What is National Digital Health Mission
National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is a new initiative announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on 15th August 2020. The blueprint of National Digital Health Mission was announced last year and the comments / suggestions were invited.
National Health Mission’s aims to provide health ID to every individual citizen of India which can be used to digitize the medical records including prescription details, doctor appointments, diagnosis details, medical reports, discharge summaries and other health records. These records when shared with the service providers will ensure appropriate treatment and follow-up.
NDHM will be supported by a centralized IT infrastructure which will be used for the secure storage and exchange of medical records of individuals, medical research data, health data analytics and much more at national level.
National Digital Health Mission (NDHM)
National Digital Health Mission has been launched with the objective of strengthen the accessibility and equity of health services across the country. NDHM will leverage information technology and other associated technologies to support the existing health systems in a “citizen – centric” approach.
Objectives of National Digital Health Mission
Here are some of the major objectives of National Digital Health Mission
- To build an infrastructure to provide state-of-the-art digital health systems and manage the core health data including its exchange.
- To create and maintain the personal health record system of international standards which will be easily accessible to individuals, medical professionals and services providers based on individual’s consent.
- To ensure portability in healthcare services on national level.
- To bring in efficiency, transparency and effectiveness to the governance in regard with the healthcare at all levels.
- To ensure regular improvement in the rendering of healthcare services to citizens.
- To enable healthcare sector to leverage the health data analytics and medical research.
- To build enterprise level health application systems along with a special focus on achieving the Sustainable Development Goals for health.
Vision of National Digital Health Mission
The vision of National Digital Health Mission is to create a national digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner, that provides a wide-range of data, information and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards based digital systems, and ensures the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information.
The mission will leverage the experience of Ayushman Bharat PMJAY which has already used the available public digital infrastructure to deliver end to end services through the IT infrastructure.
Benefits of National Digital Health Mission
NDHM will benefit individuals, medical professionals, health care institutions and other people / institutions associated with healthcare industry in India.
At first, the mission will improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency in delivery of health services in all. The mission will also ensure the exchange of health records and portability of healthcare services across the country.
The access of health records will help in remote delivery the health services such as tele-consultation and e-pharmacy. The scheme will also give a choice to individuals to choose either private or government health facility for treatment. NDHM will also bring in transparency in the pricing of services and accountability for the health services being rendered.
One of the major benefits of the NDHM will be related to the medical insurance. The health insurance companies will be able to digitally access the treatment information and records of the patients which will help them in quick reimbursement of the claims.
With the use of better health data analytics at micro and macro level, the government and policy makers would be able to make informed decisions for better preventive healthcare.
Healthcare and medical researchers will also be able to work on their projects with greater accuracy and effectiveness using the data analytics available through NDHM infrastructure.
NDHM Digital Systems
National Digital Health Mission will be launched with the 4 primary digital systems in the first phase and then be scaled by including more systems and improvements in existing.
- Health ID – All individuals will be provided a unique Health ID which will be the first access point for their medical records.
- Digi Doctor – All the details of the doctors enrolled in the country including their name qualifications, name of the institutions of qualifications, specializations, registration number with State medical councils, years of experience, etc.
- Health Facility Registry (HFR) – All the health facilities such as hospitals would be registered into the system with all details such as services offered, specialties etc.
- Personal Health Records (PHR) – The health records which will be in control of the individuals will be in this system. This is specifically for the individuals themselves to enable them manage the information their health.
- Electronic Medical Records (EMR) – This is like the digital chart of patient’s medical history, treatment records etc.
NDHM Health ID
Every patient who wish to have their health records available digitally will start by creating a Health ID and a Health ID card will be there for him / her to use. The Health ID will be used for the storage of healthcare records and access by patients itself and the healthcare facilities based on consent of health ID holder.
Health ID will be a unique ID created using the Aadhar number and mobile number details.
How to Get Health ID
After the NDHM in running mode, Health ID can be obtained from any public hospital, community health centers, health and wellness centers across India or any healthcare provider who is in the National Health Infrastructure Registry.
Requirements for Health ID
Name, Year of Birth, Gender, Mobile No. / Email and Aadhaar (Optional). The process of generation of Health ID has voluntary usage of AADHAR.
How to Access Health Records
A user ID and password will be generated for all the health ID holders which can be used to access and modify the personal information as well health records.
Blueprint of National Digital Health Mission
Blueprint of the NDHM was announced last year and can be accessed in digital format from the official NDHM portal at https://ndhm.gov.in/ndhb
NDHM Guidelines – Strategy Overview
National Health Authority under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Govt. of India will be the authority who will be the primary government body responsible for implementation of the mission. The strategy overview of the National Digital Health Mission was announced by the NHA in July 2020 which can be downloaded in PDF format using the below link.
https://ndhm.gov.in/assets/uploads/NDHM_Strategy_Overview.pdf
For more information, visit the official NDHM portal at ndhm.gov.in
Image Sources and Credits: ndhm.gov.in