Blockchain tech in healthcare

What is ABHA? ABHA or Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission is a 14-digit unique identity number, which the Government of India is trying to create in its centralized database for all health-related issues for the population of India.

Now, this is the most secured access and it is used to digitally manage your healthcare data, which is private, confidential, and can only be accessed by user’s consent. So, the patient generally is given the key to his or her data, and this data is interoperable in the entire Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission ecosystem. That is the whole idea of creating ABHA and most importantly with ABHA number, you can have your personal health record attached to it. It is like you can put all the data into something like Digi Locker called as the health locker.

Creating an ABHA number from the ABHA portal is very easy, hassle-free, and equitable, whether you come from a rural background or urban society, and does not take much time to create it.

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission was started with an idea to think big, start small, scale fast as a mantra. And Ayushman Bharat, which means blessings of longevity for indians, is a national flagship initiative financed by the federal government for the healthcare delivery system. It was launched in 2018, the momentum has picked up only during and after the Covid, and it has taken care of 500 million population, i.e., 50 crore people, which means 10 crore families of five each and each of them is covered for an insurance of ₹5 lakh, which is portable across India. Already over 4 crore people have taken benefit worth ₹80,000 crore across India. The government has very clear vision that it must be inclusive, it must be affordable, it must be available across India, and above all decrease out-of-pocket expenses.

Else this brings vulnerable population into the poverty zone, which will be prevented avoided by this scheme. With the experience of having set up the world’s largest identity database Aadhaar and most sophisticated digital payment system UPI, the government has now launched the world’s largest healthcare initiative Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which is supposed to stitch the silos in the Indian healthcare system and unlock new sources of efficiency and value, as was seen and evidenced in the use cases, such as pharma supply chain, verification and approval of fertilizer subsidies, verification of university-issued certificates, and transfer of land records in the country, all through a technology called blockchain. Blockchain, as you know, is a distributed ledger that is immutable, which cannot have any changes made. Therefore, it becomes more secure, more confidential, more private, and health data requires all of this.

At its essence, blockchain is an unlimited and immutable data ledger. The data on a blockchain is stored and repeated on to different unrelated nodes or computers, creating a decentralized database that cannot be altered or controlled from any one node or computer. It is a kind of a strict record keeping technology that provides transparency and auditability, so by design, it adds more levels of oversight, where issues can be quickly flagged. The emergence of this technology is a game changer for the healthcare industry, and will cause a market disruption in the years to come.

When blockchain technology is used in conjunction with telehealth, it can create the most efficient interaction possible between the patient and the doctor, ensure the security and privacy of patient data, and most importantly, uphold the sovereignty of physicians and give the key to the entire data to the patient himself/herself.

More recently, during Covid-19, the logistics for vaccine transportation, availability, along with contact tracing app Arogya Setu and CoWin, all used the platform of blockchain.

The government’s vision for ABDM is crystal clear – it must be inclusive, affordable, and accessible to every corner of India. The program seeks to alleviate the burden of out-of-pocket expenses, preventing vulnerable populations from slipping into poverty. Drawing from the success of Aadhaar and UPI, the government has embarked on yet another ambitious venture, knitting together the fragmented threads of the Indian healthcare system.