New Delhi:
The Economic Survey has suggested that a national health register, that maintains health records of citizens with all the necessary privacy safeguards can go a long way in enabling health analytics for predictive and prescriptive purposes. Such a national health register would be identified using a citizen’s Aadhar.
The various components of this register can include databases for (i) hospitals and public health centres, (ii) surveillance of syndromes, (iii) immunization information systems, (iv) electronic laboratory reporting, and (v) sub-registries for key diseases requiring intervention such as diabetes, hypertension, cancer, AIDS, etc.
Anonymized data from the register can be sold to private parties for analytics, which would then enhance prevention by offering predictive and prescriptive knowledge.
Pointing out that prevention is far more important in this endeavour than cure, the survey has onserved that as a doctor can access the medical history of a patient from this national health register, this facility would be especially useful in emergency/trauma cases and can potentially save several lives.
For Swachh Bharat to transform into Swasth Bharat and eventually Sundar Bharat, citizens’ health is paramount, said the Survey.