The state government in Kerala which has the country's oldest digital health system is planning to create a database of all adults over the age of 30. State health minister Veena George made the announcement during an event on November 6, according to a report by The News Minute. Individuals will be issued health cards under the initiative which will be used to track and prevent lifestyle diseases, she said. "We plan to maintain a database with the help of MLAs, MPs and local self-governments for the purpose,” George added. Since it is not clear if the project will be part of a larger health information management system (HMIS) like the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission or Kerala's own eHealth Project, MediaNama reached out to George's office for clarity and will update the report if a response is received. Health data is regarded as sensitive data and its rapid digitisation in India has raised fears about its impact on user privacy, patient rights, cybersecurity, etc. Kerala's eHealth Project The eHealth project links health data of Kerala residents with their Aadhaar numbers, similar to what has been proposed under the nationwide ABDM. It was launched in 2017 after the state government reportedly won the Rs 96 crore health digitisation project from MeitY in 2013. Like the ABDM, the project creates Electronic Health Records (EHRs) which are linked to the patients' Aadhaar numbers and can be accessed by different hospitals; it also provides a dashboard for disease monitoring and deals with e-clinical services as well. EHRs…
