Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement of a national health ID for every Indian while addressing the nation on the occasion of 74th Independence Day, is envisioned as India’s first step towards Universal Health Coverage.
Every Indian will have a health ID, which will work as each Indian’s health account. It would ease problems faced by citizens in getting healthcare access.
The health ID will contain information about medical data, prescriptions and diagnostic reports and summaries of previous discharge from hospitals for ailments.
In National Digital Health Mission technology will play a big role. It is expected that the mission will bring a new revolution in India’s health sector and it will help reduce problems in getting treatment with the help of technology.
The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), which comes under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY), is expected to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of health services in the country.
As per the National Health Authority (NHA), every patient who wishes to have their health records available digitally must start by creating a unique Health ID.
The health ID will contain information about medical data, prescriptions and diagnostic reports, and summaries of previous discharge from hospitals for ailments.
This ID is to be created by using a person’s basic details and mobile number or Aadhaar number.
The health ID will reportedly be in the form of a mobile application.
The mission will also require doctors/hospitals to upload a digital copy of any health reports being physically shared with the patient to enable the creation of health records.
The ambitious National Digital Health Mission unveiled on 15 August, 2020 finds its roots in a 2018 Niti Aayog proposal to create a centralised mechanism to uniquely identify every participating user in the National Health Stack.
