It's online all the way: The rise and rise of telemedicine amid Covid-19

Covid-19 gave a huge fillip to remote medical consultations, and the trend is likely to stay

Last year, a family had booked a tele-consultation at Fortis Hospital in Bengaluru for a patient who had difficulty in breathing. When, at the request of Sheela Chakravarthy, the hospital’s director, internal medicine, the family brought the patient on a video call, she realised that he was barely breathing and needed urgent medical attention. 

Dr Chakravarthy asked the family to rush the patient to the emergency unit. He was diagnosed with hyponatremia, a condition which occurs when the concentration of sodium in blood is abnormally low. He was kept under observation and managed by a team of doctors, and was