Digital health system great equaliser to support Universal Health Coverage, says Mandaviya

New Delhi, May 26 (IANS): Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Wednesday, in his address at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos at Congress Centre, exhorted India’s commitment to strengthen the Digital Health System and in closing the vaccine gap.

Underscoring the need to strengthen Equitable Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative (EVMC), Mandaviya said: “Digital health is a great equaliser and enabler to support Universal Health Coverage and Sustainable Development Goals and can help ensure accessibility and affordability of health service delivery.”

The Health Minister delivered the opening remarks for “Unlocking the Power of Digital Health” and “Closing Vaccines Gap” sessions at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting on Wednesday.

“With prime focus on moving from siloed to an ecosystem approach for digital health, India is creating a national framework for digital health in India. Under Ayushman Bharat (Long Live India) Digital Mission, India has embarked on digital transformation of healthcare in India,” said Mandaviya in his remark.

He added that the focus is on creation of a longitudinal Electronic Health Record for more than 1.3 billion people of India. We have already issued more than 220 million Unique Health IDs along with health facilities and provider registry.

With technologies like Artificial Intelligence, cloud computing, 5G, nanotech, we need to create a tech supported healthcare service delivery which is resilient, reliable, and accessible till the last mile, he said at ‘Unlocking the Power of Digital Health’ session.

“We have also provided our COWIN platform to the world as a global public good”, he said at the Closing the Vaccines gap session.

“In this session on Closing the Vaccines gap, I envisage learning global best practices and am sure that this session will provide a programme of work for the Equitable Vaccine Manufacturing Collaborative (EVMC) designed to strengthen private – public sector partnerships across the vaccine manufacturing value chain in low and middle-income countries. India looks forward to supporting closing the vaccine gap in Africa”, he concluded.