PM Modi launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission to provide a digital health ID to people which will contain their health records.

The pilot project of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission had been announced by the prime minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2020.

Currently, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is being implemented in a pilot phase in six union territories.

Its nationwide roll-out coincides with the National Health Authority celebrating the third anniversary of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).

Based on the foundations laid down in the form of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile (JAM) trinity and other digital initiatives of the government, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will create a seamless online platform through the provision of a wide range of data, information and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems while ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information, according to the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

It will enable access and exchange of longitudinal health records of citizens with their consent, the PMO said.

The key components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID 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 (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) 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.

The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Sandbox, created as a part of the mission, will act as a framework for technology and product testing that will help organisations, including private players, intending to be a part of the National Digital Health Ecosystem become a health information provider or a health information user or efficiently link with building blocks of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, the PMO said.

This mission will create interoperability within the digital health ecosystem, similar to the role played by the Unified Payments Interface in revolutionising payments, it said.

Citizens will only be a click away from accessing healthcare facilities, it added.