E.H.R Standards for India : GOI Report

Electronic health records are a summary of the various electronic medical records that get generated during any clinical encounter. Without standards, a lifelong summary is not possible as different records from different sources spread across ~80+ years will potentially need to be brought into one summary. To achieve this, a set of pre-defined standards for information exchange that includes images, clinical codes and a minimum data set is imperative.

Foreword to ‘ E.H.R Standards for India ’ by the GOI.

The Government of India, as it goes for the unveiling of National Health Portal, comes out with a definitive guidelines for E.H.R standards in India. The document takes a look at E.H.R standards to be followed throughout different medical provider institutions in India, so that medical data becomes portable and easily transferable. Its amazing to see how many ehealth companies have been stumped because of lack of such a document earlier. This might be good news for a number of companies which foolishly wait for standards to be finalized, instead of simply building the most Flexible, Secure, Doctor & Patient-friendly E.H.R they can.

More importantly , It takes a look at Data ownership.

It says “The health data is owned by the patient while the actual records are owned by the care providers who act as the custodians of the data. Adequate safeguards to ensure data privacy and security must strictly be adhered to at all times. Patients must have the privilege to verify the accuracy of their health data and gain access whenever they wish to do so.

Thankfully, Patients have earned their spot in our policy making. We know that products which do not have the patient interactions in mind will just not succeed. Now that we have a roadmap ahead, It’s a race to the finish for the nascent ehealth industry in our country.

You can download a copy of the document here.