Experts Discuss Ways to Boost Health Systems

“Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme will largely benefit private players as they cannot be regulated. However, the wellness centers which aim to prevent diseases are the best part of the universal health coverage scheme,” said Prof T Sundararaman, School of Health Systems Studies, TISS while speaking to the TOI. Sundararaman has been in the core committees for the drafting the Ayushman Bharat scheme. He was a speaker at the national workshop organized at the PGIMER on Monday. The workshop is being organized by the Department of Community Medicine on ‘Health Systems Strengthening’ for five days. He also addressed problems with data quality, technology design, IT system design, integration and use of information in both public health and hospital settings. Sunil Kumar, deputy director general, National Informatics Center, New Delhi spoke on IT initiatives at national level and various projects of NIC like, online registration system, CGHS scheme, DBT (direct benefit transfer) for health sector. He highlighted that there are so many digital platforms these days however, there is very less integration within these. – TOI