Lok Sabha Question No. 3379 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2020-03-13
Subject: Muddling of Electronic Medical Records
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Sajda Ahmed

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3379 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13 TH  MARCH, 2020

## MUDDLING OF ELECTRONIC MEDICAL RECORDS

## 3379. SHRIMATI SAJDA AHMED:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a)  whether  the  Government has taken note of  the  fact  that  health  data  taken  in  Public  health establishment is being supplied to corporates;
- (b) if so, the details thereof and the corrective steps taken in this regard;
- (c) whether the Government has formulated any robust system to protect data of patients being taken in public health data system, if so, the details thereof; and
- (d) whether any system is being adopted for interoperability of data between State and centre, if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (SHRI ASHWINI KUMAR CHOUBEY)

- (a) & (b): No instance of sharing of health data created in Public Health establishment with corporates has come to the notice of Government in recent past.
- (c): Government of India has proposed for an architectural framework for Digital health in India in National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB).

National  Digital  Health  Blueprint  (NDHB)  proposes  for  regulatory  requirements  to  be built into the design of Digital Health Ecosystem a priori, rather than being retrofitted.

The  Blueprint  proposes  to  achieve  complex  and  mandatory  requirements  through  a combination  of  building  blocks,  particularly  Consent  Manager,  Anonymizer  and  Security  and Privacy  Operations  Centre.  Besides  these  building  blocks,  application -specific  features  and relevant international standards defined in the Blueprint fortify the privacy regime.

National  Digital  Health  Blueprint  (NDHB)  also  advocates  for  'Ensure  security  and privacy  by  design'  and  proposed  for  a  National  Policy  on  Security  of  Health  Systems  and Privacy  of  Personal  Health  Records  which  will  be  developed  under  NDHB.  All  the  building blocks that require handling personal health records will be designed to comply with such policy ab -initio.

The National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) will facilitate the anonymization of data and Consent Framework  through appropriate software, utilities, hardware etc. ensuring conformance to NDHB principles.

(d): Ministry  of  Health  &  Family  Welfare  (MoHFW)  has  notified  the  Electronic  Health Record  (EHR)  Standards  in  December  2016  with  an  intent  to  bring  standardization  and homogeneity, interoperability in capture, storage, transmission of healthcare information across various  Information  Technology  (IT)  systems.  All  the  States/Union  Territories  Governments, Central Government and autonomous Hospitals have been advised to adopt the Electronic Health Record (EHR) standards in all Information Technology (IT) applications in Healthcare.

Metadata  and  Data  Standards  (MDDS)  for  health  has  been  notified  in  2018  to  enable semantic interoperability among healthcare applications.

The key objective of National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) includes 'data capture at once'; creation of strong facility registry for use by several actors in the ecosystem; creation of Electronic Health Record (EHR) across health facilities to ensure interoperability amongst digital health solutions. create a strong facility registry for use by several actors in the ecosystem.