Agartala, April 29, 2024: Tripura’s National Health Mission (NHM) has embarked on a pioneering endeavor to bolster healthcare provision through the introduction of digital health records for patients and healthcare providers alike, spanning public and private sectors across the state.
Under the auspices of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), Binoy Bhusan Das, NHM Tripura’s Additional Mission Director, underscored the significance of this initiative. “Our goal is to seamlessly integrate healthcare professionals, pharmacies, and laboratories onto a unified digital platform,” he emphasized during a press briefing held at NHM’s state headquarters in Agartala.
The cornerstone of this initiative is the issuance of Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) cards to patients, each linked to a unique identification number. “These cards will serve as a comprehensive repository of individuals’ medical histories, facilitating access to prescriptions, test reports, treatments, and other critical health information,” Das elaborated.
With patient consent, healthcare providers can access these records with ease, streamlining healthcare delivery processes. Presently, 15,52,561 individuals have been equipped with ABHA cards, marking widespread adoption. Furthermore, the implementation of “scan and share” technology, utilizing QR codes, enables automatic uploading of patient data to hospital servers upon scanning, expediting digital appointment allocation with doctors.
This initiative extends beyond public institutions, aiming to enroll private practitioners, retired doctors, laboratories, nursing homes, and pharmacies into the system, thereby ensuring comprehensive healthcare data availability to the government. Approximately 5,000 doctors, encompassing various medical disciplines, are estimated to be eligible for enrollment, with 1,500 already enlisted.
In a bid to encourage widespread participation, Das said that special registration camps are scheduled to be held on May 3rd and 10th at all district headquarters for new healthcare facilities, followed by similar drives on May 17th and 24th at the 23 subdivision headquarters.
