On August 15, 2020, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Digital Health Mission while addressing the country from the Red Fort to mark Indias 74th Independence Day occasion.

The National Digital Health Mission would be a "completely technology-based" initiative and as per the Prime Minister, this initiative will reform the healthcare sector. In this National Digital Health Mission, every Indian would get a Health ID card, which will enclose all important information about his/her past medical illnesses, treatment and diagnosis.

National Digital Health Mission has an objective to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of healthcare services in the nation. It will come under the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY).

Key Features of National Digital Health Mission:

• In this National Digital Health Mission, every Indian gets a Health ID card, which will enclose all the individual’s medical details including prescriptions, diagnostic reports, treatment and discharge summaries. Every citizen can give their doctors and healthcare providers one-time access to their data while visiting the hospital for consultation.
• Access to the confidential medical information would be given separately for each visit because of the fear of data confidentiality.
• This National Digital Health Mission initiative can allow patients to access healthcare services through tele-consultation and e-pharmacies, and can offer other health-related benefits.

Every single time an Indian national visits the doctor or any pharmacy, all the details of that individual including prescriptions will be logged in the health ID card. All information regarding the persons health condition, doctors appointment and advised medication would be logged in his/ her health profile.

The Health ID would cover information about all investigations, disease, diagnosis, treatment and the medication prescribed by the doctor and the final reports.

The Indian Governments focus has increased on tele-medicine and digital healthcare services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The pandemic has taken India and the world by storm, infecting approximately 25 lakh people in India alone and almost 48000 people have died.

Source: Jagran Josh