NEW DELHI: Moving towards complete digitisation of health records of all citizens, the government has mooted an ambitious plan to introduce interoperable (EHR) based on consent which will enable all citizens to access their health records within five clicks. Among the several benefits, the EHR will enable citizens to undergo any diagnostic test just once during the course of an episode despite taking treatment from different health service providers, bringing down costs and increasing accessibility. The proposal also seeks to use Aadhaar-based identification of patients for maintaining health records. The plan is part of the National Digital Health Blueprint unveiled by the health ministry on Monday seeking comments from stakeholders by August 4. The key objectives include establishing and managing the core digital health data and the infrastructure required for its seamless exchange; creating a system of personal health records based on international standards, which is easily accessible to citizens and service providers based on citizen-consent. It also aims to use it for health data analytics and medical research. While data privacy will be critical for this plan, the blueprint document maintains, “Privacy of personal and health data, and consent-based access of EHRs will be the inviolable norm that shall be complied by all systems and stakeholders.” The blueprint contains specific deliverables and timelines to achieve the objectives. For instance, it suggests designing and procurement of H-Cloud, establishing Secure Health Network and Health Information Exchange for accessing data and its interoperability and integration within first six months. For privacy operations centre and creation of telemedicine infrastructure it has given a timeline of 6-12 months.
India's government has mooted plans to merge all citizens’ IDs with health records in a move that has alarmed data privacy advocates. A Aadhaar plan announced on Monday seeks to use the Aadhaar-based biometric identification of patients, based on consent, to digitalise and unify India’s health records database. The health ministry hopes the system will strengthen the exchange of digital health data across the country and enable it to use the information for analytics and medical research. The blueprint document maintains that no data privacy will be compromised.