Digital health mission not a click away, infra and privacy issues remain

Lack of clarity on data-sharing persists, Public health experts sceptic about the pilot that was run in six Union territories as benchmark for national roll-out

India’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is an idea whose time has come, but the road ahead looks thorny. The initiative has the potential to, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi put it, “bring revolutionary changes in India’s health facilities”.

The challenges are multifold: lack of clarity on a host of issues from data-sharing and compatibility to concerns related to infrastructure and privacy need to be addressed. 

On the plus side, with the digital health initiative, not only will patients and doctors find it easier to access medical history and get better prognosis, but the most granular data could also drive