Dr Raj Panda, Additional Professor and Health System Specialist, PHFI believes that AB should support practices to develop IT functionality which responds to the evolving needs of patients and underpins integration across care pathways
Digital systems are the foundation upon which we will build a modern, efficient and responsive health service as envisaged by the current policy directions provided by Ayushman Bharat (AB). Enabling information to flow between care providers within and beyond organisational boundaries and between care providers and patients, is a key means by which we will achieve a safe, convenient and personalised healthcare service that the current health care system in India does not provide.
In a challenging resource environment such as that of current public health systems in India, technology services must not only improve the quality of care through enhancing the patients’ experience of services, but also enable the practice to realise benefits such as reduced administrative burden and providing key information to all stakeholders. While revitalising and reforming primary care, AB should also support practices to develop IT functionality which responds to the evolving needs of patients and underpins integration across care pathways. At the same time one also has to be careful of the problems that technology can create as there are many opportunities where patients’ medical records can be compromised.
Developed on the back of Aadhaar-based India Stack, the National Health Stack (NHS) is imagined as a nationally shared digital infrastructure backbone. It will be shared and used by both the centre and the state across public and private healthcare institutes across the country. The stack is expected to boost the creation of healthcare solutions based on technology. The key components of the stack are national electronic health registries, a coverage and claims platform, personal health records framework, national health analytics platform and Digital ID. This is indeed a welcome move for entrepreneurs to design digital solutions for strengthening the healthcare system of the nation. Potential monetary value of digital health companies is in the development of proprietary algorithms and the datasets that have commercial value. These datasets will be mined from patient’s medical records. These may raise concerns about data privacy and the potential for compromise.
Democratising healthcare through technology is a noble goal and AB has the potential to be a game changer if resources are allocated and used appropriately. Using technology to help build a patient centric equitable heath care system should be the goal of disruptive technology. The technology revolution like the biomedical revolution has the potential to improve the quality and quantity of patients’ lives. Nevertheless it does bring with it issues related to privacy and compromise of patient data and unless we have balance and check in place it can result in compromises which may effect health systems at all levels, thus breaching patients trust in healthcare providers and systems which is already at an all-time low. The ultimate litmus test of this trust is going to be tested through large scale transformative programmes like the Ayushman Bharat where technology will be used for delivery of the health care. AB has the potential to be a game changer in th scale for promoting equitable health care. How it will use technology to democratise the Indian health system while balancing the promotion of innovation remains to be seen in the coming years.
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