National Digital Health Mission: Comments invited on consultation paper on unified health interface

PTI, Jul 24, 2021, 12:47 PM IST

New Delhi: In view of the upcoming rollout of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), a consultation paper providing an overview of the proposed design, scope and role of the Unified Health Interface (UHI) has been released seeking comments from the public.

The National Health Authority (NHA), which has been mandated to design and roll out NDHM in the country, in a statement on Saturday said that comments from the public have been invited to ensure that UHI is designed and developed in a collaborative and consultative manner.

The consultation paper provides an overview of the proposed design, scope and role of Unified Health Interface. Through UHI, the NDHM aims to transform the way digital health services are rendered in India. Currently, patients and healthcare providers need to be on the same application to avail and provide digital health services, the NHA said.

”It is envisioned that the open network created by UHI will serve as the digital infrastructure for patients and healthcare providers to engage in the discovery, booking, payment and fulfilment of a variety of digital health services across applications,” it said.

The services include. but are not limited to, teleconsultation and the discovery of pharmacies and hospitals. Over time, the services enabled by the platform will evolve with the market ecosystem. UHI is designed to be similar to the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) ecosystem which has emerged for digital payments.

Since the launch of the pilot of NDHM in August 2020 in six Union Territories, multiple rounds of consultations with different groups of stakeholders have been held for the various building blocks to discuss the design and adoption.

NDHM will continue this engagement with stakeholders and ensure that development is inclusive, and diverse viewpoints are incorporated from stakeholders concerned.

Giving his views on the consultation papers, Dr RS Sharma, CEO of, National Health Authority, said the National Digital Health Mission is endeavouring to make digital public goods for the healthcare industry to make it more accessible, affordable and efficient.

”To facilitate this, we are taking a consultative approach to develop the National Digital Health Ecosystem. We have come up with the concept of Unified Health Interface], designed on the lines of UPI which has revolutionized digital payments and the financial sector. To enable inclusivity and widen the perspectives, I urge all stakeholders to go through the shared consultation papers and provide us with their valuable feedback,” he said.

Comments and feedback can be emailed to [email protected] till August 23.