siliconindia | | November 20218In FOCUSDIGITAL HEALTH CARD: A REVOLUTION IN INDIA'S HEALTHCARE FACILITIESBY si TEAMSince the pandemic has hit the world severely, healthcare has become a significant concern glob-ally. The Indian government has stepped forward and initiated Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) to include every citizen's unique health ID. Recently, on the launch of ABDM, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, "Potential of bringing a revolutionary change in In-dia's healthcare facilities." The digital initiative also in-cludes the creation of a digital healthcare professionals and facilities registry.WAYS TO GET A UNIQUE HEALTH IDTo be a part of the ABDM, one needs to create a health ID, a differently generated 14-digit number. Generally, it is used for three objectives: unique identification, au-thentication, and threading of the beneficiary's health re-cords, only with their informed consent, across multiple systems and stakeholders.Self-registration on the portal or download the ABMD Health Records app on mobile is the way to get a health ID. Furthermore, a request to create health ID at a partic-ipating health facility, which may comprise government or private hospitals, community health centers, and well-ness centers of the government across India, would also assist anyone to get a health ID. The recipient will also have to establish a Personal Health Records (PHR) address for the consent of man-agement and future sharing of health records.PHR address is a simple self-declared username to sign into a Health Information Exchange and Consent Manager (HIE-CM). Each health ID will need linkage to a consent manager to permit sharing of health records data.HIE-CM is an application that facilitates sharing and linking of personal health records of user. Presently, one can utilize the health ID to sign up on the HIE-CM; the National Health Authority (NHA), nevertheless, says multiple consent managers are expected to be available for patients to choose from shortly. THE REQUIREMENT TO REGISTER FOR HEALTH IDPresently, ABDM accepts health ID creation via mobile or Aadhaar. The official website asserts that ABDM will soon introduce features that allow health ID creation with a PAN card or a driving license. So, in order to create the ID through mobile or Aadhaar, one needs to share details like name, year of birth, gender, address, mobile number/Aadhaar. The registration with Aadhaar number will generate an OTP which is sent to the mobile number linked to the Aadhaar. If one has not linked it to their mobile, the ben-eficiary should visit the nearest facility and opt for bio-metric authentication using their Aadhaar number. After successful authentication, they will get their health ID at the participating facility. THE RECORDSARE COLLECTED AND SAVED BY HEALTHCAREINFORMATION PROVIDERS ACCORDING TO THEIR "RETENTION POLICIES" AND ARE"SHARED" OVER THE ABDM NETWORK"WITH ENCRYPTION MECHANISMS"
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