Urging the stakeholders to work towards implementing the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) in a time bound manner, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare Dr. Harsh Vardhan said that “Government of India is committed to ensuring high quality healthcare, accessible to all upto the last mile. The digital health interventions are accelerating this transformation and have a huge potential for supporting Universal Health care.” J. Satyanarayana, Former Chairman, UIDAI and Chairman of the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) Committee has submitted the final NDHB report to Dr. Harsh Vardhan.

J. Satyanarayana provided a brief overview of the efforts that have gone into preparation of NDHB report and made a brief presentation on the overall framework as proposed in NDHB. He said that the priorities of Government of India in health care were included in the National Health Policy 2017 and this recommendation report by Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has shown the implementation angle for achieving the same. He further added that this may be considered as the biggest leap of GoI towards achieving the goal of Universal Healthcare Coverage (UHC) with impetus on Digital Healthcare component.

Dr. Harsh Vardhansaid that “The need of the hour is to create an ecosystem which can integrate theexisting disparate health information systems and show clear path for upcoming programmes. There is a need to ensure convergence across these IT systems to monitor and provide health services in a robust and efficient manner. Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has initiated efforts in the direction of a comprehensive, nationwide integrated e-Health system under National Digital Health Blueprint.”

NDHB will help in providing a common platform for integration of existing applications in health domain and data which has existed in silos, either in public health facility, or, in private healthcare facility, in India. It was also updated that building on the initial document of “National Health Stack” (NHS) by NitiAayog, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has defined clear timelines, targets and the resources required for this digital convergence of Healthcare programmes in India.

Speaking at the event, Dr. Harsh Vardhan referred to vision of Hon’ble Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, to reach each individual of this country with services at their doorstep under Digital India Programme and hoped that implementation of NDHB with programmes of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare would benefit every individual.

He congratulated Preeti Sudan, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and J.Satyanarayanafor this extensive exercise which would transform India into a Digital healthcare economy and urged all stakeholders to work towards implementing the blueprint in a time bound manner.