Centre approves health data management policy of NDHM

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Centre on Monday approved the health data management policy of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) that sets out the minimum standard for data privacy protection that should be followed across the board in order to ensure compliance with relevant and applicable laws, rules and regulations.

About

• It acts as a acts as a guidance document across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE).
• The government said that this policy is to be read along with, and not in contradiction to, any applicable law, or any instrument having the effect of any law together with the Blueprint, the information security policy, the data retention and archival policy and any other policy which may be issued for the implementation of the NDHM.
• Data collected across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE) will be stored in at the central level, the state or Union Territory level and at the health facility level.

The draft of the policy was placed on the website by National Health Authority (NHA) from 20th August to 21st September to seek feedback and suggestions from citizens and stakeholders soon after the launch of NDHM by the Prime Minister. After extensive stakeholder consultations and feedback, the policy was given further shape by incorporating the inputs from the public.

National Health Authority

NHA is the apex government agency responsible for the design, roll-out, implementation and management of Ayushman Bharat-Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) and the National Digital Health Mission across the country. The NHA had said that the NDHM will significantly improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and transparency of health services in India.

National Digital Health Mission

The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) aims to develop the backbone necessary to support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country. It will bridge the existing gap amongst different stakeholders of Healthcare ecosystem through digital highways. Under it every Indian will get a health ID that will ease access to medical services. It was launched on 15th August 2020 on 74th Independence Day of India.

It would also apply to any healthcare provider who collects, stores and transmits health data in electronic form, insurers, charitable institutions, pharmaceuticals and all individuals, teams, entities who collect or process personal or sensitive data of any individual as part of the NDHE.