Most clinics did not plan to become telemedicine providers. A patient could not travel, a follow-up did not need an examination, and a video link on WhatsApp was the fastest answer. The trouble is that a consultation over video is still a consultation: the same doctor, the same duty to record what happened, and a few extra expectations that only exist because the patient is not in the room.
This post does two things. First, it summarises what India's Telemedicine Practice Guidelines 2020 ask of a registered medical practitioner, at a high level and with hedged wording, as understood in 2026. Second, it describes what CuraVerto's Teleconsult feature does today, and only what the code does. It is not legal advice. The guidelines have been supplemented by later regulator notifications, and how they apply to your specialty, your state and your kind of consultation is a question for your own counsel or your medical council.
The guidelines were issued in March 2020 by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare with NITI Aayog, through the Board of Governors then standing in for the Medical Council of India. They apply to registered medical practitioners. The points below are the ones that matter most to the front desk and to the software a clinic runs.
That is a summary, not an interpretation. Details such as which medicines may be prescribed on a first video consultation, or how the rules interact with later notifications, are exactly the questions to put to counsel before a clinic builds a workflow around them.
CuraVerto Teleconsult is built into the appointment record rather than being a separate app. A visit booked as a teleconsult carries a video room against the appointment. The clinic can send the patient a join link on WhatsApp from the appointment, and CuraVerto's WhatsApp booking bot can also book a video consultation when the service is one the clinic has set up as video. The patient opens the link in a browser and joins the room. There is no app to install.
| Guideline expectation | What CuraVerto does | What stays with the clinic |
|---|---|---|
| Patient identity | The join link is tied to the appointment, and the phone on the link is checked against the phone on file. | Confirming identity on the call itself, and recording how it was confirmed. |
| Consent | Recording consent is captured on the join page and stored as an insert-only record; recording cannot start without it. | Consent for the consultation where someone other than the patient initiated it, and the clinic's wider DPDP obligations. |
| Records | The appointment, the session, the summary and the prescription live on one patient record. | Clinical notes to the standard the doctor and the medical council expect. |
| Prescription | The prescription is written in the same interface and delivered on WhatsApp. | Whether a given medicine may be prescribed on a given consultation type. |
The pattern is deliberate. Software can make the compliant step the easy step, and it can refuse the one step that must not happen without consent, which is recording. It cannot decide clinical suitability for a video visit. That judgement stays with the doctor, as the guidelines intend.
CuraVerto Teleconsult is available on every plan, from Essential at ₹9,999 per year excluding GST, and is switched on for the clinic from the Marketplace. Use is metered from the clinic's prepaid wallet at ₹5 per minute of video or audio, with recording included, and an optional AI transcript is available at ₹3 per minute. Nothing is charged per doctor for having the feature on. Clinics on Pro at ₹24,999 and Plus at ₹49,999 get the same metering, since the rate is usage based rather than tier based.
The guidelines apply to registered medical practitioners who consult patients remotely, and they cover video, audio and text modes. As understood in 2026 they are expected to apply whichever app carries the call, so a doctor using a WhatsApp link is expected to follow the same points on identity, consent, records and prescriptions. Confirm the current position for your specialty with your own counsel or medical council.
Recording is a separate step from the consultation itself, and India's DPDP Act adds its own consent and purpose requirements for personal data. In CuraVerto Teleconsult, recording cannot start unless the appointment has recording consent switched on, and the patient must tick a consent box on the join page before joining a recorded call. That tick is stored against the patient and the appointment. Whether that alone meets your obligations is a question for your counsel.
No. The clinic sends a join link on WhatsApp from the appointment, and the patient opens it in a browser on a phone or laptop. The join step checks the phone number on the link against the phone on the appointment and refuses a mismatch.
CuraVerto Teleconsult is available on every plan including Essential at ₹9,999 per year excluding GST, and is switched on from the Marketplace. Usage is metered from the clinic wallet at ₹5 per minute for video or audio with recording included, and an optional AI transcript is ₹3 per minute.
No. CuraVerto delivers the prescription the doctor writes over WhatsApp and keeps it on the patient record, but it does not decide which medicines are appropriate for a given consultation type. That is a clinical and regulatory judgement that stays with the doctor and should be checked against the current guidelines.
CuraVerto Teleconsult puts the video room, recording consent, summary and WhatsApp prescription on one patient record, available on every plan from Essential at ₹9,999 per year excluding GST, metered at ₹5 per minute.
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