The potential of telemedicine in the world was untapped until the pandemic struck. Not only the populace in the urban but also the patients in Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities were able to access critical healthcare services via doctors on Zoom. In addition to evaluating the patients who did not require in-person attention for Covid-19, it also played a substantial role in avoiding the transmission of the virus which otherwise would have led to contagion in the event of traditional doctor patient visits.
According to a study by EY-IPA, the domestic telemedicine market in India is expected to reach $ 5.5 billion by 2025. Akin to the cross-border movement of Covid-19 vaccines where India exported almost 6% of its total supply of doses to the world, unlike other lower-income countries, there was a concomitant increase in the provision of medical services via online platforms.
While there was a significant decline in the overall global trade in medical services by around 9% in 2020, however, trade in medical services via cross-border telemedicine services soared by 14% during the same period partially offsetting the steep decline in the overall medical services’ trade. According to The General Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), there are basically four modes of supply of services; Mode 1 (where neither the producer nor the consumer crosses borders and the services are delivered internationally via phone, fax or e-mails), Mode 2 (where the consumers travel to another country to consume services locally, for instance, tourists), Mode 3 (where the producer establishes an affiliate in another country where the consumers are located) and finally Mode 4 (where the service providers travel temporarily to render their services such as doctors, nurses and midwives etc.). Even before the onset of the pandemic, while the trade of medical services was constituted dominantly via Mode 3 (75%), the share of Mode 1 had seen a slow but steady rise (5.6%) since then. For instance, the United States has seen a substantial rise in telehealth trade from 3.3% in 2010 to around 10% in 2019.
