Online only — no clinic in Salem
This page describes an online video consultation service for patients in Salem. There is no physical clinic, no consulting address and no in-person appointment in Salem. Dr. Ruskin’s physical practice is at PPK Hospital, Marthandam, Kanyakumari district, with monthly camps across the surrounding towns. Online consultation is not for emergencies — call 108.
Why Salem patients use this service
Salem has hospitals and diabetes doctors, and routine care is best kept local — this page does not suggest otherwise. What brings patients here is the second-opinion question: treatment that has plateaued and nobody quite explaining why, an insulin decision that feels rushed, reports full of numbers nobody has interpreted, or a complication appearing after years of apparently adequate control. A video consultation removes the main obstacle to getting that second view — the assumption that you must travel to a metro and take a day off to be told something you could have heard from home.
What makes this second opinion different
Two things. The first is time: the consultation is unhurried, and the purpose is to explain rather than to prescribe. You should finish it understanding what your numbers mean, what each medicine is doing, and what the realistic goal is — which is often the missing piece rather than a new tablet. The second is the diabetologist-plus-intensivist perspective: a doctor who also manages diabetic crises in intensive care reads a deteriorating trend differently, because he has seen where it ends. That shapes what gets treated urgently and what can safely be watched.
How it works
Book on WhatsApp or through the booking form with your name, city and reason for consulting. Send reports in advance — this matters more than anything else, because it lets the consultation begin from your actual history. On the call, your reports and medicines are examined in detail, the current plan assessed, and the verdict given plainly: sound, needs adjustment, or needs rethinking. Afterwards you receive a written summary with the reasoning, phrased so it can be handed to your regular doctor without setting up a conflict between two prescriptions.
What to prepare
Your last two or three HbA1c results, so the trend is visible rather than a single snapshot. Recent fasting and post-meal sugars. Kidney function, urine protein and lipid reports if available. Photographs of every medicine strip with its dose, including anything prescribed elsewhere or bought over the counter. Discharge summaries from any admission. Home readings if you keep a diary. And a straightforward account of what you eat on a normal day and how much you move.
The limits, stated plainly
A video call cannot examine your feet — sensation, circulation, skin — which is the most important physical examination in diabetes. It cannot assess a wound or measure blood pressure. If you have burning or numb feet, or any cut that is not healing, arrange an in-person examination in Salem promptly; that is a matter of days, not weeks. And in an emergency — stroke signs, chest pain, unconsciousness, very high sugar with vomiting and drowsiness — call 108 and go to the nearest hospital.
Diabetic foot and neuropathy →How online consultation works →