As the Ayushman Bharat Digital Health Mission (ABDM), previously known as the National Digital Health Mission, gains footing across the country, Bengaluru-based health-tech startup Eka.Care has announced that it has received authorisation to facilitate issuing health IDs (UHID). Eka.Care is supposed to be one of the first private organisations to receive such permission, according to a report by The Free Press Journal. MediaNama checked the NDHM's list of approved sandbox integrators and found that Eka.Care was included in the list. An app-based platform, Eka.Care provides storage of health records, allows doctors to manage and get appointments, and lets diagnostic labs send digitised reports as well. The ABDM's health data management policy (HDMP) laid down that private organisations looking to help issue health IDs must register with it. It is important to note which organisations have received a nod to help issue Health IDs as digital health platforms have previously been accused of playing fast and loose with sensitive medical data; the government itself has been accused of not obtaining informed consent when generating Health IDs during India's vaccination drive. What does the Health Data Management Policy under ABDM say? According to its data policy, the organisation completes registration and the ABDM provides it with an authorisation key that enables access to the services required to issue a health ID. After this, the organisation has to verify the identity of an individual whose health ID is being generated. The verification could be through Aadhaar or any other mechanism. The policy also lays…
