E-Governance & Telemedicine

The National Health Digital Blueprint is an architectural framework for digital interventions in Health in India - was released in October 2019 with the vision:

"To create a National Digital Health Eco-system that supports Universal Health Coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner, through provision of a wide-range of data, information and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems, and ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information."

For full report, please visit:

https://mohfw.gov.in/newshighlights/final-report-national-digital-health-blueprint-ndhb

The Hon'ble Prime Minister announced the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) in the country with a vision to create a national digital health ecosystem. It supports universal health coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner that provides a wide-range of data, information and infrastructure services by duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems, and ensuring security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information.

In the first phase, NDHM was implemented in six Union territories: Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Ladakh, Lakshadweep, and Puducherry. Services like the issue of Health ID, creation of registries for doctors & health facilities and creation of personal health records have been initiated.

Hon'ble Prime Minister on 27th September 2021 announced the nationwide rollout of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), which will lead to for creation of an interoperable and open network in the health ecosystem. This mission will enable equitable and wider access to healthcare for citizens. This will create employment in the healthcare ecosystem, and catalyze innovation. As on date 31.12.2024, a total 72, 25, 42, 596 ABHA numbers have been created along with 47, 12, 23, 798 ABHA Linked Health Records.

The ABDM is a step towards achieving Universal Health Coverage by digitalizing and connecting the healthcare system. ABDM focuses on shifting from "illness" to "wellness", "facility-centric" to "patient-centric" and "platform-centric" to "network-centric".

EHR Standards were notified in December 2016. The EHR Standards include standards for Disease Classification, Medicine and Clinical terminology, Laboratory Data exchange, Digital Imaging and Communication etc. for semantic interoperability. Metadata and Data Standards (MDDS) for Health to enable semantic interoperability among healthcare applications have been notified in 2018.

The National Resource Centre for EHR Standards (NRCeS) was set up in order to augment facilitation for adoption of the notified EHR Standards in technical association with C-DAC, Pune to provide assistance in developing, implementing and using EHR standards effectively in healthcare IT applications in India.

HMIS is being implemented for computerized registration and capturing EHR/ EMR of patients in Public Health facilities up to PHC level. This will also facilitate workflow management, leading to better delivery of services to patients and improvement in efficiency of processes in these facilities. All the States/UTs are being provided financial assistance for the implementation of HMIS application.

Various HMIS applications like eHospital, eSushrut, eUpchaar, GHMIS, IHMS etc. are operational across the country.

Online Registration System (ORS) is a framework to link various hospitals for online registration, payment of fees and appointment, online diagnostic reports, enquiring about availability of blood online etc. ORS has been implemented in more than 748 hospitals and more than 9944230 (as on 31.12.2024) appointments have been conducted online.

SNOMED International

SNOMED CT (Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine -­Clinical Term) - is a comprehensive clinical healthcare terminology to support clinical decision-making and analytics in software programs. It is substantially being used in the NHA, Indian hospitals and other stakeholders. India is a member country and has been paying an annual membership fee since 2014.

MOHFW has appointed the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), Pune to carry out activities for the promotion and adoption of SNOMED CT in the country.

India has increasingly adopted SNOMED-CT (since 2014) in large hospitals with EHRs, improving data accuracy, resource management, and patient safety. As India continues its digital health transformation, SNOMED-CT is essential for standardization, interoperability, and a cohesive digital health ecosystem.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

