Covid-19 pandemic has taught us the importance of digital technologies. We can deliver services in a digital way and healthcare is no exception in this.
Speaking at ETCIO Spectrum, Dr Ram Sewak Sharma, Chief Executive Officer (CEO), National Health Authority (NHA), Government of India said the government is focused on leveraging technology to boost healthcare service delivery.
“Today, we have a digital ecosystem in the country with which we can do online doctor consultations, and even get medicines delivered through digital channels. This digital evolution will boost the healthcare sector in India,” Sharma said.
As highlighted by Sharma, today the country has a digital ecosystem where medical records can be digitally stored and shared by healthcare organizations that optimise the service delivery. India has developed digital assets such as consent artefact, digital identities, digital payment systems, virtual authentications, etc which are supporting the digital delivery of healthcare services in the country.
“The National Digital Health Mission announced by the honourable Prime Minister is fueled by technology and will be a catalyst in the country’s digital transformation journey. We are working towards creating an ecosystem where doctors, healthcare professionals, laboratories, medical institutes, pharma companies, and other important divisions will be interconnected in a digital grid. This ecosystem will help in monitoring and efficiently delivering healthcare services in the country,” The Official added.
The digital platform which NGA is enabling under the National Digital Health Vision will drive healthcare services ubiquitously especially in the rural areas.
According to Sharma, In urban areas, there is no challenge of acquiring physical and digital infrastructure. Digital channels such as video conferencing will eliminate the service gap between urban and rural areas. Digital will help in connecting and delivering services in remote areas of the country.
With digital platforms supporting the healthcare functions such as managing prescriptions, healthcare records, patient’s medical history, etc, a lot of data is being generated. This data will play an instrumental role in redefining the digital healthcare system of the country. Without violating the privacy of citizens, the digital ecosystem will leverage technologies such as Artificial Intelligence to gain insights and will help in taking data-backed intelligent decisions.
“Data Analytics will play a key role in the healthcare transformation of the country. Next-generation technologies such as Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning will improve the efficiency of medical instruments and even diagnostics will be enhanced,” Sharma highlighted.
Speaking on the pandemic, Sharma said that Covid-19 is a tragic event that the world has witnessed, and he believes that every tragedy gives birth to opportunities. One of such opportunities is the enablement of work from home. THe emphasised that the pandemic has taught us that we can work from home with equal efficiency and productivity.
The CoWIN platform development
The honourable Prime Minister of India started the drive of digitally enabled vaccine registration in January 2021.
According to Sharma, in the initial phase of the application development, the team faced several glitches in the platform.
“In the starting, we did face glitches just like any normal software development process can report. Within a few days, we have fixed and eliminated every possible system glitch. We have been upgrading the system since then. Today the CoWIN platform is enabled with real-time monitoring of vaccine data. From registration of vaccines to delivering certificates of vaccination, our system is fully prepared and enabled with the right technologies. The system is highly scalable. On 28th April at 4 PM we opened the platform for citizens, and within 8 hours we have recorded 1.37 crores registration on the platform,” Sharma highlighted.
Sharma revealed that around 55,000 concurrent activities per second were recorded on the platform. His team has developed the platform in a simple user interface, avoiding complex actions to make the experience easy for users.
“We have designed the platform with API based methodology which extends integration with the possibility of compliance for other applications. State governments such as Chattisgarh have developed an application for the state data which is also interconnected and complied with CoWIN. The country’s innovative culture will foster this system and help in adding more features,” Sharma added.
NHA is planning to open more policies for private players. Currently, private companies have been integrated into the COWIN system for vaccine availability and certification downloads. NHA is keeping an open ecosystem with proper compliance for innovation and enhancement of the application.
“India is going to have a quantum jump in digital and communication technologies. First, we created the digital identity infrastructure, then we have developed products such as e-KYC, consent framework, online authentication and many more on top of it. We have created artefacts for cashless, paperless governance. With the advancement of UPI, we have over 3 billion transitions per month. Now we are venturing into several areas such as healthcare and online education,” Sharma expressed.
Sharma is confident about introducing open APIs and open digital ecosystems. Today, the government has created data empowerment and protection architecture. Citizens can use their data for their own benefits without worrying about data misuse.
The Ayushman Bharat Yojana
The Ayushman Bharat Yojana is one of the world’s largest schemes which covers over 54 crores of citizens. The system is built to provide paperless disposal of processes such as health claims, reimbursements, etc. Authentication technologies have been leveraged to recognise patients and monitor the treatment management system which includes checking the treatment for which the patient is applying claim.
“We are using fraud analytics, and Artificial Intelligence in the platform to make it efficient and beneficial for the citizens of India. Apart from implementing technology and new features to the scheme, we are working towards issuing PVC cards to beneficiaries under the Ayushman Bharat scheme for empowering them about their benefits and facilities,”
Optimising data privacy and security in the country
“Starting from The National Digital Health Mission and all other digital platforms which India is building, We are following two foundational concepts. One is privacy by design and another is collection of minimal data,” Sharma said.
As emphasised by him, privacy by design is the core element that enables privacy and security of data throughout processes. And minimal and most required data is captured through sources that do not violate any kind of privacy or bring allegations to anybody.
Ownership of data and locally storing it also helps in maintaining privacy and security. Sharma further explained with an example, if a citizen’s health records are captured in any hospital, then the data should remain there. And without citizen consent, the data will not be shared or accessed by any other healthcare care organization. The consent is for benefiting the citizens. The team is working on nurturing a federated data architecture to add another layer of data privacy to the system.
“Private healthcare players should come along with the government and join programs such as the National Digital Health Mission. The innovative culture will help the country to enhance healthcare service delivery and new emerging technologies will make the system more efficient. The collaboration will create better platforms and drive digital healthcare services in India,” Sharma concluded.
Source: cio.economictimes.indiatimes.com
