Lok Sabha Question No. 1860 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-12
Subject: National Digital Health Mission
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Kinjarapu Ram Mohan Naidu, L.S. Tejasvi Surya, Srinivas Kesineni, Dr. T. Sumathy (a) Thamizhachi Thangapandian, Kani K. Navas

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

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1860 TO BE ANSWERED ON 12 TH  February, 2021

## NATIONAL DIGITAL HEALTH MISSION

## 1860.   SHRI RAM MOHAN NAIDU KINJARAPU:

SHRI L.S. TEJASVI SURYA:

SHRI KESINENI SRINIVAS:

DR. T. SUMATHY (a) THAMIZHACHI THANGAPANDIAN:

SHRI K. NAVASKANI:

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

- (a) whether the Government has announced National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), if so, the details thereof along with the areas of its operation/implementation and the budget allocated for the same;
- (b) whether registration for generation of Health IDs under the National Digital Health Mission has been made mandatory for all the citizens and if so, the laws and rules for doing so;
- (c)  whether  the  Government  has  consulted  experts  for  National  Digital  Health  Mission  and National Digital Health ID projects, if so, the details thereof along with the companies and firms roped in for National Health Data Management Policy;
- (d) the present status of issuance of Health IDs in the places of operation along with the number of IDs issued and budget allocated and spent till date; State/ UT-wise;
- (e) the details of the data to be collected and the competent authorities who are allowed to gain access to personal medical data under the NDHM and the criteria for gaining such access along with steps taken to ensure the data privacy of the health records of citizen; and
- (f) whether the Government has taken note of the concerns raised with regard to data privacy of the individuals, if so, the details thereof and necessary steps taken in this regard?

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

- (a): On  15 th August  2020,  Hon'ble  Prime  Minister,  Shri  Narendra  Modi  announced  the National Digital Health  Mission (NDHM) following which NDHM pilot was launched in the Union  Territories  of  Chandigarh,  Ladakh,  Dadra  and  Nagar  Haveli  and  Daman  and  Diu, Puducherry, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep.

- (b): Creation  of  Health  ID  under  National  Digital  Health  Mission  is  not  mandatory  for citizens.
- (c): Stakeholder consultations for NDHM and NDHM building blocks were conducted with participation  from  various  state  medical  councils,  medical  associations,  hospitals,  insurance companies,  licensing  authorities,  officials  from  central  and  state  governments,  development organizations and NGOs and software developers/technical partners in July, 2020.
- Shri  J.  Satyanarayana,  (retd.  IAS  1977,  Andhra  Pradesh  cadre)  Senior  Advisor-IT,  NHA  was also consulted in this regard.

The services of M/s Vidhi Centre for Legal Policy were obtained for Health Data Management Policy.

- (d): The status of issuance of Health IDs in the 6 UTs where NDHM pilot has been rolled out, as on 8 th February 2021 is as under:

| UT                                 | No. of Health IDs created   |
|------------------------------------|-----------------------------|
| Andaman &Nicobar Islands           | 2,04,353                    |
| Lakshadweep                        | 19,569                      |
| Ladakh                             | 57,460                      |
| Dadra &Nagar Haveli and Daman &Diu | 75,886                      |
| Puducherry                         | 3,10,015                    |
| Chandigarh                         | 1,38,391                    |
| Total                              | 8,05,674                    |

The budget allocated for Health IDs for the year 2020-21 is Rs 1.06 cr. The expenditure on Health IDs till 31.12.2020 is Rs 52.02 lakhs.

There is no provision for state/UT wise budget and expenditure.

- (e) & (f): An individual may choose to create a Health-ID under the NDHM. Upon opting to  create  a  Health-ID,  only  basic  demographic  and  geographic  information  of  the  beneficiary like name, year of birth, gender, mobile number and address are collected.

This system can be used to create Personal Health Records for each individual wherein records generated by various Health Information Providers like doctors, healthcare facilities and laboratories can be collated and viewed by that individual and by healthcare providers with the consent of the individual only.

The  data  pertaining  to  medical  records  will  be  stored  in  a  federated  architecture  as described in the National Digital Health Blueprint released by the Government of India in 2019. This  data  is  being  captured  even  now  as  a  part  of  doctor-patient  or  healthcare  providerindividual interaction. Under the NDHM, it shall be possible for other healthcare providers to access this data with the consent of the individual concerned. The health data pertaining to an individual will remain at the facility level only and no central repository of medical records is envisaged to be created in NDHM.

The Government gives highest priority to data security  and privacy.  It is inbuilt in the design of NDHM. All applicable laws, rules and judgments of Hon'ble Supreme Court are being followed.  Health  Data  Management  Policy  has  also  been  approved.  Apart  from  various  legal provisions, all technical solutions possible to ensure data privacy and security are being put in place.

As mentioned in the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB), the guiding document for  NDHM implementation,  use  of  secure  health  networks  and  government  community  cloud infrastructure, as defined by MeitY, is being used for hosting of data. All events on this cloud infrastructure would  be under 24x7  surveillance to ensure highly secure environment.

One  of  the  key  aspects  of  information  security  framework  under  NDHM  highlights Privacy by Design as one of the key guiding principles. It aims to ensure that health data and its transfer are always compliant and adhere to all privacy requirements. All the building blocks that require handling personal health records are being designed to comply with such policy ab -initio.

Further,  medical  records  are  made  available  to  anyone  only  with  the  consent  of  the individual or his/her nominee.