Indian government to setup electronic health records database

The Indian government has plans to digitize health records for reducing the burden of paperwork to avoid problems related to collecting, recording, and storing healthcare data.

J. P. Nadda, the Union Health Minister of India, said that the Modi Government has big plans for establishing an electronic health records database system across all the districts of the country. This plan is suggested to reduce the stress of documenting and storing data in the paperwork.

The centralization of the data related to the medical history of a patient will enable him/her to take treatment from any part of the country. The data will be documented digitally, and people having proper authorization can have access to it. This will reduce the problem of carrying the papers related to health issues and storing them for years.

It was also earlier in the news, when Minister of State for Health, Anupriya Patel, said that the objective of such a scheme is to access data by the patients as well as the health advisors whenever needed in any part.

Currently, it is used in health and wellness centers across the country for three major applications, i.e. Reproductive Child Health (RCH), TB, and Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD). They are planning to progress towards the interoperable Comprehensive Primary Healthcare application over the time. Other such health initiative includes Personal Health Record Management System (PHRMS), Inter-operable Electronic Health Records (EHR) System, National Identification Number (NIN)for the public as well as private facilities, and Patient Feedback System (MeraAspatal).

The Indian government has already started its work in implementing computerized registration and capturing Electronic Health Record (EHR) or Electronic Medical Record (EMR) of patients.

This digitization will act as a framework to interlink hospitals. This way the data related to appointments, online registration, and diagnostic reports will be available. Digitization will also help in checking and enquiring about various facilities, including the availability of blood can be checked online.

An EHR or an electronic health record is a digitalized version of the health history written in the paper chart. These are patient-centered records, which will help in making information related to the patient and his issues instantly available only to the authorized users. It generally includes the medical history of the patient and the treatments used. However, the latest proposal is to take this a step forward.

This will now include medical history, diagnoses, treatments, medications, allergies, immunization dates, laboratory results, etc. It will also automate the workflow to make the treatment easier.

The Indian Government is more inclined towards setting up the electronic health records database because the health information can easily be created and managed by an authorized health advisor from any one of the health centers across the country. This step of the government will help normal individuals to not worry anymore about the papers and documents related to any health problem and carrying them along while travelling in the country.

Image credit: www.pixabay.de