NHA invites suggestions for National Digital Health Mission from all stakeholders by July 13

By Joymala Bagchi
New Delhi [India], June 22 (ANI): The National Health Authority (NHA) on Monday released consultation papers on two building blocks of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) -- Health Facility Registry (HFR) and Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) from all stakeholders to give their comments and suggestions.
For the national rollout of the mission and the expanded scope of these registries, NDHM seeks inputs from all stakeholders on the consultation papers by July 13.
National Health Authority CEO R S Sharma said, "We are developing the National Digital Health Ecosystem in a consultative manner. Therefore, I urge all stakeholders to go through these papers and provide us with their valuable feedback."
Since the launch of the pilot project of NDHM in August 2020 in six Union Territories, multiple rounds of consultations with different groups of stakeholders have been held for both building blocks to surface concerns and challenges in the adoption of the registries, informed NHA officials.
The official added, "NHA is now requesting for suggestions to increase participation and engagement with stakeholders. This is done to ensure that the policy and development are participatory and inclusive, comments and diverse viewpoints are invited from concerned stakeholders."
Both HFR and HPR are core building blocks of NDHM which are owned, developed, and maintained by the Government of India.
The HFR is proposed to be the single complete and up-to-date repository of health facilities in the country and is envisioned as the primary source of information for all other databases and lists.
HFR aims to facilitate the exchange of standardised data of public and private health facilities across all systems of medicine. Similarly, the HPR will be the hub of all healthcare professionals involving doctors, paramedics, nurses, midwives and community health workers (e.g. ASHAs, ANMs).
Currently, the Doctors Registry exists as DigiDoctor, which is a comprehensive repository of information on doctors practicing or teaching across systems of medicine. Doctors Registry will be expanded to include various other categories of healthcare professionals. This new iteration will be referred to as the Healthcare Professionals Registry.
Within five to seven days, NHA is planning to organise two public webinars shortly to provide an overview of each of the above consultation papers. (ANI)