[sugam]

Greetings BHPians,

Hope all of you have had a healthy start to the new year! I have been keenly following the Indian e-commerce scene and coming from a healthcare background, often wonder how the tech/AI wave will change healthcare.

Statistics suggest that 70% of in-person doctor visits can be avoided if right guidance is available, thus forming the basis for telemedicine.

Most of us have a very busy lifestyle these days, with many of us multitasking, getting involved with things or simply by being stuck in traffic!

Given these circumstances, in my opinion, the conditions are ideal and conducive for telehealth facilities to pick up. Just curious, how many of us have tried using one of these new apps to consult a doctor or to order medicines online?

What features/facilities would you ideally want in such apps or services? Some (other services) apps provide huge discounts if you buy coupons to eat out with them. But surely, healthcare is expensive and not so much can be discounted. Would discounts and cashbacks play a major role in the decision making process? A major online pharmacy often slashes 20% off the total bill, but then it took them more than a week to ship my order.

Would love to hear your experiences and thoughts on this!

Have a superb day!

[kavensri]

I have been ordering medicines online since more than a year now. I started with Netmeds and recently switched to Pharmeasy. My experience with Netmeds and Pharmeasy is mentioned below:

Netmeds - Minimum time taken by them to deliver the medicines is 3 days. Many a times, it used to be around a week. They do have attractive offers like 'NMS Super cashback'.

Pharmeasy - I think they work differently compared to Netmeds. They will have a tie up with the local medical store nearby and then they will source the medicine from there to deliver. Most of the times, the delivery happens next day (even if I order in the night). But the discount is always 20% flat.

I have not tried these online portals for any other things like blood test, etc. I have also not tried any other portals apart from Netmeds and Pharmeasy.

[pganapathy]

I definitely order medicines online. I use a couple of sites, Myra and NetMeds. Whether I could go for a remote diagnosis is more debatable though. I understand the lure of having a medical diagnosis while sitting at home, but it is hard for me to see this applying to all types of illnesses. It is especially difficult if the patient doesn't tell you the symptoms exactly or the doctor can't check things accurately, say for example even something as simple as taking your pulse or checking your heartbeat.

[sugam]

Originally Posted by kavensri

I have been ordering medicines online since more than a year now. I started with Netmeds and recently switched to Pharmeasy. My experience with Netmeds and Pharmeasy is mentioned below:

Netmeds - Minimum time taken by them to deliver the medicines is 3 days. Many a times, it used to be around a week. They do have attractive offers like 'NMS Super cashback'.

Pharmeasy - I think they work differently compared to Netmeds. They will have a tie up with the local medical store nearby and then they will source the medicine from there to deliver. Most of the times, the delivery happens next day (even if I order in the night). But the discount is always 20% flat.

I have not tried these online portals for any other things like blood test, etc. I have also not tried any other portals apart from Netmeds and Pharmeasy.

So, would the discount component play an important role in the decision making process? Say for example, you had another service promising a 60 minute delivery, but no discounts, what would you do?

Originally Posted by pganapathy

I definitely order medicines online. I use a couple of sites, Myra and NetMeds. Whether I could go for a remote diagnosis is more debatable though. I understand the lure of having a medical diagnosis while sitting at home, but it is hard for me to see this applying to all types of illnesses. It is especially difficult if the patient doesn't tell you the symptoms exactly or the doctor can't check things accurately, say for example even something as simple as taking your pulse or checking your heartbeat.

I agree that the use of e-medicine has to be limited to basic illnesses and to answer many unasked questions that people sometimes have in the back of their mind. For critical and more serious illnesses, a physical examination sometimes becomes a must.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by sugam

So, would the discount component play an important role in the decision making process? Say for example, you had another service promising a 60 minute delivery, but no discounts, what would you do?

It is a trade off for me. I need to buy these medicines for my parents (Blood Sugar and BP tablets, which i can plan it before hand). Before online, local shop wala used to give 8% discount. But when i saw good discount online, i switched from local shop to online. Initially I was happy with Netmeds service. But many a times, they never used to update the status even for 3-4 days. That's when i was started looking for other portals. Found this Pharmeasy and I am quite happy with their service and delivery time.
To answer your query, I would definitely go with local shop if I am not getting any discount online.

Originally Posted by sugam

I agree that the use of e-medicine has to be limited to basic illnesses and to answer many unasked questions that people sometimes have in the back of their mind. For critical and more serious illnesses, a physical examination sometimes becomes a must.

I still buy medicines from lcoal shop if someone in my family has fallen ill and need to take prescription medicines immediately.

[Turbanator]

Originally Posted by kavensri

Pharmeasy - I think they work differently compared to Netmeds. They will have a tie up with the local medical store nearby and then they will source the medicine from there to deliver. Most of the times, the delivery happens next day (even if I order in the night). But the discount is always 20% flat.

Never ordered in past but tried now, uploaded clear prescription and ordered, few minutes later a Lady calls from Mumbai number and tells that prescription is not valid due to technical reasons and she will arrange a call back from their consulting doctors without any charge. I refuse and instead offer to send prescription by E-mail which they refuse and cancel my order. So it will be a while before such things become common I guess.

