Centre frames draft policy on data privacy under NDHM

Days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the National Digital Health Mission (NHDM), the Union Health Ministry has proposed a framework and a set of minimum standards for data privacy protection to safeguard confidential health data collected from people under the programme that seeks to provide a unique ID to all citizens to map their medical history.

As per the draft proposal, everyone enrolled for the mission will get a Health ID free of cost and will have complete control over his or her data.

Any personal data can be collected only on consent from individuals and they will be allowed to revoke their consent to restrict any sharing of personal data.

The Government has proposed a framework and a set of minimum standards for data privacy protection to be followed across the board in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.

The National Health Authority (NHA), the central agency responsible for the implementation of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana, which has been mandated to design and roll out NDHM in the country, has released the draft ‘Health Data Management Policy’ in the public domain.

The document has been put up on the official website of National Digital Health Mission seeking comments and feedback from the public till September 3.

The draft policy mainly seeks to set out a framework for “secure processing of personal and sensitive personal data of individuals” who are a part of the national digital health ecosystem.

Data collected across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE) will be stored in at the central level, the state or Union Territory level and at the health facility level, by adopting the principle of minimality at each point, according to the document.

The federated structure necessitates the development of a framework that can be utilised throughout the NDHE to safeguard the privacy of confidential health data that has been collected from individuals in India, it stated.

Indu Bhushan, the Chief Executive Officer of NHA said, “The Draft Health Data Management Policy is the maiden step in realizing NDHM’s guiding principle of ‘Security and Privacy by Design’ for the protection of individuals’ data privacy.”

“It encompasses various aspects of health data like data privacy, consent management, data sharing and protection among others,” he said. – Daily Pioneer