In the future you might receive your medical prescription via SMS.  Yes that’s what is being proposed by the Madhya Pradesh (MP) government.

To make up for the shortage of physicians and specialists the MP government will be now launching a new system by which patients will receive medical advice from doctors via phone and will receive the prescription via SMS. These SMSes can then be shown at Government run dispensaries to receive free medicines.

Only doctors enrolled in the program would be allowed to dispense consultation via phone and only SMSes from these registered phones would be entertained while receiving requests for free medicines.

In previous posts I had discussed how SMS can be leveraged to help shift the needle on the healthcare scenario in India.

Schemes in Gujrat like EMAMTA extensively use SMS to help expecting and new mothers to help receive medical aid. Also All India Radio (AIR) is using SMS to relay daily news to the rural parts of the country.

So it is not surprising that it is a Government agency that is using this remarkable and cheap technology.

Of course there are chances of mis-use as some people might show false SMSes to get free medicines. More than the plan it is the strategy that has created problems for the Government in the past.

As always comments and suggestions welcome.