'Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission to maximise use of digital infra in healthcare'

The pilot project of the National Digital Health Mission was announced by PM Modi during his Independence Day speech from the Red Fort on August 15, 2020.

The chief of National Health Authority Dr RS Sharma on Tuesday said the purpose of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is to maximise the use of digital infrastructure and digital connectivity to deliver the health services efficiently with major emphasis on patients.

A healthcare worker checks the temperature of a child during a door-to-door surveillance to safeguard children amidst the spread of the coronavirus disease at a village on the outskirts of Ahmedabad.  (File photo / Reuters)

“Our next target is to ensure that the system which was piloted in six Union territories, is now rolled out in the whole country and we are able to create a system with health service providers, health professionals and other kinds of facilities,” Sharma was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.

On Monday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which the government claimed, would “strengthen” health facilities in the country.

Under the scheme, an unique digital health identification will be provided to the people, which will contain all the medical records of the person.

The Prime Minister's Office said the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will create an integrated digital health ecosystem, similar to the role played by the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in revolutionising payments. “The citizens will only be a click away from accessing healthcare facilities,” the PMO said.

The key components of the project include a health identification for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application, a Healthcare Professionals Registry and Healthcare Facilities Registries that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine. This will ensure ease of doing business for doctors and hospitals and healthcare service providers, a statement by the health ministry said.