[sugam]

Originally Posted by kavensri

It is a trade off for me. I need to buy these medicines for my parents (Blood Sugar and BP tablets, which i can plan it before hand). Before online, local shop wala used to give 8% discount. But when i saw good discount online, i switched from local shop to online. Initially I was happy with Netmeds service. But many a times, they never used to update the status even for 3-4 days. That's when i was started looking for other portals. Found this Pharmeasy and I am quite happy with their service and delivery time.
To answer your query, I would definitely go with local shop if I am not getting any discount online.


I still buy medicines from lcoal shop if someone in my family has fallen ill and need to take prescription medicines immediately.

Thanks, makes much more sense to me now. On that note, have you tried switching prescribed brands for generics (Cheaper but with same constituents)?

Originally Posted by Turbanator

Never ordered in past but tried now, uploaded clear prescription and ordered, few minutes later a Lady calls from Mumbai number and tells that prescription is not valid due to technical reasons and she will arrange a call back from their consulting doctors without any charge. I refuse and instead offer to send prescription by E-mail which they refuse and cancel my order. So it will be a while before such things become common I guess.

Yes, I can relate to that experience. But my guess is that it will eventually get there. Thanks!

[Simhi]

I am using MedplusMart and they have option of collecting medicine at their local outlets as well as showing prescription at local outlets. So order medicine online and collect medicines locally. Works out for me as online order gets you up to 20% discount when order value is more than Rs. 1000. You can also pay at the local outlets.

[kavensri]

Originally Posted by Turbanator

she will arrange a call back from their consulting doctors without any charge. I refuse and instead offer to send prescription by E-mail which they refuse and cancel my order. So it will be a while before such things become common I guess.

Oh yeah, even I have faced such situations many a times. And I would not even call that as a 'consultation'. They will just ask patient's name and age. That is all. I don't know why they do that? May be to meet their internal process?

Originally Posted by sugam

Thanks, makes much more sense to me now. On that note, have you tried switching prescribed brands for generics (Cheaper but with same constituents)?

I have done that once. I could not find one BP tablet which doctor had prescribed. So found an alternative in portal, went back to doctor to reconfirm whether we can buy that alternative.

[theexperthand]

I have done both - order medicines and consult a doctor online.

I have used the following:

Order medicines: 1MG, Netmeds, Myra, Medplusonline, Practo.
Medical Supplies: PinHealth by medlife
Medical Test and Online Consultation: 1MG
Online Doctor booking: Practo

My only grouse is the time taken to get the medicines delivered - so, in case of an emergency, I still go to brick and mortar stores, but I go for online if I am doing a planned buy.

--Anoop

[naveenroy]

To be honest, I think consulting a doctor online is the way of the future. They push that here too what with rising health insurance costs. I have not done it but I am not against it either.

Ordering meds online - this is something that I have been contemplating of late. It is because my dad buys all his heart medicine a month in advance. I plan to check out pharmeasy - looks like inmates have good reviews of this portal.

[A M]

e-medicine is a very broad term. Better known terms are Telemedicine, eHealth, Digital Health. They are used interchangeably but there are subtle differences.

The two components that you mentioned here are Teleconsultation and e-Pharmacy.

e-Pharmacies are very convenient but they are not of much use in emergencies due to logistical issues. Otherwise, it is really convenient to have your regular medicines on subscription for 3 refills i.e till the validity of a prescription for chronic non-communicable diseases and then receive a reminder to get a checkup done and get a new prescription.

Teleconsultations, I believe, is the future but it will take quite a few years for the market to mature and people to become aware of the benefits and limitations of teleconsultation. In its current form, teleconsultations are beneficial only for counselling sessions, follow-ups (where you only need to show investigation reports) or in some emergency conditions where people around the patient have no idea what to do but can perform the basic stuff (putting the patient in recovery position, keeping a patent airway) till professional help arrives.

A major limitation though is the quality of consultations available online through the apps. I would not recommend anyone to blindly use any such app for consultations and go by the advice/prescription.

Please use it only with your trusted physician and ONLY for the follow-ups where investigation reports need to be shown after you've made a physical visit.

[govigov]

OK, I did contemplate on buying medicines online. I was unable to get clarity on somethings. For examples, on some / most of the medicines, it is clearly written that exposure to sunlight / higher temperatures should be avoided. This is because the medicine would lose its potency when kept and maintained at a higher temperature. I am wary of these delivery trucks kept out in the open and driven for days together on the highways to reach its destination would make the medicine lose its potency.

At least with a brick and mortar store, I can be assured that the distributor and the pharmacy would take precaution to store and transport medicines as stipulated rather than a general logistics company.

[akshay380]

Thanks for starting this thread. We run a pharmacy in Goa and planning to start selling medicines online. Just waiting for the clarification from the new e pharmacy draft policies. One thing I have failed to understand is the ~20% discount offered these days. Our margins are around 20-25% on most big brands and I'm curious how these guys manage to give 20% discount! One way could be of bulk buying but then for concepts like Pharmeasy, they just deliver through local B&M stores like us who get the products from local distributor channels. VC money again at play here?

[scorpian]

In my case i shifted to netmed's due to savings/cashback offers running most of the time. Earlier i would buy from the local pharmacy but always billed at actual, i once asked for a discount when my bill amount exceeded 2k, but the way he reacted was like i asked him for his kidney. The same medicines when i calculated i could see quite a bit of saving via online e-pharmacy.With the cash back sometimes i just need to place an order and have the value deducted from my netmed's wallet without having to pay a rupee.

If my local store offers me the same or a close to same discount i would happily buy from them.I think e-pharmacy's are the way to go and that's what is going to happen in future.