Neha
Neha
Neha
Executive Summary
This note brings out relevance and importance of the proposed National
eHealth Authority (NeHA) as a promotional, regulatory and standards
setting organization to guide and support Indias journey in e-Health and
consequent realization of benefits of ICT intervention in Health sector in
an orderly way. It also spells out the proposed functions and governance
mechanism of NeHA. These draw from earlier recommendations of high
level bodies in India as also global experience.
1. Background
1.1 Indian Health Care System
The Indian health care system is one of Indias largest and most
complex sectors. It delivers services to a diverse population of
approximately 1.24 billion across a wide range of geographic and
socioeconomic settings. Services are provided by a complex network of
public and private care providers, ranging from a single doctor rural
PHCs (Primary Health Centres) to specialty and super-specialty health
care institutions like the medical college hospitals in the public sector
1
India spends around 4.1% of GDP on health, of which only about 1.1% is
the contribution of the government. Out of pocket expenses are high at
over 60%, much higher than most of the countries in the world. Given
that India today enjoys a demographic dividend which can contribute to
the productivity and prosperity of the nation, the healthcare system is
specially and fundamentally important to the country from both an
economic and social perspective. A health population underpins strong
economic growth, community well-being and prosperity.
Indias disease burden
Cardiovascular
diseases
26%,
Cancers
7%,
Chronic
respiratory
human memory to an
Over a period, many of the public and private hospitals have developed
their own healthcare systems or hospital information systems that have
served patients well, but without a focus on standards adoption, or the
interoperability aspect and interconnection of systems across hospital
settings that can lead to continuity of care leading to ineffective results.
Such non-interoperable discrete islands of information have created
significant barriers to the effective sharing of information between
healthcare participants, an issue compounded by Indias multiple health
service boundaries and geographic distances. It also poses real
challenges when trying to understand and report what is really
happening in the Indian healthcare system to support population health
surveillance and guide policy, service planning, innovation and clinician
and operational decision making.
information
commonplace
an
and
occurrence.
delivery
management
Consequently,
are
patients
all
too
health
Doctors and other service providers will have to adjust their work flow in
order to incorporate EHR use, and also to use the information gained for
5
continuous improvement of their health care delivery. They may not also
be organized in a standardized / systematic way - either in the way they
report / analyze the data but need to do so progressively.
together
national
e-Health
system
can
be
extremely
their organization. EHRs helps providers to: better manage care for
patients by providing accurate, up-to-date, and complete information
about patients at the point of care; access patient records quickly for
more coordinated, efficient care; share electronic information securely
with patients and other clinicians; diagnose patients more effectively,
reduce medical errors and provide safer care; prescribe more reliably
and safer; promote legible, complete documentation and accurate,
streamlined
coding
and
billing;
improve
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
Better access
U.K., Australia and Singapore have been other prominent countries who
have taken initiatives for setting up nationwide e-Health since then.
In U.K., NHS is the provider of healthcare services for all and is funded
through general taxation. Department of Health is responsible for
national plans. National Program for IT (NPfIT) has been put in place to
provide the information infrastructure. After some early hiccups, U.K. has
progressed in terms of creating NHS Care Records Service (NHS CRS)
to improve the sharing of records of consenting patients across the NHS,
providing patients access to their own records, providing a system for
electronic transmission of prescriptions, creating a Picture Archiving and
Communication
System,
ensuring
secure
broadband
network
In Australia, National e-Health Transition Authority (NEHTA) is a not-forprofit company set up by Federal, State and Territory governments to
develop better ways of electronically collecting and securely exchanging
health information. NEHTA is in a unique position to influence key eHealth policy and regulation. It supports Australian healthcare system by
improving the quality of healthcare services, by enabling authorized
clinicians to access a patients integrated healthcare information and
history, directly sourced from clinical notes, test results and prescriptions
using standardized clinical data formats and terminologies; streamlining
multi-disciplinary care management, enabling seamless handovers of
care by ensuring efficient electronic referrals; improving clinical and
administrative efficiency, by standardizing certain types of healthcare
information to be recorded in e-Health systems; maintaining high
standards of patient privacy and information security and the like.
