250 mn records of individuals linked to Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts

Over 25 crore health records of individuals have been linked digitally to Ayushman Bharat Health Account under the National Health Authority's flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.

These records can be easily accessed and managed by people using any of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) enabled health applications.

The digitally available health records will enable the Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) holders in availing paper-less health services across the ABDM network, a statement by the National Health Authority (NHA) said on Tuesday.

Individuals can use their Personal Health Records (PHR) apps to access their records across different health facilities like hospitals, clinics, diagnostic labs, among others, and store them in the app.

They can also digitally share the relevant records with verified healthcare providers over the ABDM network.

This enables completely paper-less exchange of records in a secure manner while doing away with the hassles of searching for physical medical documents or worry of losing old records.

The healthcare providers get consented access to detailed patient history, thereby helping them in better clinical decision making.

Speaking on the milestone, the National Health Authority said digitisation of physical records is crucial to the objective of building an inter-operable and accessible healthcare ecosystem.

"The speed at which health records are being made more accessible via ABHA linking indicates the sincerity of all stakeholders as well as the robustness and scalability of the underlying technology. The objective of ABDM can be achieved with collaborative efforts from majority stakeholders that benefit the end patients," it said.

Elaborating further on the importance of ABHA-linked health records, the NHA said patients are empowered with ready access to their records and the choice of sharing selected records.

"This eliminates the need of the patient to travel to the physical healthcare facility for initial or follow-up consultations. With patients/individuals at the centre, we are enabling easy exchange of information across different applications and platforms, thus bringing more efficiency and accessibility in delivery of healthcare services," it said in the statement.

The digital linking of health records has been making tremendous progress with active involvement at state/UT level. In the last 40 days, the number of health records linked to ABHA have jumped from 4 crore (as on January 18) to 25 crore (as on February 27).

The health records linkage also got a major push by integration of ABHA with the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY). With over 9.8 crore AB PM-JAY health records linked to ABHA, the scheme beneficiaries get portable and digital records which they can access and share online in a secure manner.

Additionally, health programmes under the Government of Andhra Pradesh, CoWIN and Reproductive and Child Health (RCH) scheme under the Ministry of Health, eHospital by NIC, eSushrut by CDAC and TeCHO by the Government of Gujarat are among other key schemes which are digitally linking health records of the respective beneficiaries.

Various private players like Orbi Health Private Limited, Hitachi MGRM Net Ltd, Driefcase Health-tech Private Limited, Karkinos Healthcare Private Limited, Paytm Mini and Bajaj Finserv Health are also contributing to ABHA-linked health records.