How important is ‘Privacy’ in the new National Digital Health Mission?

The draft of NDMH’s Health Data Management Policy that looks forward to inducting all necessary data privacy measures as part of the digitization of the healthcare system has been released recently by the National Health Authority (NHA) for public opinion.

National Digital Health Mission

The National Digital Health Mission is a flagship program of the digital health ecosystem that aims at providing every Indian citizen with unique health IDs to map their health records with identifiers for doctors and health facilities. It will ensure efficiency,  transparency as well as privacy in the healthcare services throughout India.

New draft

• Health ID will be provided free of cost.
• Each and every user will have control over their personal information and it could be used by the third parties only after granting prior consent.
• The data protection module will be followed.
• The collected data will be stored at the central level, concerned state and UT level, and health facility level.
• The policy will be applied for all organizations and individuals related to NDMH i.e. healthcare professionals, governing bodies, etc.
• Healthcare providers, charitable institutions, pharmaceutical companies will also be included in the policy.

National Health Authority

The NHA is the apex organization for formulating and implementing the public health scheme named  Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. It was set up to implement the scheme at the national level. The recent draft has been made public by NHA.

Way forward

The government has asked the opinion of people for further modification or introduction of the new features. After finalizing it considering the feedback, suggestions, and inputs from the experts and the public, it will be implemented.

Month: Current Affairs - August, 2020