A healthy balance (Indian Express)

Mains Paper 3 : Science and Tech
Prelims level : National Digital Health Blueprint
Mains level : Requirement of National Digital Health Blueprint

Context

• The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has released a National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB) to “manage and analyse” the big data generated by the Centre’s flagship health programme, Ayushman Bharat.
• Released by the MoHFW Minister, Harsh Vardhan, on Monday, the document recommends the “setting up of a National Digital Health Mission” to create an “ecosystem” that would bring together the health records of people who have benefited from Ayushman Bharat.

Key impacts of National Digital Health Blueprint

• Doctors in both the public and private sectors regularly complain about the lack of comprehensive records of their patients, the digital registry envisaged by the NDHB could fulfill a longstanding requirement of the health sector.
• The proposed data compendium is also in keeping with global trends in healthcare where digital technology is used to make treatment options more personalised and precise.
• Big data can also be used to prevent epidemics and improve the efficiency of drugs

Caution about data theft

• Concerns about the large-scale creation, collection and sharing of health data are, however, pressing.
• The most serious of these pertain to the privacy of patients, and data breaches.

Constitutional safeguards

• Sections 43(a) and 72 of the Information Technology Act do provide the broad framework for the protection of personal information in India, including medical data.
• However, data breaches in the digital domain are not uncommon. In 2016, for example, the electronic medical records of over 35,000 patients held by a Maharashtra-based pathology lab were leaked.
• The NDHB does seem to be alive to such concerns. It states that the architecture of the digital systems will have in-built safeguards to ensure privacy.

Steps needs to be taken

• However, it must also be kept in mind that Ayushman Bharat targets the poorest section of the country’s population with low levels of digital literacy.
• In such a context, a system that places the onus of control on the user, with an assumption that they can control the flow of information, can end up doing more harm than good.
• Last year, the MoHFW framed a draft Digital Information Security in Healthcare Act (DISHA).
• The proposed legislation recognised that existing laws were inadequate to protect the privacy of patients in the digital domain.

Way forward

• In contrast with the blueprint released on Monday, DISHA placed the onus of data protection on the service provider.
• The draft was criticised by industry bodies, which feared the stifling of medical research. DISHA never made it to Parliament.
• In view of its recent emphasis on digital medical data, the MoHFW would do well to revisit this draft legislation and seek a balance between the concerns of industry and the rights of patients.

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Prelims Questions:

Q.1) With respect to “National Dairy Development Board (NDDB)”, consider the following statements:
1. It is an Institution of National Importance set up by an Act of Parliament of India.
2. Mother Dairy, Delhi and Indian Immunologicals Ltd, Hyderabad are a subsidiary of NDDB.

Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
A. 1 only
B. 2 only
C. Both
D. None

Answer: C
Mains Questions:
Q.1) What are the implications of the project to digitise Ayushman Bharat records should be alive to concerns of privacy and rights of patients?