Welcome to a New Year 2022. I am joining as Professor and Head, Department of Digital Health Research at Santiniketan Digital Research Centre, attached to the Santiniketan Medical College, Bolpur, West Bengal, India. This has been a long journey since I had been involved with the Centre for Digital Health in Amrita Hospitals, Kochi, There we had started the first MSc (Medical Informatics) course in India from 2005. However, as it was way ahead of the times, it had to be discontinued by three years.
Now, with India embracing the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), which aims to develop the backbone necessary to support the nationally integrated digital health infrastructure, it is expected to bridge the existing gap amongst different stakeholders of Healthcare ecosystem through digital highways. The National Resource Centre for EHR standards (NRCeS) at C-DAC, Pune is working very hard to offer practical solutions to the teething problems of adopting EHR Standards and the National Digital Health Blueprint (NDHB). These are all the manifestations of the third edition of the National Health Policy (2017). Apart from the EHR Standards recommended by MoHFW (2nd ed, 2016), NDHB had also recommended HL7 FHIR R4. The FHIR (India) Profiles for ABDM Health Data Interchange Specifications, which are being developed by a very active FHIR India community, are being vetted and maintained by NRCeS.
Another encouraging development has been the enactment of National Commission for Allied and Healthcare. Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021. Under the National Commission there will be ten National Councils of which the tenth one is the National Council for Health Information Management and Health Informatic Professionals. Prior to this the erstwhile Medical Council of India had proposed the Competency based Medical Education (CBME) for the Indian Medical Graduate. There one of the goals (2.3.2) of the learner is to be a leader and member of the healthcare team and system with capabilities to collect, analyze, synthesize and communicate health data appropriately.
Therefore, I would like to welcome 2022 as a landmark year that will usher digital health in India in a big way.
