SMSRC study reveals a significant shift towards physical consultation during second COVID wave in 2021

Share % of physical consultation (In clinic) has gone upto 71% in Jul – Aug 2021 as compared to 38% in Jul – Aug 2020

SMSRC, healthcare data-based research organisation has released findings from its latest COVID related study conducted amongst 550+ Indian doctors..

The SMSRC study, conducted among 550+ doctors across 80+ towns and cities in the country, reveals a significant shift from telemedicine consultations to physical consultation (in clinic visits) in the second COVID wave in 2021 as compared to the first COVID wave in 2020. The shift towards physical consultation has been due to various factors – ease of lockdown restrictions in different parts of the country, vaccination drive by the government, and the need to check patients physically for better diagnosis/treatments. However, use of one or the other type (What’s App / PMS etc.) of teleconsultation will continue and likely to gradually increase over a long period of time as Indian doctors consultation habit adopts to the new method of teleconsultation.

Key highlights of the study

Doctor-patient interactions

• Physical consultation (In clinic) has gone upto 71% in Jul, Aug 2021 (second wave) as compared to 38% in Jul, Aug 2020 (first wave).
• Similarly, telemedicine consultations have gone down to 4% in Jul, Aug 2021 when compared with 12% in Jul, Aug 2020.
• Phygital (Mix of physical consultation and telemedicine) was more or less same with 19% in Jul – Aug 2021 as compared to 20% in Jul – Aug 2020.
• With 82% WhatsApp has been the most preferred mode of tele consultation in 2021 followed by mobile phone calls at 50% and patient management software (PMS) at 15% (not mutually exclusive).
• 88% doctors preferred only mobile phones over other devices like laptop (6%) or a mix of mobile+laptop(6%).

Factors enabling and impacting tele consultation practice

• Social distancing (51% of Drs chose this reason),followed by increased access to patients (17%) and ease of preserving medical records (11%) are the reasons for Doctors preferring teleconsultation. 21% of Doctors chose atleast two or all of the above reasons.
• Similarly, not being able to check patients physically (57%), infrastructure issues (13%) and complexity of digital platform (12%) are the reasons that deter Doctors from using teleconsultation. 18% of Doctors chose atleast two or all of the above reasons.

Doctor-Medical Representative (MR) interaction

• When it comes to meeting MR, 74% doctors preferred physical meeting, 4% preferred digital meeting while 22% preferred both.
• 31% doctors said they prefer to reduce the frequency of physical visits as compared to pre-pandemic period, whereas 66% would prefer the same frequency for MR visits as before the pandemic.
• Similarly,56% of doctors preferred WhatsApp as the first choice for interaction with MR followed by phone call reminders at 27%, text reminders at 16%, and only 1% preferred interaction through email.

Speaking on this study, Aneesh Mitra, General Manager, SMSRC, and Director, Synaegis said, “Against the current backdrop of our country opening up, doctors still practicing teleconsultations expect their share% of teleconsultations to total consultations, to taper down as compared to the second wave of the pandemic phase (Jul, Aug 21), but remain higher than the pre-pandemic phase (Dec 2019). Therefore, the teleconsultation market in India has evolved from a “state of awareness building” to “emergency mass acceptance” to expectedly “acceptance for specific use cases” over the course of this pandemic (2020-2021). Further, the regulatory tailwinds have also supported this market. However, there still appears to be a need gap in the market for simple, and relevant applications, as WhatsApp is still dominantly the preferred mode of teleconsultation.”

In the patient management software for doctors, as another mode for teleconsultation, the traction remains limited. Aloke Roy, President, SMSRC, who has a long history of being associated with prescription research in India, mentioned that SMSRC had correctly predicted around May 2020 (during the onset of the pandemic)in various forums, that COVID may not induce a “new normal” (e.g. as seen in the e-pharmacy market) atleast in the space of doctors in-clinic patient management styles or habits in India. Doctor inertia towards laptop/tablet-based practice, complex software, lack of infrastructure and need for direct physical connect with the patient were some of the key inherent barriers preventing wider adoption of PMS amongst Indian Doctors.