Union Health & Family Welfare Minister, Dr. Harsh Vardhan has approved the Health Data Management Policy of the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM).  The final approved policy has been placed on the website www.ndhm.gov.in in https://ndhm.gov.in//assets/uploads/NDHM%20Health%20Data%20anagement%20Policy.pdf

The draft of the policy was placed on the websitewww.ndhm.gov.in by the National Health Authority (NHA) from 20th August to 21st September to seek feedback and suggestions from citizens and stakeholders soon after the launch of NDHM by the Prime Minister. After extensive stakeholder consultations and feedback, the policy was given further shape by incorporating the inputs from public.

Dr. Indu Bhushan, CEO, National Health Authority said, “After over a month of soliciting feedback from various stakeholders and general public, we received 910 comments and suggestions via 6983 emails and through the website. Many of these inputs and suggestions were found to be quite pertinent and deserving more attention. We have incorporated them to revise the draft policy and sent it to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare for final review and approval. We are happy that the policy has been approved by the Hon’ble Health Minister and we can now start the field preparations for the roll-out of NDHM across India.”

Health Data Management Policy (the “Policy”) is the first step in realising NDHM’s guiding principle of “Security and Privacy by Design” for the protection of individuals’ data privacy. It acts as a guidance document across the National Digital Health Ecosystem (NDHE) and sets out the minimum standard for data privacy protection that should be followed across the board in order to ensure compliance with relevant and applicable laws, rules and regulations. This Policy is to be read along with, and not in contradiction to, any applicable law, or any instrument having the effect of any law together with the Blueprint, the information security policy, the data retention and archival policy and any other policy which may be issued for the implementation of the NDHM. This Policy is not to be interpreted or construed as giving any entity or individual rights which are greater than those that such entity or individual would be entitled to under applicable laws.