Understanding ABDM/NDHM: India’s Digital Health Standard for One Nation, One Health Record
👉 NDHM created a digital framework to allow every citizen to have one unified health record that can be shared safely and easily with any doctor or healthcare provider.
What Is NDHM?
NDHM (National Digital Health Mission) is India’s national digital health standard and ecosystem. Its goal is simple:
Create a unique digital health identity for every Indian and make all health records portable, secure, and easily accessible.
NDHM provides the standards, rules, and technology that allow different healthcare systems to talk to each other using a common language.
Why Do We Need NDHM?
Before NDHM:
- Every hospital used different software
- Reports were stored in different formats
- Patients had to carry files and repeated tests
- Doctors could not see previous health history
- No easy way to share data between clinics, labs, and hospitals
NDHM solves these problems by building a national health grid, where all healthcare data can move safely and correctly, no matter where it was created.
Key Components of NDHM
NDHM provides several building blocks:
✔ ABHA Number (Ayushman Bharat Health Account)
A unique health ID for every citizen—like an Aadhaar for health records.
✔ ABHA Address
A digital address (like an email ID) used to exchange health records securely.
✔ Health Information Exchange (HIE)
Allows hospitals, clinics, and labs to share medical information.
✔ Health Facility Registry (HFR)
A national database of all healthcare facilities.
✔ Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR)
A verified list of doctors, nurses, lab technicians, and more.
Together, these tools create a fully connected digital health ecosystem.
How NDHM Is Used in Healthcare
NDHM comes into action whenever your health records are stored or shared:
- A clinic uploads your visit summary under your ABHA number
- A lab sends your test reports directly to your digital health locker
- A specialist can review your past reports before treatment
- A hospital can retrieve your earlier prescriptions in emergencies
- Insurance companies can verify claims with digital records
Everything happens securely with your consent.
Why Should an Average Person Know About NDHM?
Even if you don’t work in healthcare, NDHM benefits you directly.
✔ You don’t need to carry files everywhere
Your reports, prescriptions, and history stay in your digital locker.
✔ No repeated tests
If you change doctors or cities, your lab reports can be shared instantly.
✔ Better, safer treatment
Doctors get your complete medical history before treating you.
✔ Emergency care becomes faster
Doctors can quickly access important information.
✔ You control who sees your health data
NDHM uses consent-based sharing—nothing is shared without your approval.
✔ Builds long-term health history
Useful for chronic diseases, elderly care, and children’s growth tracking.
How NDHM Helps Healthcare Informatics
NDHM is a major milestone for digital health in India because it:
- promotes interoperability between systems
- uses modern standards like FHIR for data exchange
- ensures safe, encrypted sharing of health records
- allows analytics and AI to improve public health
- helps create One Patient, One Record across India
It is the backbone of the future Indian digital health ecosystem.
How BanglaTech Solutions Support NDHM Standards
BanglaTech Informatics aligns all its products with NDHM:
CloudPMS
- Creates NDHM-ready visit summaries
- Connects independent clinics to ABHA-based record sharing
CloudLIS
- Generates NDHM-compliant lab reports
- Links test results automatically to the patient’s digital health locker
CloudHMS
- Integrated NDHM modules for ABHA, consent management, and record exchange
- Supports hospitals in joining the national health grid
- Ensures OPD, IPD, lab, and radiology data match NDHM standards
BanglaTech helps healthcare providers—small to large—become part of One Electronic Medical Record for India.