Vision 2035: Public Health Surveillance in India

Topics Covered: Issues related to Health.

‘Vision 2035: Public Health Surveillance in India’:


Context:

NITI Aayog has released a white paper: Vision 2035: Public Health Surveillance in India with the vision:

  1. To make India’s public health surveillance system more responsive and predictive to enhance preparedness for action at all levels.
  2. Citizen-friendly public health surveillance system will ensure individual privacy and confidentiality, enabled with a client feedback mechanism.
  3. Improved data-sharing mechanism between Centre and states for better disease detection, prevention, and control.
  4. India aims to provide regional and global leadership in managing events that constitute a public health emergency of international concern.

Focus of the paper and Significance:

  • It contributes by suggesting mainstreaming of surveillance by making individual electronic health records the basis for surveillance.
  • Public health surveillance (PHS) is an important function that cuts across primary, secondary, and tertiary levels of care. Surveillance is ‘Information for Action’.
  • It envisions a citizen-friendly public health system, which will involve stakeholders at all levels, be it individual, community, health care facilities or laboratories, all while protecting the individual’s privacy and confidentiality.’
  • The white paper lays out India’s vision 2035 for public health surveillance through the integration of the three-tiered public health system into Ayushman Bharat.
  • It also spells out the need for expanded referral networks and enhanced laboratory capacity.

The building blocks for this vision are:

An interdependent federated system of governance between the Centre and states, a new data-sharing mechanism that involves the use of new analytics, health informatics, and data science including innovative ways of disseminating ‘information for action’.

InstaLinks:

Prelims Link and Mains Link:

  • Components and key features of the Paper.

Sources: PIB.