Explained: What is National Digital Health Mission and how it will benefit people

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday announced a major digital initiative in the form of National Digital Health Mission in his Independence Day speech.

He said that the project will provide a health ID to every person in the country, and benefir the poor. The prime minister said that whatever medicine a doctor prescribed, when was it prescribed, what were the reports - all this information will be linked to a person’s health ID.

It is going to be another flagship initiaive of the government like Ayushman Bharat.

What is National Digital Health Mission?

The blueprint of the programme was launched last year. It seeks to provide an efficient and affordable health coverage through a wide-range of data and infrastructure services.

The key feature of this mission is th technology part - it will leverage open digital systems to provide high-quality healthcare for all. It will integrate various digital health services to create an ecosystem which can assimilate existing health information systems.

The government has said that it will ensure security and privacy of personal information.

What is a health ID?

Every person in the country will get a digital health ID which is basically a digital format of all his/her health records which will be linked to the registry of doctors and health facilities across the country.

The platform has been planned to improve efficiency, effectiveness and transparency of health service delivery. The health ID will be in the form of a mobile application of website.

The government had sought feedback and suggestions from various stakeholders who will be a part of the initiative. The government has said that enrollment in the initiave will be voluntary.

Union health minister Harsh Vardhan, while launching the blueprint last year, had said that the government made a mark in history by launching Ayushman Bharat Yojana and other IT-enabled schemes like Reproductive Child Healthcare, and NIKSHAY etc.