The CEO of the National Digital Health Mission talks about the government's plans to roll out the nationwide digital ecosystem of health services next year
Indu Bhushan, CEO of the National Digital Health
Image: Anushree Fadnavis/ Reuters
The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15, includes creating unique health identifiers (UHID) for people, along the lines of Aadhaar, providing access to individual health records and connecting various levels of health care institutions. Currently in the pilot phase in six Union Territories (Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Lakshadweep and Puducherry), the mission to create a digital health care ecosystem is set to have a nationwide rollout early next year.
Indu Bhushan, CEO of the National Health Authority, which is implementing the NDHM (apart from the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana or Ayushman Bharat) within the framework created by the National Health Data Management Policy, speaks with Forbes India about how the government plans to phase the national rollouts, what kind of data will be collected, how it will be stored and shared, how data security will be ensured, and why private involvement in building a repository of sensitive health data is crucial. Edited excerpts:
Q: NDHM will be scaled up nationwide by early next year. How are you getting the infrastructure ready for this?