In the past, when I experienced a cold or fever, I would visit a nearby clinic → get a prescription → take the medicine -> and move on.
However, as these incidents became more frequent, I realized I needed a better solution. That’s when I decided to consult a specialist. During the appointment, the doctor asked me numerous questions about my medical history and conditions. Recalling all the information was challenging and inefficient, especially because I wasn’t even sure of all the answers myself. Additionally, I struggled with fluently speaking Hindi and didn’t have my prescriptions or medical reports with me.
This is a real gap, as physical records of mild illnesses are forgotten about or misplaced.
Further diving deep made me come across the implementation of the National Health Stack (NHS).
Another addition to the India Stack, democratizing healthcare!
Here’s a synopsis of the features possible under the National Health Stack (NHS):
The India health stack is an infrastructure that allows for various stakeholders to interoperate seamlessly to exchange information and enable transactions across platforms.
The Health stack is built on top of the already existing public digital infrastructure that is the India Stack which includes JanDhan Yojana, Aadhar and Mobile (JAM), UPI, E-sign etc..
The layers in the Health stack include :
- The Health data exchange layer contains the
a. Digital registries which contains the profiles of
- Citizens
- Doctors
- Hospitals
- Testing centers
All of them are given unique 14 digit Ids after authentication through documents like Aadhar, Doctors License etc..
b. Health Information Exchange gives the control and the ownership of personal health data to the users and allows for data to be shared digitally with consent.
c. Health Claims Standards sets down standards that enable insurance processes to become more faster, transparent and efficient. It also paves the way for smart contracts which automates the claim process given certain requirements are met.
2. The Unified Health Interface is an open protocol that can be adopted by user apps and the health providers to interoperate seamlessly. It reduces the onboarding processes on multiple apps and allows for easier discovery and delivery of services.
In essence, it means that you can discover and transact with any entity that is listed on any one of the onboarded aggregator apps that are connected to the network
3. The user application is the layer that contains all the applications that will interact with the Data Exchange Layer and the health services layer and allow for flow of data.
This layer contains
- Applications for Health Information Providers like –
- Doctors,
- Hospitals and
- Labs to store, update and share data through the: Health Information Management Service (HIMS) and, Laboratory Information Management software (LIMS)
- User facing apps like the –
- Public Health Record (PHR) apps and
- Health Locker that allows the Health Information Users (HIU) to access and share the data with consent
To put it simply the NHS-
- Authenticates stakeholders and provides unique Ids, saved on registries
- Stores data, giving user ownership and control
- Allows for interoperability of various stakeholders using the Unified Health Interface reducing effort of onboarding onto different applications.
Way Forward
- The NHS aims to consolidate and standardize health data digitally, enabling the industry to come together using the Unified Health Interface.
- It makes healthcare delivery cheaper and more efficient.
- It encourages innovation from the private sector to develop applications on top of the Data Exchange Layer and Unified Health Interface, and
All of this provides the government with a holistic view of public health to better serve the people and also all , having their data at one place.
Author:
Jacob Jose with insights from Brijesh Damodaran
