PM Modi Launches Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, Digital Health ID For All

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday (September 27) launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, under which a digital health ID will be provided to people that will contain their health records, and asserted that it has the potential to bring revolutionary changes in healthcare. In his address after the launch, PM Modi said the mission marks a new phase in efforts of the last seven years to strengthen health facilities. The pilot project of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission was announced by the prime minister from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2020.

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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).

In his remarks, PM Modi said that the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has the potential to bring revolutionary changes to our health facilities. The prime minister noted that India has nearly 130 crore Aadhaar users, 118 crore mobile subscribers, 43 crore Jan Dhan bank accounts, and such a connected infrastructure can be found nowhere else in the world.

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission will provide reliable data, leading to better treatment and ensuring savings for patients, he said. The prime minister said that under the mission, people of the country will now get a digital health ID. Health records of every citizen will be digitally protected, he said, adding that the poor and the middle class will benefit the most from this mission.

Emphasizing on the importance of technology, the prime minister pointed out that the Aarogya Setu app helped a lot in preventing the spread of the coronavirus infection. He also noted that India has been able to administer about 90 crore vaccine doses, and the Co-WIN application and its portal played a big role in it.

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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, hospitals and healthcare service providers.

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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.

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(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NDTV – Dettol have been working towards a clean and healthy India since 2014 via Banega Swachh India initiative, which is helmed by Campaign Ambassador Amitabh Bachchan. The campaign aims to highlight the inter-dependency of humans and the environment, and of humans on one another with the focus on One Health, One Planet, One Future – Leaving No One Behind. It stresses on the need to take care of, and consider, everyone’s health in India – especially vulnerable communities – the LGBTQ population, indigenous people, India’s different tribes, ethnic and linguistic minorities, people with disabilities, migrants, geographically remote populations, gender and sexual minorities. In wake of the current COVID-19 pandemic, the need for WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) is reaffirmed as handwashing is one of the ways to prevent Coronavirus infection and other diseases. The campaign will continue to raise awareness on the same along with focussing on the importance of nutrition and healthcare for women and children, fight malnutrition, mental wellbeing, self care, science and health, adolescent health & gender awareness. Along with the health of people, the campaign has realised the need to also take care of the health of the eco-system. Our environment is fragile due to human activity,  that is not only over-exploiting available resources, but also generating immense pollution as a result of using and extracting those resources. The imbalance has also led to immense biodiversity loss that has caused one of the biggest threats to human survival – climate change. It has now been described as a “code red for humanity.” The campaign will continue to cover issues like air pollution, waste management, plastic ban, manual scavenging and sanitation workers and menstrual hygiene. Banega Swasth India will also be taking forward the dream of Swasth Bharat, the campaign feels that only a Swachh or clean India where toilets are used and open defecation free (ODF) status achieved as part of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2014, can eradicate diseases like diahorrea and the country can become a Swasth or healthy India.