The National Health Authority (NHA) under its flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is rapidly expanding the digital healthcare delivery ecosystem with successful integrations of more than 100 health programmes and health applications, said the Union Health Ministry statement on Thursday.
These include notable names like A-HMIS (Ministry of Ayush), eSushrut, eSanjeevani 2.0, ESIC, Haryana e-Upchaar, ANM Andhra Pradesh Health EHR, West Bengal Integrated HMIS and other healthcare solutions from the Government sector along with 33 health apps from private sector innovators.
According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, integrating digital health solutions with ABDM is a catalyst for building a digital health ecosystem conducive for all. These integrations are enabling more people to avail the benefits of digital health services like the creation of ABHA account, access to and sharing of health records digitally, instant registration for OPD services and more.
Speaking on the importance of these integrations, NHA chief executive officer said, “The growing pool of ABDM integrators signifies the collaborative efforts by the health tech innovators from Government and private sector in making healthcare service delivery more efficient, accessible and affordable for all. We look forward to expanding the ABDM partners ecosystem to take the benefits of digital healthcare delivery to the masses. As more and more companies get integrated, we will be able to achieve interoperability in the true sense.”
All health applications successfully integrated with ABDM (Integration Milestone 1 completed) offer ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) creation and verification services to their respective users. 53 of these applications have completed their next level of ABDM integration (Milestone 2) to become a Health Information Provider (HIP).
Their users will be able to view their health records generated on these platforms and download and manage them using any preferred PHR (Personal Health Records) app in their phones.
Further, 45 health applications have completed their final milestone of ABDM integration (Milestone 3) and have become Health Information User (HIU). These ABDM-integrated applications enable the exchange of health data based on the patient’s consent and authentication.
The ABDM integrations are achieved through ABDM Sandbox (a digital space for experimentation created for testing of integration processes before the digital health product is made live for the actual use). Any digital health service provider or developer can register on the ABDM Sandbox by following a pre-defined process of integrating and validating their software systems using the ABDM APIs. Currently, the ABDM Sandbox has 778 active participants across Health Information Providers, Health Repository Providers, Health Information Users or Health Lockers categories, said the Health Ministy statement.
To further encourage ABDM adoption and to recognize the efforts of the integrators, NHA launched a financial incentive scheme -DHIS [Digital Health Incentive Scheme] from January 1, 2023. The DHIS offers incentives of up to Rs 4 crores to digital health stakeholders like hospitals, laboratories and health technology companies) for adopting ABDM-enable digital health services like ABHA-linked health records, instant OPD registration via Scan and Share service etc.
This report is filed by ANI news service.
