India, Netherlands discuss joint initiative in e-health initiative

India and the Netherlands on Friday discussed a joint thrust in e-health sector with the purpose of providing digital health facilities and security to Indians and helping the Netherlands accelerate the digital transformation of health.

Part of India's ambitious National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), this collaboration will see the two countries work closely to create capacities and put in place the requisite technology backbone to enable this revolutionary initiative, according to a statement.

The NDHM, unveiled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Independence Day, aims to create a mechanism to improve healthcare significantly and provide better access to it.

The statement was released by management consultancy firm Primus Partners which hosted a web-based workshop where the collaboration was discussed at length.

"This is a wonderful opportunity to tap the growing potential of the digital health sector. NDHM is a revolutionary idea and vast in scope. Merging technology with traditional health knowledge is a novel idea," Indian Ambassador to the Netherlands, Venu Rajamony, said.

"Where the Netherlands comes in is not just as an economic partner, but also as a proponent of e-health. The Netherlands and Europe are world-leaders in this space and their experience will see India benefit tremendously as it rolls out this digital health initiative, he added.

Lav Agarwal, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said the Indian government has already embarked on a journey towards creating a national level Digital Health Ecosystem integrating in its ambit multitude of ongoing efforts.

"The National Digital Health Blueprint provides for the architectural approach towards realising the goal of longitudinal electronic health record. A mission mode approach is being followed through launch of National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) in that direction. The activities have already been embarked in selected Union territories under pilot phase, he said.