Telehealth played a significant role in India during pandemic, to flatten the novel coronavirus infections, but it was not noticed by society/ government. The non-pharmaceutical strategies, including social distancing and stay at home messages through telecommunication/ tv/ news media, helped in containing the infection to a significant extent.
Telemedicine and telepharmacy come under telehealth provide remote health care services, including clinical and non-clinical services, monitoring diagnosis, health education, and many more. Telemedicine services are usually administered by physicians, while pharmacists undertake telepharmacy.
Telepharmacy is the accurate delivery of pharmacy service through telecommunication, video conferencing, Skype, zoom, and much more to the patients who do not have direct contact with pharmacists.
There has been a remarkable increase in the telepharmacy services during the COVID-19 pandemic in the entire world, with India. It was well remarked in developed countries, but none could able to find its data in India. The pharmacists served the patients through telecommunication/WhatsApp and facilitated the right medicine to the patients during the pandemic. As physicians were available only through telephone and pharmacists served as a bridge to the patents. So today, telepharmacy is proved to be a powerful tool during the pandemic to deliver health care across the health care system and provided an excellent opportunity for pharmacists.
Medical device aided telepharmacy in remote monitoring and providing medication counseling refill authorization and formulary compliances. Telepharmacy has a great advantage to patients in access to pharmacy care, improved efficiency in diagnosis, and treatments. Link to and public awareness programs from telepharmacy in rural areas via telehealth has the incentive of better patient outcomes. One of the key obstacles in the treatment center was used to be that older adults were losing their visits since they can’t leave their dwellings. Telepharmacy ensures that patients are very familiar with the pharmacist ‘s instruction and duration necessary to receive the treatment.
Overall, pharmacists should have knowledge and skills about community and hospital pharmacy set up.The pharmacist should also have excellent communication skills, information technology, and telecommunication experiences. As a dispensing pharmacist filling of prescription and counseling, the patients will be done on video conference technique.
It is going to compliment the traditional practice in pharmacy and thereby making ground-breaking changes in pharmacy care in India. Telepharmacy has made a significant boost to Tier 2 and Tier 3 Indian cities, yet E-Pharmacy is improving affordable healthcare in both cities and rural areas. Numerous Indian health care initiatives as with Make in India, Digital India, Jan Aushadhi (supporting generic medications), Telemedicine, and E-Healthcare are assisting the rural population boost its well being in a quality way.
The main gains of telepharmacy services to such remote areas include: improving healthcare access; community pharmacies service providers and pharmacists; improvement of clinical prescription errors; conformance of health care facilities with state pharmacy rules and regulations; supply faraway healthcare providers with relevant data on treatments about particular populace as an example — pediatricians or service users on clotting medication; increasing community socioeconomic focus is on developing new businesses and adding new jobs; developing the prospects of hiring or maintaining pharmacists in farming communities to start practicing pharmacy, and creating additional clinical facilities for pharmacy students.
In the current milieu, it can be asserted that though the Covid-19 pandemic is a nightmarish scenario for all, but it has also been a wakeup call for improvement in the nutritional and healthcare aspects of the population at large, with a keen focus on sustainable development.
Telepharmacy is a process when fully implemented would be a milestone in ensuring the avowed goal of “Health for all”and seems to be the only workable solution at this point of time in India. The large population and vis-a-vi, the low per capita healthcare facility, is something that could be tackled by a twin strategy of human resource development and rigorous deployment of Telepharmacy. To work on this aim, pharmacy colleges in the Greater Noida region UP, India, have taken various initiatives to educate telepharmacy and importance among B. Pharma students. The pharmacy students are curious and excited to know the new concept of pharmacy, particularly during the Covid pandemic. So it the right time to enroll for the UG Pharmacy course and ensure a bright and secure future ahead in service of humanity.