Digital health great equaliser, need to create tech-enabled system to ensure last-mile healthcare delivery: Mansukh Mandaviya

NEW DELHI: India is creating a national framework for

digital

health intending to develop a digital ecosystem, health minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Wednesday, underlining the government’s various initiatives in that direction and plans to generate longitudinal Electronic Health Record for more than 1.3 billion people of the country.

“Digital health is a great equaliser and enabler to support Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals and can help ensure accessibility and affordability of health service delivery. With prime focus on moving from siloed to an ecosystem approach for digital health, India is creating a national framework for digital health in India,” Mandaviya said while addressing a session on ‘Unlocking the Power of Digital Health’ at the World Economic Forum (WEF) Annual Meeting in Davos.

Mandaviya also exhorted India’s commitment to closing the vaccine gap and assured: “Support to

Africa

in taking the journey from vaccine availability till vaccination with a focus on implementation based on India’s experience of vaccination 96 % of its population with 1st dose and 86% with both doses.”

“India would like to further support and strengthen our ongoing relationship with Africa. India offers to support in augmenting research and development capability of African countries on medical countermeasures,” Mandaviya said during another session on ‘Closing the Vaccines Gap’.

Mandaviya said the country has already embarked on a digital transformation of healthcare with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

“We have already issued more than 220 million Unique Health IDs along with health facilities and provider registry,” he said.

India has also utilised digital health interventions for its national program management. Health Management Information system regularly collates data regarding health programs from more than 2 lakh health facilities.

Highlighting digital penetration into various other programs, Mandaviya said the Reproductive & Child Healthcare IT platform tracks more than 120 million pregnant women for their antenatal and post-natal check-ups, delivery planning, and over 90 million children for immunization.

“Through the NCD application, we have screened more than 80 million citizens for diabetes, hypertension and cancers, in turn creating a population profile of India. Telemedicine platform e-Sanjeevani has benefited more than 390 million beneficiaries through video consultations during the Covid-19 pandemic, making it the biggest such platform in the world,” he said.

The minister also underscored the role played by the CoWIN platform during Covid-19 management.

It was India that had moved the Digital Health Resolution in WHO to prioritise the global framework for digital health.

“We have offered Co-WIN as a digital public good to other countries to aid their vaccination efforts, aligned with India’s commitment to the traditional philosophy of “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” - The World Is One Family. Digital health interventions can help penetrate health service delivery to the last mile ensuring equitable healthcare service delivery. With technologies like

Artificial Intelligence

, Cloud computing, 5G, and nanotech, we need to create a tech-supported healthcare service delivery which is resilient, reliable, and accessible till the last mile,” Mandaviya said.