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India is strengthening its healthcare delivery ecosystem with the growing footprint of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). The National Health Authority (NHA) announced major milestones achieved under ABDM – 50 crore individuals have ABHA number as their unique health identity, over 1.5 crore patients have used ABHA-based instant OPD registration service and more than 50 Lakh people are using the ABHA app to manage their health records digitally.
Speaking on the mission’s progress, CEO, NHA said – “In the last two years since launch of ABDM, the response from entire ecosystem including patients, healthcare service providers, state teams, policy makers and the health tech innovators has been quite encouraging. With collective efforts from the industry towards adoption of ABDM, we aim to take the benefits of digital health services to the remotest corners of the country. As more and more people start using ABHA-based services, we get closer to our goal of making healthcare more accessible and efficient.”
As on date, 50 crore individuals have Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) as their unique health ID. Health facilities like hospitals, clinics, labs etc., insurance companies and other healthcare service providers are using ABHA for patient registrations. This has further enabled digital linking of the patient records with their ABHA accounts. Till date, over 33 crore health records have been linked with ABHA accounts of the patients.
The patients can access these records on their mobiles using any ABDM-enabled PHR app (https://abdm.gov.in/our-partners/PHR). ABDM’s reference Personal Health Records (PHR) app – ABHA app registered 50 lakh downloads till date. Patients are using ABHA app to securely manage their health records in a digital format replacing the old medical files and paper-based record keeping methods. The ABHA app is available for Android as well as iOS users.
ABHA number is also being used by patients for availing instant-registration services at hospitals. The Scan and Share service launched under ABDM enables the patients to scan the QR code placed at Out Patient Department (OPD counters in hospitals and share their ABHA profiles for instant registration. This service has helped close to 1.5 crore patients save time spent in OPD registration queues on a daily basis. Even the health facilities are able to manage the patients as well as patient records better with ABHA-based registrations.
ABDM is essentially connecting all stakeholders in health sector via digital highways. Like ABHA numbers for patients, the healthcare service providers are also being verified and registered. ABDM’s Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) has 2.6 Lakh verified doctors and nurses, while the Health Facility Registry (HFR) has 2.26 Lakh hospitals, clinics, labs, pharmacies etc. registered. Further, over 56,000 hospitals across the country use ABDM-enabled solutions. More statistics on ABDM progress are available here: https://dashboard.abdm.gov.in/abdm/
To further promote digital health adoption at the service provider level, NHA launched a Digital Health Incentive Scheme (DHIS) that gives incentives to health facilities, insurance companies and health solution providers based on the progress made in ABHA-linked health records. More details on DHIS here: https://abdm.gov.in/DHIS
For active adoption of ABDM by smaller health facilities from the private sector, NHA announced the 100 Microsites project in July 2023. Under this project, 29 Microsites are already active across 10 states/ UTs. More detail here: https://abdm.gov.in/microsites. The patients visiting the clinics, labs and other health facilities in these Microsites are availing digital health services.
India has wholeheartedly acknowledged and accepted digital services. From digital identity to digital payments, daily transactions have transformed from paper-based, queue systems and manual processes to digital, queue-less and instant services. With ABDM, the health sector is transforming itself and adding the ease of digital access for all stakeholders.
