One Nation, One Health Digital ID

Context: A digital health system will move healthcare a step closer to efficient and effective patient care delivery.

Policy initiatives towards digital healthcare:

• The National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB), released in November 2019, lays down digital architecture of an integrated health system.
• The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM): Envisaged to allow every citizen to have a health ID that will correspond to a digital health account that, in turn, will maintain medical test records, consultation reports and medical prescriptions.
  • A health ID can be created using the NDHM Health Records app, allowing users to access health records through their smart devices and keep records safely in a health folder on GoI’s DigiLocker app without compromising privacy.

Significance:

• Utilising digital India: An estimated 620 million smartphone subscriptions in India in 2019 and 654 million wireless broadband subscriptions in 2020.
• Ease of maintaining health records: Health ID will allow patients to trace their medical records, maintain them on mobile devices and access them during emergencies.
  • Patients visiting different cities to get specialised care need not carry physical copies of medical test reports, as health IDs can be accessed from anywhere.
  • This feature will benefit migrant workers and citizens in transferable jobs.
• Time and cost savings: Patients need not undergo similar diagnostic tests in different hospitals (eliminate duplication of tests), thereby saving out-of-pocket expenditures.
  • The doctor will be able to see the patient’s previous consultations and medical history, providing her or him a complete picture of the patient’s medical condition.
• Assisting pandemic management: Integration of CoWIN with health ID provides an added advantage of maintaining vaccination certificates and availing teleconsultation services.
  • Facilitates disease surveillance: To capture early warning signs of an outbreak.