National Digital Health Mission

National Digital Health Mission

National Digital Health Mission is an agency of the government of India. The National Digital Health Mission(NDHM), aims to develop a backbone necessary support for the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country. It bridges the existing gaps amongst different stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem through the digital highways.

Key points

• It is a platform available for users in both app and website forms.
• Its main key features are health ID, personal health records, Digi doctor, and health facility registry.
• The NDHM is a complete digital health ecosystem.

Key features

• Health ID:- It is very important to stabilize the process of identification of an individual across healthcare providers. Health ID will be used to uniquely identify persons and authenticate them, and thread their health records across multiple systems and stakeholders.
• Personal Health records:- It is an electronic record of health-related information of an individual that conforms to nationally recognised interoperability standards and that can be drawn from multiple sources when being managed, controlled and shared by the individuals.
• Digi Doctor:- Digi doctor is a comprehensive repository of all doctors teaching /practising modern/traditional systems of medicine.
• Health facility registry:- The health facility registry is a comprehensive repository of health facilities of the country across different systems of medicine. It includes public and private health facilities including hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories etc.

Vision

Its vision is to create a national digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage in an efficient, affordable, timely, inclusive and safe manner and a seamless online platform through the provisions of a wide range of data.

Background

• The National Health Policy 2017 envisaged the development of a digital health technology ecosystem with the goal of creating an integrated health information system that serves the needs of all stakeholders and improves efficiency, transparency, and citizens’ experiences through the linkage between public and private healthcare.
• A Digital Health ID has been proposed to “significantly reduce the risk of preventable medical errors and significantly improve care quality.”
• In this context, the central government’s think-tank NITI Aayog issued a consultation on a digital backbone for India’s health system — the National Health Stack — in June 2018. (NHS).
• NHS was designed to be a digital infrastructure that would make the health insurance system more transparent and robust while taking into account the uniqueness of India’s health sector and the political realities of federalism.
• In July 2019, the National Digital Health Blueprint was released by a committee led by the former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI).
• The National Digital Health Board (NDHB) recognised the need to establish a specialised organisation, known as the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), to facilitate the evolution of the National Digital Health Ecosystem.
• The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) released its latest strategic document on August 7, 2020, outlining the envisioned digital registries of doctors, hospitals, pharmacies, and insurance companies, as well as digital personal health records and digital clinical decision systems.

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