Context: The National Health Authority (NHA) under its Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) scheme is enabling digital interventions for bringing efficiency to the delivery of healthcare services. One such initiative is Scan and Share service.
Scan and Share service
- Scan and Share service enables instant registrations for patients at OPD (Out-patient Department) blocks of participating hospitals via direct sharing of their ABHA profile.
- The service works on a simple modality of QR-code based direct information sharing.
- The participating hospitals display their unique QR codes at their patient registration counters.
- The patients use their smartphones to scan the QR codes using the supported mobile Apps for the service (ABHA app, Aarogya Setu etc.)
- The patient then creates their ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) or logs in to their existing account. Then, the patients can directly share their ABHA profile with the hospital to complete their registration without having to fill the form physically.
- This paperless registration results in instant token generation thereby helping the patients skip the long queue by simply using their ABHA.
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ANDM) aims to develop the necessary backbone to support integrated digital health infrastructure in India. However, the participation of citizens and healthcare facility is voluntary in ABDM.
Components of ABDM:
- ABHA Number: An individual/citizen/patient will be provided with a randomly generated 14-digit number known as ABHA for uniquely identifying a person in the digital health ecosystem, authenticating himself and linking his health records with consent across multiple systems and stakeholders.
- Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR): Comprehensive registry of all healthcare professionals involved in healthcare services across both modern and traditional systems of medicine.
- Health Facility Registry (HFR): Comprehensive registry of health facilities (Hospitals, clinics, diagnostic labs, imaging centres, pharmacies etc.) across different systems of medicines including both public and private health facilities.
- Unified Health Interface (UHI): An open protocol for various digital health services focusing on End User Applications and participating Health Service Provider applications such as appointment booking, teleconsultation, service discovery etc.