Revised Draft of Health Data Management Policy

On 23^rd April, 2022, the National Health Authority (NHA) revised the draft Health Data Management (HDM) policy with the objective to protect individuals’ personal data.

• The key objective of HDM policy is to provide adequate guidance and to set out a framework for the secure processing of personal and sensitive personal data of individuals who are a part of the NDHE in compliance with all applicable laws.

Major Highlights: It acts as a guidance document across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE).

• It sets out the minimum standard for data privacy protection that should be followed across the board in order to ensure compliance with relevant and applicable laws, rules and regulations.
• The provisions of this Policy shall be applicable to all the entities and individuals who are part of the Ayushman Bharat ecosystem.
• It seeks to safeguard digital personal data within the ambit of the NDHE, including the Personal Health Identifier, the electronic health records and electronic medical records.

Impact: Creating System of Digital Health Records: This is easily accessible to individuals and healthcare service providers and is voluntary in nature, based on the consent of individuals, and in compliance with relevant standards.

• Leveraging Information Systems: This will also work to leverage the information systems existing in the Indian health sector by encouraging conformity with the defined data privacy standards and integrating such existing systems with NDHE.