“Digital health has great potential towards reducing inequity in provisioning and distribution of healthcare resources and services and it can greatly facilitate proactive treatment for disabled patients, children with developmental delays and deformities and people suffering from mental health illnesses and for those suffering from stigmatic infections such as HIV/AIDS, leprosy and tuberculosis.” This was stated by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare during his address at the Global Digital Health Partnership Symposium at Sydney, Australia. The Union Health Minister spoke on the topic: The role of digital health in supporting improved health outcomes in India.
Mr. Michael Keenan, Minister of Human Services, Australia, Mr Jim Birch AM, Chair, Australian Digital Health Agency, Professor Robyn Norton, Co-founder and Principal Director of the George Institute for Global Health, Professor Ian Jacobs, President and Vice-Chancellor, UNSW Sydney, along with delegates from other countries were also present at the event.
Addressing the participants, Shri Nadda said that it is evident from experiences of various countries that well-designed digital health systems and services can reduce medical errors and cost of care while improving health system efficiency. “We have seen many sectors benefitting from digital revolutions in the past such as retail, banking, logistics etc. The next decade of digital revolution is going to be seen in healthcare; in fact, digital revolution is long overdue in healthcare which can transform the way our physicians, nurses, field staff and hospitals work to deliver care,” Shri Nadda stated.
The Union Health Minister informed the participants that the National Health Policy (2017) of India clearly articulates the healthcare aspirations of people of India with three distinct goals. “The first goal is to ensure district-level electronic database of information on health system components by 2020, which largely means moving away from paper-based data collection and recording in public health system to use of sophisticated computerized tools for improving functioning of hospitals and health system. The second goal is to strengthen the health surveillance system and establish registries for diseases of public health importance by 2020, where we intend to create registries to support epidemiological profiling of diseases to be better informed for targeted health interventions. The third goal pushes us to work for establishment of federated national e-health architecture, setting-up of health information exchanges and national Health Information Network by 2025,” Shri Nadda elaborated.
Speaking about various strategic initiatives taken by the Union Health Ministry, Shri Nadda said that Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) is intended to establish first Health Information Exchange by connecting various Hospital Information Systems from 10 Indian States. He also highlighted the work done by the Ministry in building Registries. “We have started building registries for health facility and have given unique identification numbers to more than 200 thousand public health facilities. Incorporation of health facilities from private sector is ongoing. Creation of registries for patients and providers is also planned to be taken-up under IHIP,” Shri Nadda added.
The Union Health Minister further said that the Health Ministry is in process of setting-up a National Digital Health Authority, a statutory body for creating frameworks, regulations and guidelines for interoperability and exchange of digital information. The Authority is also intended to promote adoption of eHealth standards. It will soon be set up through an Act of Parliament which would also address issues related to health data privacy and security. Shri Nadda also gave an overview of Health Data and Information Standards and Tele-medicine.
Reiterating India’s commitment towards Digital Health, Shri Nadda said that modernization of healthcare through digital technology is an important public policy agenda and India is committed to modernizing its health facilities and services using digital technology. “Under the Digital India Programme of Government of India, we are giving lot of focus on use of ICTs for improving service delivery and Health Ministry has rolled out large scale IT systems in different areas of healthcare ecosystem such as public health management, hospital information system, supply chain management, online services, tele-medicine, programme monitoring, mHealth etc,” Shri Nadda stated.
Stressing on the need of building collaborations, the Union Health Minister said that cyber security and protection of privacy of patient health data are major areas where cooperation from various countries would be required. “This area also requires collaboration with industry and academia to come-up with sustainable strategies to fight cybercrime. Similar collaborations would also be required when we intend to use Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning in hospitals or in community settings for use by health workers,” Shri Nadda said.
J P Nadda addresses Global Digital Health Partnership Summit
“Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has great potential towards improvement of delivery of healthcare services. India is committed to reforms in health service delivery using ICTunder Digital India Program of Government of India.” This was stated by Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare during his address at Global Digital Health Partnership Summit, at Canberra, Australia.The Union Health Minister spoke on the topic: Making Digital Health Services a Priority in Healthcare Reform.
Mr. Greg Hunt, Minister of Health, Australia, Mr. Tim Kelsey, Chief Executive Officer, Australian Digital Health Agency,Ms. Glenys Beauchamp, Secretary, Department of Health, Australia along with delegates from Canada, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Italy, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Korea, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America and WHO were also present at the summit.
Shri Nadda stressed on the importance for building digital health ecosystem partnerships with private healthcare providers, academia, health IT practitioners, industry, patient groups and regulatory bodies. The Union Health Minister stated that adoption of Digital Technology for improvement of governance has always been central to polity of the Indian government. He further informed that there are four major areas where India has implemented Digital Technology in healthcare. “Towards improving health service delivery, towards improving compliance of people towards health & care, engaging citizens in partnering with government for planning and management of health services delivery and Improving governance”, ShriNadda added.
ShriNadda also informed the participations that the Health Ministry has rolled out large scale IT systems in different areas of healthcare ecosystem such asintegrated health surveillance program, public health management, hospital information system, supply chain management, online services, tele-medicine, programme monitoring andmHealth. “Such initiatives include systems for obtaining reliable information and near real-time data for policymaking, ensuring efficient program and service delivery”, ShriNadda said.
Speaking about some of the initiatives of the Health Ministry, ShriNadda said that India’s National Health Portalprovidesauthenticinformation related to healthcare to citizens. He further said that NHP is functioning as Citizen Portal for Healthcare, providing health-related information to citizens and stakeholders in different Indian languages. “Total web users for national health portal till date are over 2.6 Million and over 2.2 Million calls were made by citizens till date. Content of the portal is currently available in 6 Indian languages- and it is planned to add 6 more languages”, Shri Nadda elaborated.
The Union Health Minister further said that Hospital Information Systemis being implemented in hospitals for automation of hospital processes to achieve better efficiency and service delivery in public health facilities up toCommunity Health Centre level. “We have, e-Hospital- developed by National Informatics Centre which is implemented in more than 173 Hospitals and e-Sushrut– developed by Centre for Development of Advanced Computing Noida which is implemented in more than 80 hospitals. Online Registration System (ORS) is used for scheduling online appointments in public sector tertiary care hospitals. Around 139 hospitals are currently using ORS application. “Patient engagement in improving service delivery throughMyHospitalsystem which is usedfor collection of patient feedback on health services being rendered by public hospitals. The application is available in seven different languages and currently, more than 1067 hospitals, are covered in 23 States/UTs. So far more than 1.3 Million feedback have been received out of which 76% satisfied with the service, ShriNadda said. ShriNadda also informed the participants about the various mobile apps being used by the Health Ministry.
Reiterating the commitment of the government, the Health Minister said that our vision is to create integrated digital health platform and enable creation of electronic health record for 1.3 billion people of India. “We wish to enable hospitals and health service providers to do so by giving them free software systems and data storage facilities, in addition we wish to use big data analytics to prioritize our interventions and become proactive in solving healthcare challenges of our citizen,” ShriNadda stated.