Bihar has decided to take cues from the Indian government's proposed National Digital Health Mission and digitise the health records of residents at a local level. Starting from September 1, the Bihar government rolled out its health records digitisation pilot to various parts of Nalanda district in partnership with health-tech company eHealthSystems, according to a report by Hindustan Times. The digitised medical records hosted on eHealthSystems' software will reportedly be made accessible through a login ID and password. The NDHM - a multi-layered digital health infrastructure - was launched last year by the government, with expectations that it will lead to more teleconsultations and the creation of lifelong, electronic health records for all Indians. The union government has already enrolled over 11 crore people into its digital health mission, but it has also been criticised for not taking informed consent from citizens during the registration process. Bihar's pilot project signals yet another form of expansion of the health mission with other Indian states likely to follow suit. The Bihar government has already enrolled nearly 3,000 people into the pilot and targets 7,000 more. In the future, this data could be integrated into the database of the NDHM, according to the state authorities involved. In detail: How the pilot is being conducted MediaNama spoke to Swapnil Chitnis, Manager, Operations at eHealthSystems who is in charge of the project, as well as Dr. Ambarish Darak, director of eHealthSystems, to learn more about the initiative. How people are being enrolled: Free of cost,…
