Ayushman Bharat Mission also known as the National Digital Health Mission was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare under the Government of India. It is a scheme that aims at providing necessary support for the compilation of the country’s digital health infrastructure. The broad view here is to digitize healthcare in India for all its citizens and is effective from 2017. This stems from the National Health Policy and the National Health Authority has been given the responsibility of strategy designing, technological infrastructure build-up, and the implementation of the same.
Objectives and vision of the scheme
The visionaries behind the scheme want to create a national digital database across the ecosystem that will be applied universally and is accessible, inclusive, affordable, efficient, safe, and timely and has a seamless online experience for the consumers through the provision of information, infrastructure, and services, a wide range of information, standard-based digital systems that ensure security.
Features under the scheme
- The action of a health ID will enable the ministry to identify a person, authenticate them and create a health record that will be threaded along with various systems and stakeholders. It is based on the basic details along with the phone number and the linkage of the Aadhaar number to the same ID.
- The creation of a health facility registry will help both public and private health facilities across the country which include hospitals, diagnostic laboratories clinics, imaging centers, pharmacies etcetera to roll themselves up and enable them to get connected to India’s digital health ecosystem.
- The creation of a health care professional registry will enable healthcare professionals who are involved in both modern and traditional systems of medicine to be in a single place.
- The creation of personal health records will enable the user with many features. He/ she requests health data from a link health care facility on their phone to view it in any form. They have the option to link their health ID with various health care facilities including hospitals, clinics, and labs for easy access. They can also deny permission to any doctor or labs if they request to view their health data.
Benefits of the national digital health mission
- Offer accurate health information to the consumer’ with remote health services such as e pharmacy and teleconsultation.
- Transparent pricing between public and private healthcare facilities will increase the consumer’s trust in this mission.
- Health care professionals will have better access to the medical records of their patients for a better diagnosis.
- Healthcare research will increase in quality as macro and micro-level data will be available for advanced analytics.
- Mission will create a comprehensive loop of feedback between researchers, policymakers, and providers for the wholesome growth of the entire industry.
All the establishment of a comprehensive nationwide integrated digital ecosystem will contribute significantly to achieving the goals that are put forward. It will mark a new start in the Indian digital healthcare ecosystem, which will be way more effective in the delivery of services related to health care and well-satisfied customers.