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Despite the need for a well-trained emergency medicine (EM) workforce in India, there are still many shortcomings. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought to the limelight the critical importance of digital health data, tools, technologies, and services in monitoring and combating adverse health effects of the pandemic. On the other hand, relevant health care stakeholders have often been underprepared to embrace digital health solutions wholeheartedly and rise to the pandemic challenge. The Global Strategy on Digital Health 2020-2025 clearly states how relevant digital health interventions (DHI) would enhance the access and improve the health outcomes, if used judiciously. Currently, India's G20 Presidency health priorities are focussed on health emergencies prevention, preparedness, and response, by incorporating digital health at its core. Keeping these policy directives in mind, health professional educators should actively incorporate DHI as an integral part of health professional education for the domain of EM. To attain an optimal growth of EM as an academic discipline in India, the curriculum has to be made up to date, incorporating the latest DHIs. The PG curriculum committees of both the National Medical Commission and the National Board of Examination must form a consensus for implementing such curriculum throughout India. The modern-day emergency room (ER) or casualty may soon have AI-enabled robots doing a lot of repetitive and precise activities to save lives. Healthcare professionals working in the ER have to be aware and efficient in handling these robots and other clinical decision support systems well., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2023 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)

Background: Countries, including India, were quick to adopt telemedicine for delivering primary care in response to the widespread disruptions due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. This expeditious adoption was critical and the challenges faced during this exigency could guide the design and delivery of future telemedicine applications toward strengthening primary healthcare services., Methods: To identify the challenges in delivering primary care via telemedicine technology in the Indian context, a scoping review was conducted. Drawing from the systems approach in healthcare delivery, the review findings are summarized at four levels, patient, provider, healthcare organizations, and policy., Results: The initial search yielded 247 articles and 13 met our inclusion criteria. This review highlighted that telemedicine facilitated the continuity of care during COVID-19 but not without challenges. Low levels of education and computer literacy along with the language barriers posed the predominant challenges at the patient level. Providers had concerns related to digital literacy, clinical process flows, legal liabilities, and unethical behavior of the patients. The policy-level challenges include data privacy and security, reimbursement models, unethical behavior by the patient, or provider, and regulating prescriptions of psychotropic drugs. A lack of an integrated telehealthcare model covering diagnostics, prescriptions, and medication supply mirrored the existing fragmentation of care delivery., Conclusion: Telemedicine has the potential to improve primary healthcare delivery even beyond COVID-19. Currently, telemedicine applications in India are only facilitating a remote consultation wherein an integrated person-centered care is lacking. There is a need to acknowledge and factor in the inter-connectedness of health system elements for ensuring an effective and efficient healthcare delivery via telemedicine., Competing Interests: There are no conflicts of interest., (Copyright: © 2022 Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care.)