Objectives: India has committed to formulating a roadmap for realising a resilient health system, with digital health being an important element of this. Following the successful implementation of a free telemedicine service, eSanjeevani, India published the Telemedicine Practice Guidelines in 2020 to further scale telemedicine use in India. The main objective of the current study was to understand the perspective and use of telemedicine by medical doctors in India after the release of its telemedicine policy. Methods: Data were acquired through an anonymous, cross-sectional, internet-based survey of medical doctors (n = 444) at a pan-India level. Replies were subjected to statistical analysis. Results: Telemedicine was used for various non-mutually exclusive reasons, with the top two reasons being live audio or video consultations (60.4%) and online payments (19.1%) and smartphones were the most frequently used device type (60.6%). The telemedicine benefit that the greatest proportion of respondents (93%) recognised was its potential to reduce COVID-19 infection risk for healthcare professionals. Interestingly, nearly 45% of respondents felt that limited and fragmented insurance coverage was an important limitation to the practice of telemedicine in India and 49% believed reduced patient fees for teleconsultations could help incentivise telemedicine use. Conclusions: This study helps to appraise the use of telemedicine in India after the publication of telemedicine guidelines in 2020. Furthermore, the findings can inform the development of telemedicine platforms, policies and incentives to improve the design and implementation of effective telemedicine in India. Public Interest Summary: India has committed to formulating a roadmap for realising a resilient health system, with digital health being an important element of this. In 2020, India published its Telemedicine Practice Guidelines to scale telemedicine use in India. The main objective of the current study was to survey medical doctors in India to understand their perspectives on and use of telemedicine after the release of Indias telemedicine policy. Our findings revealed that the top two reasons doctors used telemedicine were for live audio or video consultations and online payments. Interestingly, a large proportion of respondents felt that limited and fragmented insurance coverage was an important limitation to the practice of telemedicine in India. This study helps to appraise the use of telemedicine in India after the publication of its telemedicine guidelines and can inform the development of telemedicine platforms, policies and incentives to improve the design and implementation of telemedicine in India.

The authors have declared no competing interest.

This was an unfunded study.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

This study aimed to survey medical doctors anonymously via a questionnaire to review their current use of telemedicine. This study did not involve patient participation, material or seek identifiable, personal and/or confidential information from the survey respondent. Hence, no ethical approval was required for this study according to the Declaration of Helsinki of the World Medical Association. In addition, upon enquiry from the local ethics committee at the University of Oxford, this study was deemed a service review (confirmation available upon request). The General information on the online survey landing page and the Privacy notice on the second survey page to potential participants explained the reasons for the survey, the details of the investigators, and the fact that participants anonymised responses may be published. In addition, the Privacy notice detailed: how the authors collected data from the survey responses; which data was going to be stored; where it was going to be stored and for how long; and how the study team was going to use the data in their analyses. The survey started once the participant agreed with the stated terms and conditions. Informed consent to participate and publication of results was implied through their completion of the study questionnaire.

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

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I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.

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All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors