as an efficient and effective alternative, saving lives and critical resources like hospital beds. Apart from the devastation that the pandemic brought, it also did reinstate the fact that quality healthcare can be made accessible and affordable to all.”
City Specific Pointers
- Bengaluru contributed to 32% of all covid consultations in the third wave
- Highest consultations came from Delhi during the second wave contributing 29% of total covid consultations
- Hyderabad was the third most consulted city in all three waves
- During the first wave, Mumbai contributed to the highest online covid consultations at 8%
- Among non-metros, Lucknow had the most online consultations during the first wave, contributing to 4% of all covid consultations
- During the third wave, among non-metros Jaipur had the highest consultations contributing to 3% of all covid consultations
To know about the detailed insights and what the doctors have to say, please refer to the comprehensive insights report here – LINK (attachment)
These Insights were developed to understand the healthcare patterns of Indians amidst the outbreak of COVID-19 while adhering to our stringent data security and privacy measures. These insights have been created with aggregated and anonymized sets of data from our users who share their age and location with us which is optional. A fundamental tenet of Practo is ensuring that the patients’ health information is safe, secure, and private. Considerable investments have been made to ensure that Practo remains one of the safest places for health information stored by the clinic and hospital partners as well as patients. Visit Practo’s Privacy Policy to learn more about how we keep your data private, safe, and secure.
About Practo
Practo is on a mission to make quality healthcare affordable and accessible for over a billion+ Indians. It is India’s leading integrated healthcare company that connects the entire health ecosystem together – including patients, doctors, surgeons, clinics, hospitals, pharmacies, and diagnostics – to generate exceptional value and service for all, especially the end consumers. It integrates different parts of the patients’ healthcare journey so they can have a seamless experience, right from primary healthcare viz. finding and booking an appointment with verified doctors, consulting doctors online with ETA as low as 60 seconds, getting medicines delivered and lab tests conducted at home, to secondary healthcare procedures across 20+ specialties. Practo also makes software products that help healthcare providers – ranging from small clinics to large hospitals – digitize and deliver more efficient and higher quality healthcare to millions of patients around the world.
As technology becomes an integral part of healthcare, Practo has also become an essential enabler in helping doctors understand the nuances of managing and securely storing all health data. Practo encrypts all data with 256-bit encryption, uses HIPAA-compliant data centers, and is one of the few healthcare companies to be ISO 27001 certified. Practo is present in 20+ countries, helping over 30 crore patients, by connecting them with 1 lakh+ verified doctor partners.
