Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission was launched by the Prime Minister.

What is Ayushman Bharath digital mission?

• It aims to provide digital health IDs for all Indian citizens to help hospitals, insurance firms, and citizens access health records electronically when required. Health ID will be issued for every citizen that will work as their health account. This health account will contain details of every test, every disease, the doctors visited, the medicines taken and the diagnosis.
• Health ID is free of cost and voluntary.
• The other major component of the programme is creating a Healthcare Professionals’ Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registry (HFR), allowing easy electronic access to medical professionals and health infrastructure.
• National Health Authority (NHA) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is the implementing authority of the scheme.

Concerns:

• The lack of a data protection bill could lead to the misuse of data by private firms and bad actors.
• Exclusion of citizens and denied healthcare due to faults in the system are also a cause of concern.