The eHealth AI unit of MoHFW, operated by Wadhwani Institute of Artificial Intelligence, is working on image-based Artificial Intelligence solutions in collaboration with Centers of Excellence in AI in Healthcare viz. AIIMS-Delhi, AIIMS-Rishikesh and PGIMER Chandigarh. The unit is also working with other government institutes such as Central Tuberculosis Division, NHSRC, NCDC and CDAC-Mohali to build AI solutions to aid in early screening, follow-up, disease surveillance, clinical decision support and capacity building of healthcare staff etc. These solutions are in different stages of development and deployment. The Clinical Decision Support System (CDSS) in e-Sanjeevani and Media Disease Surveillance Solution in IDSP have been deployed PAN India. The Diabetic Retinopathy and the Binary Classifier model of Chest X-Ray solution are deployed in the AIIMS-Delhi ecosystem and are ready for expansion in other institutes/geographies. The dermatology solution and the enhancement of Chest X-ray solutions are currently being developed in collaboration with AIIMS Delhi. Explorations are underway for Oral Cancer and Alcoholic Hepatitis Solution with PGIMER, Chandigarh. Also, few TB solutions have been deployed under the TB program and some are in the exploratory stage.

eSanjeevani National Telemedicine Service: eSanjeevani, a cutting-edge cloud-based telemedicine platform, has redefined the landscape of healthcare accessibility in India. This revolutionary platform, designed to transcend geographical limitations, facilitates remote consultations between healthcare providers and patients. Leveraging its comprehensive features and functionalities, eSanjeevani has been implemented nationally for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) as National Telemedicine Service. eSanjeevani has served over 311 million patients (as on 10.11.2024). This remarkable accomplishment underscores this mammoth digital health platform's far-reaching influence and effectiveness, establishing it as a transformative catalyst in delivering accessible and efficient healthcare services throughout the country. 

eSanjeevani, India's national telemedicine service, stands as a crown jewel of Digital India, transforming the nation's Primary Health Care system. In just four years, it has provided millions of Indians easy access to medical services, becoming a pioneer in the country's digital healthcare landscape. Its significant impact in resource-limited settings has played a pivotal role in enhancing India's public health outcomes.

eSanjeevani operates in two variants: a) Provider­to-Provider (assisted) model, enhancing the reach of specialized healthcare services to rural regions, and b) "Patient-to-Provider" model, offering outpatient services to individuals remotely in the confines of their homes.

As on 31 December 2024, eSanjeevani has been the beacon of hope and health for over 330 million patients across the nation. It operates through an impressive network of 1,31,147 Health facilities serving as spokes, supported by 16,849 hubs and 681 online OPDs, reaching out to the IT urban populace. Our ever-growing family of healthcare providers includes 2,30,235 practitioners, ranging from doctors to medical specialists, super-specialists, and dedicated healthcare workers. Together, they actively utilize the platform, ensuring that quality healthcare is just a click away.

The eSanjeevani platform demonstrates notable adoption and growth trends over the time.

National Medical College Network (NMCN) has been established with the purpose of e-Education and e-Healthcare delivery, wherein 150 Government Medical Colleges are being interconnected, riding over NKN (National Knowledge Network — high speed bandwidth connectivity). A National Resource Centre (NRC) with required centralized infrastructure and 8 Regional Resource Centres (RRCs) have been established as below:

• NRC cum Central RRC -AIIMS, New Delhi
• RRC, North - PGIMER, Chandigarh
• RRC-Central - SGPGIMS, Lucknow
• RRC-South - JIPMER, Puducherry
• RRC-East -IMS, BHU, Varanasi
• RRC-West - KEM, Mumbai
• RRC-North East- NEIGRIHMS, Shillong
• RRC-South II- SCTIMST, Thiruvananthapuram
• RRC-AIIMS, Rishikesh

National Public Health Observatory (NPHO) is a data-driven platform that integrates health data from various sources, including health IT applications (such as HMIS, HWC, CGHS, NACO, NACP, PMNDP, IHIP among others), national reports (such as Census, National Health Profile, National Health Accounts, etc.), into a common framework.

It is a comprehensive monitoring of the health system to strengthen existing day-to-day health system monitoring infrastructure and capabilities at the MOHFW for a holistic situation analysis of the health system from top to bottom, leveraging various key indicators around healthcare infrastructure, healthcare resources, public health programs, disease surveillance, and other key aspects to understand system maturity, enabling policymakers to move towards a "culture of data" in public health for intelligent use of data in planning and addressing complex health system challenges. It holds 30 applications and 1300+ KPIs identified with automated report generation for applications.

Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP)- An IT platform is developed for Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP) (https://pmndp.mohfw.gov.in) to provide smooth delivery of necessary dialysis services to every patient having unique 14-digit ABHA number (Health ID) based on their Aadhaar ID. Further, the key KPIs are monitored through PMNDP Dashboard for displaying bird eye view of program. Pradhan Mantri National Dialysis Programme (PMNDP) is a platform where patients can avail of free dialysis service in any government-based facility with a dialysis center. There are a total of 36 States, 748 Districts, and 1558 Facilities/ Centers associated with the PMNDP Portal. The program is operational and 26.07 lakhs+ patients availed the dialysis services. The program also supports the PMNDP Mobile application for the

facility and patients (who have been registered with their ABHA on the PMNDP portal).

Ayushman Bharat-Health and Wellness Centres Portal (AB-HWCs) gives easy access to monitor the expansion of comprehensive primary health care in the country with the creation of Health and Wellness centers. More than 175,000+ HWCs are functional, comprising of urban primary health centers, primary health centres, sub centres under the Ayushman Bharat Programme. 

e-Clearance of Afterlife Remains (eCARe) IT application to expedite the clearance process of the human remains to be brought to India. Some features of the application, like notification to all the stakeholders involved in the human remains clearance process via portal for tracking, instant feedback, and easy coordination, easy for the applicant to track the application. The portal is operational, and more than 8000 human remains or ashes have been transported from across the world.

Facility Based Newborn Care, an IT application for capturing data including Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs) and Newborn Stabilization Units (NBSUs), across all States/UTs, with 979 SNCUs/NICUs and 2774 NBSUs currently functional. Over 63 lakh+ newborns have received specialized care in Special Newborn Care Units (SNCUs) and other facility-based care centers. This has contributed to a significant reduction in neonatal mortality rate (NMR) and under-five mortality rate (U5MR). The FBNC online portal, developed with UNICEF's assistance, is used for reporting sick and small newborns, and has collected significant public health data since 2014-15 to monitor and improve newborn care. The application has been migrated to a government-owned cloud and is currently managed by CHI.

The Digital Portal for Crowdfunding & Voluntary Donations for Patients of Rare Diseases was created to facilitate voluntary donations for the treatment of patients suffering from rare diseases. The information relating to the patients, diseases from which they are suffering, estimated cost of treatment and details of bank accounts of the treating institutions is available on this portal.

National Rabies Control Program (NRCP) an IT application created for the National Rabies Control Program (NRCP) under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) is being implemented for reporting the data of Suspected / Probable/ Confirmed Rabies Cases/ Deaths.

Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan is an IT application supporting a national level programme for a systematic approach to engagement with the private sector which includes motivating private practitioners to volunteer for the campaign. 4cr+ Pregnant women received ANC checkup. MoHFW extended the ANC checkup days i.e. up to 4 times/Month. New Modules of e PMSMA and HRP have been introduced in PMSMA with line listing data for pregnant women.

COVID-19 Dashboard is a comprehensive real-time based IT platform 'COVID-19 India Portal' (special surveillance system) that has been functional since March 2020 in response to COVID -19 pandemic. Real-time web platform to analyze, understand, and keep track of the COVID-19 pandemic situation across the country.

Mera Aspataal is an initiative to capture patient feedback for the services received at the hospital through user-friendly multiple channels such as SMS, Outbound Dialing mobile application and web portal. The patient can submit the feedback in seven different languages for the hospitals visited in last 7 days. Implemented in over 11,000 hospitals across the country, including government hospitals and private hospitals empaneled under public health schemes.

The National Identification Number is a random and unique 10-digit number for all government health facilities in India (NIN-2-HFI). There are a total 18 programs currently using NIN ID. This system integrates key geographical data such as state, district, and village codes to accurately identify each facility's location.