National digital health mission (NDHM) will revolutionize Indian healthcare -

National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) will revolutionize Indian healthcare. Such platform has become a need of the hour to serve as a focal point of the healthcare ecosystem.

Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) on the occasion of 74th Independence Day with the aim to revolutionize Indian healthcare. Such platform has become a need of the hour to serve as a focal point of the healthcare ecosystem. NDHM will have digitized health records, personal health IDs of every citizen, registry of doctors and registry of health facilities across the country, among others.

The announcement of National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) is a commendable step towards further fuelling digitization in Indian healthcare. The digitized interoperable health ecosystem puts patients at the centre stage and provides power in their hands in the form of Unique ID for availing quality care and gaining better access to healthcare facilities and doctors.

Electronic Health Records (EHR) can transform the healthcare:

As we know, Electronic Health Records (EHR) can play a crucial role in transforming the way healthcare is delivered in the country. The government’s thrust on personal health records accessible through a unique ID validates the very fact. Use of machine learning and artificial intelligence techniques to analyse the data generated from the records will help learn disease patterns, predict onset of ailments and suggest seasonal outbreaks, bringing efficiencies and effectiveness in healthcare.

In the later phases, the introduction of telemedicine and e-pharmacy will bring a lot more inclusivity. In the real sense, NDHM will take quality healthcare to rural masses and bridge the yawning divide which until now existed between urban and rural India. This digitization effort couldn’t have come at a more appropriate time than this when people are realizing the true potential of digital healthcare on the back of scenario created due to COVID-19.