Healthcare provider Manipal Hospitals will partner with Google Cloud to leverage technology in offering 24/7 virtual care services in the country, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. The hospital chain will use the Amwell telehealth platform to offer virtual visits and remote monitoring as part of the initiative.
In a conversation with DH, the firm’s chief operating officer Karthik Rajagopal expected better patient convenience & triaging and geographical expansion using the virtual services.
This comes after the company announced a strategic partnership with ConnectedLife built with Google Cloud earlier in March this year to use wearable technology to monitor patient progress after high-risk surgeries.
A pilot programme is currently ongoing in the hospital chain’s flagship facility in Bengaluru, offering remote monitoring for patients who have undergone angioplasty and joint replacement surgeries.
The medical group hopes to expand the services across multiple specialities and other centres within the Manipal ecosystem by January 2023, Rajagopal highlighted.
“Right now it will remain a ‘phygital’ model, and I think that’s the way it will be until the surgeons and the patients get extremely comfortable with going ahead and getting all their complete consultation online,” he added.
Manipal will also launch an e-pharmacy platform as part of the initiative, to enable patients to order medicines directly from the hospital, it said in the statement.