You are reading it here first: A pilot project to generate and facilitate the sharing of electronic health records (EHRs) of residents will be conducted in two districts of Telangana, according to a tender released by the state government's Health and Family Welfare (HFW) department. The tender proposes to digitise health records of approximately 3 lakh adults living in the Rajanna Siricilla and Mulug districts, and collect data like their bloodwork, demographics, weight, height, etc. Additionally, a health data analytics platform is also mentioned in the tender. If successful, the pilot will be expanded to all districts of Telangana for which a fresh tender will be issued. After the launch of the central government's Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), multiple state health digitisation projects have popped up. Such projects need to have adequate safeguards in place as health data is sensitive and may lead to distress and discrimination if mishandled by third parties or government authorities themselves. What data will be collected? Data will be collected through a door-to-door survey by ASHA workers, auxilliary male nurses, anganwadi workers, etc. It will include: Demographic data from the Village Health Records. The tender said that this should be identified using district, mandal, village, mobile, and Aadhaar numbers. According to the tender, the state health department is maintaining VHRs in the two districts which have to be linked to the EHRs. However these records will have to remain editable. Blood sample will be collected to find out the blood group from a government diagnostic centre.…
