By TIOL News Service

NEW DELHI, JULY 16, 2019: DR Harsh Vardhan, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, released the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) report in the public domain for inputs from various stakeholders, here yesterday. Speaking on the occasion, the Union Health Minister said that the Government is committed to ensuring high quality healthcare, accessible to all up to the last mile.  “The digital health interventions are accelerating this transformation and have a huge potential for supporting Universal Health Coverage (UHC). India has everything that can help it achieve Health for all,” he stated. He said that the National Digital Health Blueprint is in line with the vision of the Prime Minister to reach each individual of this country with services at their doorstep under Digital India Programme.

Speaking at the event, the Union Health Minister appealed to all the stakeholders to provide their valuable feedback and inputs to make this digital revolution in healthcare more inclusive and collaborative and to help Government in building a stronger nation as a collective endeavour. He further stated that the Government is strongly committed to Universal Health Coverage (UHC).  He mentioned that the rapid transformation in healthcare service delivery in today’s world is known to everyone and the healthcare being delivered and accessed is poised to change for the better. “The digital health interventions are accelerating this transformation and have a huge potential for supporting Universal Health Coverage,” Dr Harsh Vardhan said.

Stressing on integration of various digital health services, Dr Harsh Vardhan said that the need of the hour is to create an ecosystem which can integrate the existing health information systems and show a clear path for upcoming programmes for ensuring interoperability of Electronic Health Record (EHR). “We have made a mark in history by launching Ayushman Bharat Yojana which is operational on a robust IT Platform. Other IT enabled schemes like Reproductive Child Healthcare, NIKSHAY etc. are also benefitting the patients at right time with right service delivery. There is a need to ensure convergence across these IT systems to monitor and provide health services in a robust and efficient manner. Ministry of Health has accordingly initiated efforts in the direction of a comprehensive, nationwide integrated e-Health system under National Digital Health Blueprint, he mentioned.

The vision of NDHB is to create a National Digital Health Eco-system that supports Universal Health Coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner, through provision of a wide-range of data, information and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems, and ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information.