India based startup mfine, an AI powered, on-demand healthcare service which enables virtual medical consultations, has announced the launch of Remote Clinics. Remote Clinics bring the hospital's satellite or nodal centres, corporate clinic outposts and diagnostic health centres on the mfine platform and enables virtual consultations with speciality doctors via audio and video chat. mfine rolled out the first set of remote clinics in partnership with RxDx Bangalore and Fortis Mumbai. The company plans to scale this model across India by partnering with similar specialty hospitals having primary health centres and aims to add 100 more clinics on its network in the next six months.  

Access to health care services is particularly challenging in many districts in India outside of cities. Moreover, rural communities depend on a system of small clinics and health centers to provide primary care services, often utilizing non-physician health professionals. Remote clinics help hospitals expand services in rural areas by connecting patients to specialists. These clinics equipped with new technology can move beyond traditional functions and provide a broader range of services. The remote clinics enable better monitoring of a patient’s progress and also helps them with regular follow-up with the same speciality doctor very conveniently on mfine app or in the clinic. The combination of a remote clinic and mfine app will be especially helpful for the elderly, bedridden and differently-abled patients. Chronic patients who need to consult with specialty doctors on a regular basis will also be able to continue their treatment using the mfine app.

“Remote clinics aligns with mfine’s vision of making quality care accessible to every Indian. By diminishing the impact of distance and time, mfine remote clinics can expand capacity, foster coordinated care, improve the quality and efficiency of the hospital and support patient management. Regular monitoring and follow-ups are much easier done on mobile and will save a lot of time and money for patients. Hospitals can also now deliver healthcare to more patients and offer super speciality services in distant areas through their nodal centres," said Ashutosh Lawania, Co-Founder, mfine.

A recent study carried out in rural India found that the majority (76.2%) of the subjects were aware of primary health clinics (PHCs) in their area but utilization of its services was found to be 36.3%. This was attributed to lower socio-economic background, lower literacy rates and lack of awareness. The figure is lower for patients who consulted with specialty doctors since most of these doctors are only available in the cities. India currently has 8000 private hospitals with 20,000 rural clinics. Government and private establishments are already over-burdened by the patient volume, which makes a remote consulting a win-win strategy for patients and doctors alike.

mfine has started the first phase of deployment with RxDx Hospitals Bangalore, a reputed multi-specialty chain of hospitals consisting of 8 primary healthcare clinics and 15 corporate clinics. Apart from the remote clinics, mfine will also support the doctors working at RxDx Aarogyasri centres, nodal and corporate clinics across all branches. mfine is also onboarding Fortis Mumbai with 4 primary healthcare centres.