Union Health Minister JP Nadda on Monday launched several digital health initiatives, including the revamped Aarogya Setu app, which was originally designed to track Covid-19, which will now function as a personal health record for Indians.
“In line with the vision of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), Aarogya Setu has now been comprehensively revamped to function as a personal health record (PHR) and citizen-facing digital health app. With a captive user base of nearly Rs 20 crore of downloads, coupled with a steady influx of new users, the app offers a unique opportunity to accelerate citizen adoption, mainstream the use of digital health across geographies and position ABDM as part of everyday healthcare interactions,” it said in a statement.
The modified version of the app includes access to services that support ABDM, including ABHA creation, health record management, and seamless digital registration.
Digitization of medical health records includes laboratory reports, creation of a personalized health dashboard using medical history, and the ability for users to seamlessly monitor and manage their health through integrated vitals, personal reminders, goal tracking, and wearable device synchronization of steps, calories, heart rate, and glucose levels.
The PM-JAY Wallet feature will display a clear overview of your healthcare coverage, including the total balance, amount used and household consumption.
Among other features of the app, people can discover nearby healthcare facilities and view real-time availability of blood units to reach critical care and book an ambulance in time; Manage medications and follow prescribed schedules that can be added from prescriptions or manually, setting reminders by time, frequency and dose; It will also allow users to search AB-PMJAY hospitals that offer cashless treatment.
The Minister of Health also launched the Unified Health Interface – the interoperable network for digital health services. Unified Health Interface (UHI) is the ABDM service layer, an open network with common technical standards that enables patients and healthcare providers to communicate across different digital platforms, without being tied to any single application.
“In India’s current digital health ecosystem, both the patient and the provider have to be on the same platform to interact. This limits the ability of providers to order on a single app, and limits citizens to limited services and providers on a single app. UHI solves this problem by allowing any verified participant to discover and engage with any other participant, regardless of which app they are using,” the health ministry said.
She added that when a citizen uses an application that supports UHI to search for a health service, the request is directed through the portal to registered service providers. The entire journey from discovery and booking to fulfillment is facilitated through a common language, regardless of the platform used to request or deliver the service. The network uses the core elements of ABDM – ABHA as a Patient Identifier, Healthcare Professional Register (HPR) and Health Facility Register (HFR) for provider verification, and a health information exchange to share data based on consent.
“Digitization is no longer an option, it is a necessity and we will work to digitize healthcare in India to make it citizen centric. If we want to become a developed country by 2047, we will have to become Digital India,” Nadda said during the launch event.
The Health Minister also launched the Medicines Registry, which has been in the works for a long time, to standardize information on medicines across the healthcare ecosystem.
“The same drug is often represented using different names and formats, leading to inconsistencies, duplication, data entry errors and lack of interoperability. This creates challenges in clinical decision making, e-prescribing, supply chain management and continuity of care. To address this gap, the Union Health Minister has launched the Drug Registry as a unified and unified digital platform for drug-related information. Envisioned under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which acts as a single source of truth regarding medicines, India’s health ministry said, enabling the identification and storage of drug data. and shared and used consistently across health care systems.
ABDM is building a robust digital health ecosystem through four core registries: the ABHA registry (for individuals); Healthcare professional register (for doctors and others); Health facility register (for hospitals); Medication record (for medications).
The Ministry of Health said: “Based on unified terminology and compatible with global standards, the drug registry ensures accuracy, transparency, and seamless data exchange across healthcare systems… The registry links healthcare providers, digital applications, and citizens to a comprehensive, verified drug database.”
