One huge problem faced by doctors during diagnosis is- not knowing the medical history of patients. People often misplace their previous health examination results and diagnosis, leading to difficulty in diagnosing their current health conditions.
National Health ID is an initiative taken by the Govt of India. It is a means of storing health records digitally. Launched under the National Digital Health Mission, Health ID is predicted to bring a revolution in Healthtech in India. How? Read this article to know more.
Health ID- All you need to know:
The Government of India launched the National Digital Health Mission also known as the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, to strengthen the health care sector of the country. And Health ID is a part of it.
What is a Health ID?
Health ID is a 14 digit identification number unique to every individual. Launched under the NDHM, Health ID will function as a repository of an individual’s health-related data. You will be able to store all your health-related information like medical tests, reports, prescriptions, and diagnoses digitally using Health ID. In essence, it will function as your health account.
Benefits of Health ID:
Being the first of its kind repository of health records, Health ID has numerous benefits.
- It will help in storing all your health records in one single place.
- All your records will be portable and accessible anywhere.
- No one will be able to share and exchange your health records without your consent.
- It is free of cost and voluntary.
How will Health ID revolutionize health tech in India?
Healthcare professionals believe NHDM is going to revolutionize the Indian health space, and health ID is the first step towards it.
Let us look into the bigger picture:
The National Digital Health Mission has four building blocks- unique health ID, health care professionals registry, health facility registry, and electronic health records. National Health Stack enables the development of the digital infrastructure for NHDM.
National Health Stack is a digital infrastructure to construct India’s health data ecosystem. Government invites health providers, software providers, and startups to join and co-develop tech products in the digital infrastructure with one common digital language. This will bring interoperability between different health tech platforms and change how health tech will look in India a few years down the line.
Integrating with Health ID will enable the startups to focus on niche matters like diabetes management, cardio management, etc. The NHDM standards will lead to the development of a health tech ecosystem where various companies and startups can grow interdependently. They will be able to collaborate and work together to develop advanced and better systems.
Structured data collection using Health ID will eventually help healthcare providers to predict and diagnose diseases at early stages. It will help the government’s ineffective policymaking.
Various concerns relating to Health ID:
Two major concerns health experts see concerning health ID are- Data security and Data privacy.
Health-related information of people is highly sensitive data. Its misuse may have serious consequences and cause harm to individuals. In a country like India, where data privacy laws are next to minimal, a data breach may lead to the disclosure of highly sensitive health data of individuals. Hacking or unauthorized data access is a serious threat.
Industry experts suggest that the government should also work towards safeguarding the health data they collect from a security breach. They must also bring in data privacy laws to safeguard individuals’ health data.
Conclusion:
The benefits of NHDM and health ID outweigh their drawbacks. And the foresight with which the government is working will eventually lead to the creation of better policies and laws to administer individual health data. The possibilities of Health ID revolutionizing the health sector in India are huge, and we will witness it soon.
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