Health e-cards for newborns soon
It sounds rather futuristic, but if a plan being prepared by the Centre works out, every newborn will soon be the proud possessor of an electronic health card.
By Malathy Iyer, TNN |
MUMBAI: It sounds rather futuristic, but if a plan being prepared by the Centre works out, every newborn will soon be the proud possessor of an electronic health card. An ambitious initiative by the Union health ministry promises to have the health data of every Indian, young and old, available at the click of a mouse.
TOI was told about the project—called the Indian Health Information Network Development or I-HIND—by Union minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi during his visit to Mumbai on Monday on the eve of National AIDS Day.
While Trivedi refused to give a time frame for the ambitious project, he said that the digital age health idea would begin with storing every neonate’s health details like date of birth, blood group and vaccination schedules. “If parents want a birth certificate, they only need to download it from the common health network instead of bribing some civic officials for a copy,’’ he said.
If this sounds similar to former Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani’s high-profile Unique ID plan, it’s because there is an overlap here. “The e-health project is being planned along with technocrat Sam Pitroda’s National Knowledge Commission as well as Nilekani,’’ Trivedi told TOI.
The idea was discussed at a meeting of the working group on health innovation at the health ministry on November 28. The draft plan will be submitted by March 5, 2010.
TOI was told about the project—called the Indian Health Information Network Development or I-HIND—by Union minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi during his visit to Mumbai on Monday on the eve of National AIDS Day.
While Trivedi refused to give a time frame for the ambitious project, he said that the digital age health idea would begin with storing every neonate’s health details like date of birth, blood group and vaccination schedules. “If parents want a birth certificate, they only need to download it from the common health network instead of bribing some civic officials for a copy,’’ he said.
If this sounds similar to former Infosys chief Nandan Nilekani’s high-profile Unique ID plan, it’s because there is an overlap here. “The e-health project is being planned along with technocrat Sam Pitroda’s National Knowledge Commission as well as Nilekani,’’ Trivedi told TOI.
The idea was discussed at a meeting of the working group on health innovation at the health ministry on November 28. The draft plan will be submitted by March 5, 2010.
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