The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on Saturday, approved the national roll-out of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) scheme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, with a budget of Rs.1,600 crore for five years. The National Health Authority (NHA) will be the implementing agency of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).
Under the ABDM, citizens will be able to create their ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) numbers, to which their digital health records can be linked. This will enable the creation of longitudinal health records for individuals across various healthcare providers and improve clinical decision making by healthcare providers, says the official statement. The mission will improve equitable access to quality healthcare by encouraging the use of technologies such as telemedicine and enabling national portability of health services.
The pilot of ABDM was completed in six union territories of Ladakh, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Puducherry, Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep with successful demonstration of technology platform developed by the NHA. During the pilot, a digital sandbox was created in which more than 774 partner solutions are undergoing integration. As of February 24, 2022,
17,33,69,087 Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts were created, and 10,114 doctors and 17,319 health facilities were registered in ABDM.
The government believes ABDM will not only facilitate evidence-based decision making for effective public health interventions but also catalyse innovation and generate employment across the healthcare ecosystem.
Digital Health
The ministry in its official statement underlined the role played by digital health solutions like CoWIN, Arogya Setu and eSanjeevani across the healthcare ecosystem in the past few years. It also emphasised the need to integrate such solutions for the continuum of care and proper utilisation of resources.
It said, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, with 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, is creating a seamless online platform to deliver healthcare.