India believes in democratised access to digital health solution: Mandaviya

India believes in democratised access to all digital health solutions, promoting a culture of Global Public Goods', Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Tuesday.

Mandaviya delivered the inaugural address at an event of the 2nd G20 Health Working Group Meeting here.

The event on citizen-centric Health Delivery Ecosystems for Universal Health Coverage Leveraging Digital Health and Innovations commenced Tuesday. The event was inaugurated in the presence of Bharati Pravin Pawar, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare.

India believes in democratised access to all digital health solutions, promoting a culture of Global Public Goods," Mandaviya said as he stated that the event will explore the transformative potential of digital health and innovations that can help achieve universal health coverage.

Giving several examples of digital interventions that were used for the benefit of citizens, Mandaviya noted how data-driven insights were leveraged to guide COVID-19 management in the country and simultaneously enabled healthcare service delivery through digital means during the pandemic.

Similarly, he noted how the largest government-funded health insurance scheme in the world, PM-JAY was providing secondary and tertiary care services to 500 million Indian citizens in a paperless and cashless manner.

Pawar noted India's journey to becoming a digitally empowered nation and the need for digital health ecosystems for patient-centric healthcare services. She highlighted India's collaboration with WHO to achieve the objectives envisioned under Global Strategy on Digital Health and its work towards promoting Digital Public Goods with specific focus on Global South.

The inaugural session was followed by a panel discussion on creating a harmonised global digital health ecosystem, focusing on using digital public goods to unlock the full potential of digital technology and curbing the digital divide.