The Union Cabinet, chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has approved the national rollout of a Central sector scheme, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) with a budget of Rs 1,600 crore for five years. A scheme of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the National Health Authority (NHA) will be the implementing agency for this.
Digital health solutions across the healthcare ecosystem have proven to be of immense benefit over the years, with Cowin, Arogya Setu, and eSanjeevani further demonstrating the role technology can play in enabling access to healthcare. However, there is a need to integrate such solutions for the continuum of care and effective utilization of resources.
Based on the foundations laid down in the form of Jan Dhan, Aadhaar and Mobile (JAM) trinity, and other digital initiatives of the Government, the ABDM is creating 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.
Under the ABDM, citizens will be able to create their Ayushman Bharat Health Account or ABHA numbers, to which their digital health records can be linked. This will enable the creation of longitudinal health records for individuals across various healthcare providers, and improve clinical decision-making by healthcare providers. The mission will improve equitable access to quality healthcare by encouraging the use of technologies such as telemedicine and enabling national portability of health services.
The pilot of ABDM was completed in the six Union Territories of Ladakh, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, and Lakshadweep with successful demonstration of technology platform developed by the NHA.
As of February 24, 2022, as many as 173,369,087 Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts have been created and 10,114 doctors and 17,319 health facilities registered in the ABDM.
Not only will the ABDM facilitate evidence-based decision-making for effective public health interventions, but it will also catalyze innovation and generate employment across the healthcare ecosystem.
Ayushman Bharat (AB) is an attempt by the Central Government to move from a selective approach to healthcare to deliver a comprehensive range of services spanning preventive, promotive, curative, rehabilitative, and palliative care. It has two components that are complementary to each other. Under its first component, 150,000 Health & Wellness Centres (HWCs) will be created to deliver comprehensive primary healthcare that is universal and free to users, with a focus on wellness and the delivery of an expanded range of services closer to the community.
The second component is the Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY) which provides health insurance cover of Rs 5 lakh per year to over 10 crore poor and vulnerable families for seeking secondary and tertiary care.
HWCs are envisaged to deliver an expanded range of services that go beyond maternal and child healthcare services to include care for non-communicable diseases, palliative and rehabilitative care, oral, eye, and ENT care, mental health, and first-level care for emergencies and trauma, including free essential drugs and diagnostic services
The first HWC was launched in Bijapur, Chhattisgarh on April 18, 2018. In the first year, over 17,000 HWCs were operationalized.
