- Prelims: Current events of national importance, Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, UPI, CoWIN, Aarogya Setu etc
- Mains GS Paper I & II: Development and management of social sectors/services related to Health and education etc
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
- The PM launched the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) in September 2021, under the aegis of the National Health Authority.
- India has demonstrated digital prowess by building digital public goods (DPG) across various sectors.
INSIGHTS ON THE ISSUE
Context
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission:
Salient features:
Digital identity system in India:
- Digital public infrastructure: 1.2(one point two)billion wireless connections and 800 million internet users.
- Aadhaar: central to India’s public service delivery architecture
- UPI: transformed payments system.
DPGs developed during the pandemic:
- Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (CoWIN): Digital approach to its vaccination strategy.
- Aarogya Setu application: Real-time data on active cases and containment zones to help citizens assess risk in their areas.
- Telemedicine: 85 percent of physicians used teleconsultations during the pandemic.
G20 Global Initiative for health:
- It calls for the creation of an institutional framework for a connected health ecosystem to bring together global efforts for digital health.
- Scaling-up of technologies such as global DPGs to accelerate Universal Health Coverage.
What has Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) created:
- Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) creates a standard identifier for patients across healthcare providers.
- Citizens can link, store, and share their health records to access healthcare services with autonomy and consent.
Health Facility Registry (HFR):
- It provides verified digital identities to large and small public and private health facilities and professionals.
- It enables connections to a central digital ecosystem while serving as a single source for verified healthcare provider-related information.
- It improves the discovery of healthcare facilities and helps health professionals build an online presence and offer services more effectively.
Unified Health Interface (UHI):
- It aims to strengthen the health sector by enabling all healthcare service providers and end-user applications to interact with each other on its network.
- Provide a seamless experience for service discovery, appointment booking, teleconsultations, ambulance access
- Based on open network protocols: It can address the current challenge of different digital solutions being unable to communicate with each other.
How can ABDM be used?
- Aarogya Setu is being transformed into a general health and wellness application.
- CoWIN will be plugged with a lite Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) for small clinics, to bring digitisation to the masses.
- Scan and share: which uses a QR code-based token system to manage queues at hospital counters.
- Foundational elements of ABHA and PHR to streamline the outpatient registration process in large hospitals
Health Facility Registry (HFR) and Health Professional Registries (HPR):
- It provides verified digital identities to large and small public and private health facilities and professionals.
- It enables them to connect to a central digital ecosystem while serving as a single source for verified healthcare provider-related information.
- HFR and HPR improve the discovery of healthcare facilities and help health professionals build an online presence and offer services more effectively.
Unified Health Interface (UHI):
- It aims to strengthen the health sector by enabling all healthcare service providers and end-user applications to interact with each other on its network.
- It will provide a seamless experience for service discovery, appointment booking, teleconsultations, ambulance access, and more.
- It is based on open network protocols: It can address the current challenge of different digital solutions.
How can ABDM be used?
- CoWIN will be plugged with a lite Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) for small clinics, to bring digitisation to the masses.
- Scan and share which uses a QR code-based token system to manage queues at hospital counters.
- It uses the foundational elements of ABHA and PHR to streamline the outpatient registration process in large hospitals.
Initiatives for the Health Care Sector:
- National Health Mission
- Ayushman Bharat.
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY).
- National Medical Commission
- PM National Dialysis Programme.
- Janani Shishu Suraksha Karyakram (JSSK).
- Rashtriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram (RBSK).
Way Forward
- Comprehensive digital healthcare ecosystem is necessary to bring together existing siloed efforts and move toward proactive, holistic, and citizen-centric healthcare.
- ABDM has established a robust framework to provide accessible, affordable, and equitable healthcare through digital highways.
- The Drug Registry is a crucial building block designed to create a single, up-to-date, centralized repository of all approved drugs across all systems of medicine.
- Digitise and automate the insurance claim settlement process through the Health Claim Exchange
- This will make claim-related information verifiable, auditable, traceable and interoperable among various entities.
- Heal by India: The government is planning to expand its digital initiatives in the healthcare sector with Heal by India, making India’s healthcare professionals’ services available worldwide.
- A platform is being developed to automate the allocation of deceased organ and tissue donations, making the process faster and more transparent.
- ABDM: It embodies G20’s theme of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” or “One Earth. One Family. One Future”.
QUESTION FOR PRACTICE
Q. Besides being a moral imperative of the Welfare State, primary health structure is a necessary precondition for sustainable development.” Analyze.(UPSC 2021) (200 WORDS, 10 MARKS)
