Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission

Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission

Subject – Government Schemes

Context – PM to launch health mission on Sept. 27

Concept –

• This scheme will be launched with the aim of harnessing technology in order to improve the effectiveness, efficiency, and transparency of healthcare delivery across India.
• It seeks to provide a better access to healthcare data.
• It also seeks to create a national digital health infrastructure by building Health IDs, Unique Identifiers for doctors & health facilities, telemedicine & e-pharmacy, Personal Health Records etc.
• This scheme will digitalize the healthcare by creating a country-wide digital health ecosystem.
• It will enable the patients to store, access and give consent to share their health records with doctors as well as health facilities of their choice.
• Unique digital health ID – This health ID will comprise of all the health records of each individual. It will be created with the help of details such as Aadhar and mobile number in order to generate a unique ID for them.
  • In order to issue the id, the system will collect certain basic details such as demography and location, family or relationship, and contact details that can be updated from time to time.
  • The ID will be used for uniquely identifying persons, authenticating them and threading their health records (only with the informed consent of the patient) across multiple systems and stakeholders.
• National digital health ecosystem – Under this scheme, a national digital health ecosystem will be created by means of provision of a wide-range of data, information & infrastructure services, and duly leveraging open & interoperable standards-based digital systems. It will also provide security, confidentiality and privacy of personal information related to health.
• States running the National Digital Health Mission – The National Digital Health Mission is currently in its pilot phase in the union territories of Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh, and Daman & Diu, Lakshadweep, Ladakh and Puducherry.
• The primary aim of this mission is to enhance the efficiency of the healthcare system in India.
• The mission essentially consists of four main building blocks — unique digital health id, health care professionals registry, health facility registry and electronic health records.
• To begin with, three components — unique health id, doctor’s registry and the health facility registry — have been made operational.
• The doctors’ registry will carry details of all healthcare professionals involved in the delivery of healthcare services across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
• The health facility registry will act as a database of all health facilities across different systems of medicine, including both public and private health facilities such as hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories and imaging centres, pharmacies, etc.
• The initiative supports Universal Health Coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable and safe manner through provision of a wide-range of data, information and infrastructure services.