Blog: Personal Health History : NHS

Saturday 11 August 2018

Personal Health History : NHS

बहुजन हिताय , बहुजन सुखाय

“ Personal Health History “ is an “ Organ “ that everyone should donate

Business line ( 10 Aug ) carries following news :

Draftpaper on the NHS stirs up a privacy debate

Extract :

Digitising the health data of a billion people sure has its benefits, but government think-tank NITI Aayog has also ruffled some feathers by floating a consultation paper on the ‘National Health Stack’ (NHS).

The draft, which suggests that health data would be used for marketing, may not go down well with the masses.

It defines the NHS as a national electronic registry usable by both the Centre and the States across public and private sectors.

One of the components of the proposed project is to store every Indian’s Personal Health Records (PHRs).

This will involve :

· medical history,

· medication and allergies,

· immunization status,

· laboratory test results,

· radiology images,

· vital signs,

· personal stats such as age and weight,

· demographics, and

· billing information, and

· use of multiple health applications.

Various layers of the National Health Stack will seamlessly link to support ,

· national health electronic registries,

· coverage and claims platform,

· a federated personal health records framework,

· a national health analytics platform,

· as well as other horizontal components.

The stack will embrace health management systems of public health programmes and socio-demographic data systems,” the draft says.

But some critics of the NHS say :

“ This is invasion of privacy of the citizens. Why should citizen’s Medical History get recorded in a Central Computer ? “

Misplaced or otherwise , it is a concern which NITI Aayog needs to dispel through massive publicity

Those critics should be told :

“ Look , we all share our most private medical data with our family doctor . In many cases, he keeps this record in a file ( hard copy or a computer ) , and refers to it before prescribing further medication

Unknown to us – and subconsciously even to himself – that doctor mentally compares your symptoms with hundreds of similar cases he may have attended earlier for his other patients , what medicines he had prescribed for them and which / how many patients responded to which medicines and how well

At the end of a few seconds , he reaches a conclusion as to which medicine will work best for you in the present instance and prescribes it

But even the most popular / successful doctor , has no more than a few hundred patient-histories to “ recall “ mentally ( - how many can he remember over 30 years of practice ? )

NHS will change this dramatically !

It will compile “ cradle – to – grave “ medical histories of a billion Indian citizens and subject this massive data to some BIG DATA ( AI ) algorithm , which will process it in a matter of seconds and guide your family doctor to prescribe the best-suited medicine for each patient

In many cases , AI software may even be able to recommend some “ preventive “ medicines before a disease manifests itself !

And , in any case , no doctor / health centre / hospital etc will be able to access your ( individual ) personal data , without your express permission

All that they can access will be your “ anonymized / aggregated “ data

Congratulations , Shri @AmitabhKant :

I am glad that some of my following suggestions have found their way into the draft :

Source :

Modicare: A Game Changer [ 01 Feb 2018 ]

Highlights :

Each eligible family member to be issued a “ Ayushman Card “ ( linked to Aadhar ID )

Ayushman card will have inbuilt memory capacity to store that person’s health data from “ Cradle to Grave “ ( Privacy advocate need not worry ! )

All the Health Data of all 50 crore beneficiaries to be stored on a Central Server for BIG DATA analysis , in order to “ Predict “ WHO might become susceptible to WHICH ailment and WHEN

As an alternative , a GPS enabled / NFC capable Smart Phone pre-loaded with AYUSHMAN MOBILE APP , could be considered to replace the card

Ayushman Eco System shall consist of :

# 50 crore poor beneficiaries

# All Medical Practitioners of India ( Allopathic - Ayurvedic – Homeopathic )

# All Medical Shops of India ( including E – Pharmacies )

# All Nursing Homes / Hospitals / Diagnostic Centres / Health Centres etc

# All Pharma Companies

# Health Ministry

# All India Medical Association

# All India Organization of Chemists and Druggists ( AIOCD )

# Drug Controller General of India

# All Medical Colleges / Medical Research Centres

# Any other entity which I might have missed out

The Ayushman Eco System shall be built around the BLOCK-CHAIN technology , which will be the main operating system for implementation of the AYUSHMAN PROCESSES , described in my following earlier blogs ( sent as emails to Cabinet Ministers / Niti Aayog )

SUGGESTIONS E MAILED EARLIER :

The Bounty of Big Data ………………..[ 30 April 2016 ]

3 D - Digital Delivery of Drugs? …… [ 11 Oct 2015 ]