Digital Health is a comprehensive concept and a flagship government scheme in India, which involves applying information and communication technology to healthcare to improve efficiency, accessibility, and quality. It encompasses technologies like telemedicine, electronic health records (EHRs), wearable devices, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
The origin of this initiative lies in the National Health Policy, 2017, which emphasized the need for a fully digitized healthcare system. The problem it sought to solve was the fragmented, paper-based nature of healthcare delivery, which hindered access, especially in rural and remote areas. The National Health Stack (NHS) was proposed by NITI Aayog in 2018, leading to the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) in 2019.
The initial scheme, the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), was created on August 15, 2020, but was later renamed the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) in September 2021. The ABDM, implemented by the National Health Authority (NHA), works by creating a digital ecosystem based on "digital building blocks".
The core mechanism involves three key registries and a unique identifier: the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA), a unique 14-digit number for citizens to manage their health records; the Health Facility Registry (HFR), a database of all healthcare facilities; and the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR), a registry of all practitioners. The system operates on a federated architecture, ensuring that health data is shared only with the individual's explicit consent. This framework connects to the broader Ayushman Bharat Yojana and is governed by data protection principles, including those in the Digital Personal Data Protection Act (DPDPA), 2023, which treats health data as sensitive personal data.