bengaluru karnataka stands second in the country in providing online medical consultations through the central governmentrun esanjeevani portal shows data with the press information bureau as on october 4the service was launched a few weeks before the covid pandemic hit and it has received the highest response in andhra pradesh where 42 lakh consultations were recorded karnataka has provided the second highest number of consultations at 24 lakh while the data shows tamil nadu 159 lakh uttar pradesh 137 lakh and gujarat 48 lakh follow in that orderan initiative of national teleconsultation service under the union ministry of health and family welfare its aim is to provide healthcare advice to people in their homes through an appbased platform it has so far seen 13 crore consultations across the country since its launch in december 2019the service provides free videobased clinical consultations between a patient and a doctor all one needs to do to avail the service is to download the esanjeevani app on a smartphone and register to consult a doctor patients must provide name gender age address mobile number email id health records and details of dependents the process includes registration token generation queue management and audiovideo consultation with a doctorthe mohali branch of centre for development of advanced computing provides endtoend technical assistance for the portal including development implementation operations and training to health personnelspreading awarenessdr arundhathi chandrashekar mission director national health mission karnataka told toi that the state government has been encouraging asha workers to introduce the app to the general public during their doortodoor surveysconsultation is provided depending on the area of requirement a range of specialists are available she said based on consultations patients are provided with a prescription for medicines which they need to procureanother way of accessing the service is through the hub and spoke model where staff in health and wellness centres connect with specialists in district hospitals and government medical colleges this is a doctortodoctor consultation where specialists advice is sought to treat patientslockdown boonofficials say the service was widely used during covidinduced lockdowns when accessing hospitals to treat noncovid ailments was badly affected nearly 3600 doctors in karnataka have provided advice while there are 38 specialist hubs to which calls from a total 3964 spokes are connectedcurrently the facility is available from 9am to 7pm and offers specialists advice for issues involving dermatology urology pulmonology general surgery psychiatry general medicine ophthalmology orthopaedics ent ear nose and throat gynaecology and paediatrics the highest number of consultations were with physicians said dr arundhathiwhile kerala also offers services in the field of cardiology psychiatry and cancer care through the online portal they are unavailable at the moment in karnatakathe average consultation time in karnataka was one minute 53 seconds data for september shows the duration of consultation depends on internet connectivity and the consultation itself the maximum consultation duration we have seen is four minutes officials saidchikkamagaluru topsdata from the state health department as on october 7 shows chikkamagaluru registered the most consultations