In Singapore, the National e-Policy to promote the use of ICT across all
sectors has been extremely effective, as has been the public funding for
ICT
support
of
programs
addressing
national
health
priorities.
There are over thirty other countries who are building up valuable
experiences in nationwide e-Health adoption, though none has truly
completed the full scale adoption. ITU included adoption of e-Health as a
strategic priority from 2008 onwards.
11
2.1 Mission
NeHA will be the nodal authority that will be responsible for development
of an Integrated Health Information System (including Telemedicine and
mHealth) in India, while collaborating with all the stakeholders, viz.,
healthcare providers, consumers, healthcare technology industries, and
policymakers. It will also be responsible for enforcing the laws &
regulations relating to the privacy and security of the patients health
information & records.
c)
2.3 In the light of the above, National e-Health Authority (NeHA) has been
envisaged to support:
a) Formulation of policies, strategies and implementation plan blueprint (National eHealth Policy / Strategy) for coordinated eHealth
12
i.
priorities and road-map in respect of eHealth adoption by all stakeholders, both Public and Private providers, formulate policies for
eHealth adoption that are best suited to Indian context and enable
accelerated health outcomes in terms of access, affordability, quality
and reduction in disease mortality & morbidity
ii.
plans are adopted and other policy, regulatory and legal provisions are
implemented by both the public & private sector stakeholders.
iii.
mHealth.
13
b.
Standards Development
i.
ii.
c.
i.
ii.
e. Capacity Building
Spreading awareness on Health Informatics / eHealth to healthcare
delivery professionals through various educational initiatives and flexible
courses according to the background of the learners will form a
component of NeHA activities, as it is seen as critical to acceleration of
adoption of eHealth.
f. Other functions may be assigned to NeHA as the situation warrants.
2.5 Governance
The Authority will have a Chairman and four full time members. The
tentative composition of NeHA may be as follows:
b) Three full time Members: They shall be from the following fields:Medicine,
Public
Health,
IT
Standards,
Health
c) Member Secretary: Same as above but shall also discharge the role
of co-ordination and effective functioning of the Authority.
15
Ministry
of
Health
&
Family
Welfare
(4)
{AS&DG(CGHS),
Conclusion
Health being a state subject in India and much depends on the ability /
regulatory framework enacted by the State governments, NeHA shall be
created through legislation (Act of Parliament) that empowers it to take
leadership and strategic role for setting directions for public and private
eHealth initiatives, including electronic health records storage and health
information exchange capabilities and other related health information
technology efforts & regulation of the same.
NeHA shall ensure ongoing interagency cooperation while engaging
with various stakeholders through the Standing Consultative Committee
and also through other means, in a structured, open and transparent
manner to support successful evolution of national integrated health
information system.
17
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------References
1. NKC report
http://knowledgecommission.gov.in/downloads/documents/wg_healt
h.pdf
2. HLEG recommendations
http://planningcommission.nic.in/reports/genrep/rep_uhc0812.pdf
3. EHR Standards for India http://mohfw.nic.in/showfile.php?lid=1672
4. Health MMP DPR
5. Sarbadhikari SN, The State of Medical Informatics in India: A
Roadmap for optimal organization, J. Medical Systems, 2005, 29:
125-141.
6. Integrated Health Information Architecture Power to the Users,
Design, Development and Use, Jorn Braa and Sundeep Sahay,
Matrix Publications, 2012
7. Electronic Health Record, Standards, Coding Systems, Frameworks
and Infrastructures, Pradeep K Sinha, Gaur Sunder et al., IEEE
Press, John Wiley Press, 2013
8. IT Act, 2008
http://deity.gov.in/sites/upload_files/dit/files/downloads/itact2000/it_a
mendment_act2008.pdf
9. CCA, DeitY http://cca.gov.in/cca/index.php
10. STQC, DeitY www.stqc.gov.in/
11. TRAI act www.trai.gov.in/
12. IRDA act https://www.irda.gov.in/
13. Clinical Establishment Act
http://clinicalestablishments.nic.in/WriteReadData/386.pdf
14. Electronic Delivery of Services Act
http://egovreach.in/uploads/presentation/kohima/Electronic_Service_
Delivery.pdf
15. Open Standards for e-Governance, DeitY
http://www.nic.in/services/e-Governance%20Standards
18
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
19