Letters Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission
T
he COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the need for the adoption of digital health technologies. The Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission (PM – DHM) guidelines envisage the goal of attaining universal care including highest level of health and wellbeing at all ages through increased access and lowered cost of healthcare delivery.
Carlos Montiel - Vice President, Latin America & South Asia, ResMed
The Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission (PMDHM) is a welcome step by the government, as it will progress the journey to Universal Health Coverage. It would also enhance transparency in care delivery as well as access to information for all stakeholders, which in turn could help lower the cost to patients.
25-40 years of age. Ensuring a proper diet, exercising regularly
Dilip Jose, MD & CEO, Manipal Health Enterprises
Narayana Health City
The pan-India launch of the Digital Health ID initiative under the National Digital Health Mission is a well-timed and potentially transformational step. The easy digital access to healthcare records is going to be of great value for out-of-hospital care services such as remote monitoring or at home healthcare. Through the Digital Health ID, healthcare service providers will be able to better understand the patient’s health history and past records of illnesses or special conditions. This will be crucial while delivering care to critically ill patients on the go. At present, a lot of patients fail to get timely or the right care due to lack of information about their medical condition and past treatments. With the Digital Health ID, this problem will be resolved and doctors will make better informed and precise decisions.
The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic came as a surprise
Vaibhav Tewari, CEO, Portea Medical
system also helped me detect early warning signs of heart failure
The launch of Pradhan Mantri Digital Health Mission (PM-DHM) is a visionary step of the government to digitise healthcare in the country. With interoperable health environment, patients will now be able to upload and access securely their health records, which could be exchanged smoothly between patients and doctors upon the former’s consent. The Unique Health ID will make it possible for people of the country to avail quality care and gain better access to healthcare facilities. In the later phases, the plan is also to integrate telemedicine and e-pharmacy, which will bring in a lot more inclusivity. The creation of Electronic Medical Records (EMR) will play a crucial role in transforming the way healthcare is delivered in the country. This is an important milestone that marks democratisation of healthcare in a true sense.
and getting health check-ups done at regular intervals can help in not only averting the emergency situation that the disease can cause but also in avoiding the onset of the condition itself. Dr Praveen Sadarmin, Consultant, Interventional Cardiologist,
to many health experts, who had thought that this form of virus was eliminated. The outbreak started in December last year and cases grew exponentially over the next few months. Chronic heart failure (HF) is a major comorbidity accounting for an increased severity and mortality related to coronavirus. To reduce the risk of COVID-19 in HF patients, telemedicine was encouraged then. When the second wave led to a sharp spike in the footfall of patients, it became very challenging for me to keep up with the number of patients and write proper prescriptions for them. This is when I turned to HealthPlix EMR. Features like Video consultations with excellent video quality, automatic SMS alerts to the patients, and prescription forwarding by email have made my life easy. The EMR among my patients and provide them with the right diagnosis and adequate medical support. Dr
Indranil
Dutta,
Consultant
Interventional
Cardiologist,
Rabindranath Tagore International Institute of Cardiac Sciences, Kolkata
Dr Harshit Jain, Founder & Global CEO, Doceree Heart disease is one of the major causes of mortality in our country. Until few years ago, the disease was predominantly seen in 40-60 years of age, but now it is increasingly visible even in the younger population aged between 25-40 years of age. In the last two years there has been a rise in incidents of myocardial infarction (heart attacks) reported amongst 25-40 year olds. Sedentary lifestyle, increased consumption of processed food, lifestyle habits like consumption of alcohol and smoking are the major causes for the rise. The COVID-19 induced stress is also one of the predominant factors that contributes to the increase in heart ailments. At Narayana Health City, we are seeing around six to seven patients per month with Myocardial Infarction in the
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October 2021
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