National Health Stack (NHS) :

India's  digital infrastructure for national health database

National Health Stack (NHS)

NHS is digital infrastructure built with the aim of making the health insurance system more transparent and robust. 

Ayushman Bharat, the world’s largest government-funded health insurance programme is progressing towards Universal Health Coverage (UHC), the challenge of making quality and affordable healthcare accessible to every one of India’s 135 crore citizens has acquired an altogether new dimension.

National Health Stack -Components 

Effective use of  Digital technology is critical to this project — the National Health Stack comes in. It takes into account the uniqueness of India’s healt system.  There are five components of NHS:

1. .An electronic national health registry that would serve as a single source of health data for the nation;

2. Coverage and claims platform that would serve as the building blocks for large health protection schemes, allow for the horizontal and vertical expansion of schemes like Ayushman Bharat by states, and enable a robust system of fraud detection;

3. Federated personal health records (PHR) framework that would serve the twin purposes of access to their own health data by patients, and the availability of health data for medical research, which is critical for advancing the understanding of human health;

4. National health analytics platform that would provide a holistic view combining information on multiple health initiatives, and feed into smart policymaking, for instance, through improved predictive analytics; and

5. Horizontal components including a unique digital health ID, health data dictionaries and supply chain management for drugs, payment gateways, etc., shared across all health programmes

National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB)

            

Purpose 

The NDHB is the architectural document for the implementation of the NHS. It proposes to create a national digital health ecosystem that supports universal health coverage in an efficient, accessible, inclusive, affordable, timely and safe manner, through provision of a wide range of data, information, and infrastructure services, duly leveraging open, interoperable, standards-based digital systems, and ensuring the security, confidentiality and privacy of health-related personal information.

Features 

The key features of the blueprint include a federated architecture, a set of architectural principles, a five-layered system of architectural building blocks, a unique health ID (UHID), privacy and consent management, national portability, electronic health records, applicable standards and regulations, health analytics and, above all, multiple access channels like call centres, Digital Health India portal, and the MyHealth app. A total of 23 such building blocks have been identified in the blueprint for the NHS to become a viable reality.

References

National Digital Health BluePrint Report