Singular information gathered by the government from individuals who select the government’s extraordinary digital health identity (ID) number will have complete control over its usage, National Health Authority (NHA), the central government organization that is executing the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) said.

All information connected to the Health ID will be anonymized before it will be made accessible to government organizations for policy-making or public health intervention purposes, the authority claims. NHA has just revealed the plan on a pilot premise in six Union Territories to be specific Puducherry, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Ladakh, Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Daman and Diu, and Lakshadweep.

In communication with Business Today, Dr. Praveen Gedam, Additional CEO, NHA said the individual will be the master of their information that is stored digitally under NDHM. “Security/privacy is inbuilt into the design. There is no way a hacker or a mischief monger is going to be allowed to enter into the system. We have enough expertise in our country to ensure that this data can be stored in an extremely secure fashion and Aadhaar is the best example of that. Similarly, the data will be owned by the data principal, the person to which the data belongs. It will not be possible for anybody else to access that data including the National Health Authority,” Dr. Gedam said.

As indicated by him, the information will be available just to the doctor, just on the consent of the patient. “We will allow partial consent. This means to consent to access only selected medical records or give consent to access for a limited period, and also provision to withdraw the consent, if need be, before the time is over. So the patient will be the master of data, and in case the patient is incapable of giving consent, then the legal nominee who is supposed to give consent in the present physical system shall be in a position to give consent. These legal features also take into account various guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court in various judgments. I can assure you on behalf of the government of India that the data privacy and security have been given paramount importance while designing this particular mission,” clarified.

Health ID is one of three modules that are important for NDHM propelled by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on August 15. The other two are DigiDoctor and Health Facility Registry (HFR). While Digi-Doctor is a repository of all doctors practicing or teaching modern/ traditional systems of medication, HFR is a repository of health facilities – both public and private hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories, and imaging centers, pharmacies, and so on – of the nation across various systems of medication.