India will contribute to WHO’s digital health strategy: Nadda

India plans to host a global digital health summit in near future with the support of WHO

“I am happy to note that this assembly will be considering and adopting the first WHO resolution on digital health initiative by India,” This was stated by JP Nadda, Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare during his address at at the 71 World Health Assembly, the decision-making body of WHO, at Geneva.

“Digital health technology have a huge potential for supporting Universal Health Coverage (UHC) and improving accessibility, quality and affordability of health services. This is a resolution which should be owned by all of us so as to pave the path for a forward looking global health agenda,” he said.

The 71st World Health Assembly is being attended by delegations from all WHO member states.

Nadda said India is planning to host a global digital health summit in near future with the support of WHO and hopes it would contribute to WHO’s efforts to come up with a comprehensive global health strategy on digital health.

Stating that UHC is one of the most powerful social equalisers, he said: “India today is firmly committed to achieving UHC as articulated in its National Health Policy 2017. Our successes in sustaining polio free status and substantially achieving the MDGs have infused renewed enthusiasm to meet the ambitious SDGs and its underlining commitment of ‘Leave no one behind’.”

India has fast tracked many initiatives aimed at achieving all the four tenets of UHC that is strengthening health systems, improving access to free medicines and diagnostics and reducing catastrophic healthcare spending, he added.

“To translate our vision of UHC, our Prime Minister Narendra Modi has launched an ambitious programme called ‘Ayushman Bharat’ that is ‘Long Live India’. The programme rests on the twin pillars of health and wellness centres for provision of comprehensive healthcare services and the Prime Ministers’ National Health Protection Mission (NHPM),” said the minister.

NHPM is aimed at providing secondary and tertiary healthcare to 100 million families covering 500 million individuals, about 40 per cent of the country’s population, who will be provided an insurance cover of Rs 500,000 per year.Following the overwhelming response at the first World Conference on Access to Medical Products in November 2017, India is organising the second World Conference in October 2018 in New Delhi, he added.