Every citizen to get unique health ID
*Sanction accorded for setting up MD ABDM office
Govind Sharma
JAMMU, July 25: To improve equitable and easy access to quality healthcare for its citizens, Jammu and Kashmir Government today rolled out Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) in the Union Territory and nominated Mission Director (MD) National Health Mission J&K as MD ABDM J&K, besides according sanction to the setting up of his office.
The office of the ABDM will be part of the Directorate of National Health Mission J&K, the Government said in an order issued today. It added that the Mission Director ABDM shall establish a UT level team to enable effective implementation of the day-to-day operations of ABDM as the guidelines of the Mission.
Further, to ensure seamless implementation of ABDM in the UT, Government nominated Dr Shafqat Khan (Officer on Special Duty in Health & Medical Education Department) as Additional Mission Director, ABDM J&K, in addition to his duties as Sectoral Expert and overall Incharge for strategizing and on boarding of public services through online platforms. He was also relieved from the role of OSD in H&ME Department with immediate effect.
Speaking to Excelsior, Dr Shafqat Khan said under the ABDM, people of J&K will now get a digital health ID. Health records of every citizen will be digitally protected, he said, adding that the poor and the middle class will benefit the most from this mission.
He said based on the foundations laid down in the form of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile (JAM) trinity and other digital initiatives of the Government, ABDM will create a seamless online platform through the provision of a wide range of data, information and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems while ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information. It will enable access and exchange of longitudinal health records of citizens with their consent, he added.
Dr Khan said the key components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include a health ID for every citizen that will also work as their health account, to which personal health records can be linked and viewed with the help of a mobile application, a Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Healthcare Facilities Registries (HFR) that will act as a repository of all healthcare providers across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
This will also ensure ease of doing business for doctors, hospitals and healthcare service providers, he said, adding, this mission will create interoperability within the digital health ecosystem, similar to the role played by the Unified Payments Interface in revolutionizing payments. With the implementation of the Mission, the citizens will only be a click away from accessing healthcare facilities, he added.
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