The National Health Authority (NHA) conducted a two-day orientation workshop of Joint Directors/Directors at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Bombay on March 10 and 11. The workshop was aimed to describe key components within ABDM and to address the challenges faced by the States in implementation.
Dr R. S. Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority, welcomed the participants for the workshop and congratulated them for being the part of a national mission aimed to bring revolution in Healthcare sector in India. He mentioned about the existing digital public goods and the win-win situation for players of healthcare sector.
ABDM emphasises on interoperability and single source of truth while making healthcare services accessible to every citizen of India. Dr Sharma also briefed upon the unified health interface (UHI) providing new avenue to the healthcare sector by ensuring interoperability and ease of access to the service providers. He has drawn parallels from UPI to simplify UHI and explained the benefits and usage of UHI.
He informed that Union Cabinet has approved the budget and thus, the workshop is at the right time to learn about ABDM and create history by implementing it in States.
The welcome address was followed by a presentation by Dr Praveen Gedam, Mission Director, ABDM and Addl. CEO, National Health Authority. Dr Gedam described the architecture of ABDM, recommendations for HMIS, steps to be taken by States and addressing the queries of participants in relation to the vision, mission, objectives and strategy of ABDM. This helped the participants to gain confidence on ABDM and understand the importance of creating registries of health professionals and facilities.
During the two-day workshop, different aspects of ABDM, Ayushman Bharat Health Account, ABHA App (earlier known as PHR Record App), Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR), Health Facility Registry (HFR), sandbox, UHI, legal standards, Health Data retention policy, etc. were discussed in detail.
The workshop concluded with visit to Topiwala National Medical College and B.Y.L. Nair Charitable Hospital under Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) highlighting the digitization of health records and interoperability among MCGM hospitals and visit to SRL Lab highlighting the integration with ABDM.
The participants were equipped with sufficient knowledge on ABDM to implement the same in states starting from creating registries and generating ABHA numbers and taking it forward with integration and interoperability.
