Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) was launched by our honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi Ji on 27th September 2021. ABDM aims to digitise the health ecosystem of the country and ensure seamless health records transactions across a Unified Health Interface  wherein the gateway will be governed and owned by the National Health Authority.

This step is not only disruptive but revolutionary in principle and action. It is being deemed as the UPI moment of healthcare and has the potential to transform the way we imagine and deliver healthcare services in this country.

Some of the key trends to watch out for going forward are :

1. Digital Personal Health Records will become ubiquitous: Frequent sights of patients carrying truckloads of files and documents from one doctor to another doctor will become a thing of the past. Digitisation and tagging of records to unique health id, ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts) will ensure that health records as we see today will disappear and the same will be available on the click of a button after the user gives his/her consent. PHR apps like eka.care, digilocker, driefcase will grow and provide requisite solutions around this.
   

2. Shift to Value based healthcare: The current health system is built around a fee for service model, where the healthcare providers are paid based on the quantum of health services they deliver. With the ongoing digitisation drive under ABDM holistic and comprehensive longitudinal health records will be available and the focus will shift to value based care in which the care providers will be paid based on patient health outcomes. In value based healthcare patients take centre stage and the existence of medical services in silos cease to exist, continuum of care across different levels of care gets established and patient outcomes improve. ABDM is expected to accelerate progress in this direction.

3. Customised Health Care Plans: With the availability of longitudinal health records, providers will be able to gauge long term risks and associated nuances around a patient's health journey. This will lead to rapid innovations around patient centric customised care plans with an aim to improve long term health outcomes and quality of life scores.

4. Incentives to Remain Healthy: In the current scenario there is no incentive either to the health care provider or to the health care seeker to ensure that people remain healthy and practice healthy habits. With ABDm kicking in rapid acceleration of IOT (Internet of things), wearable tech devices, connected care ecosystem on smart phones etc. innovations around this concept are bound to happen either from the insurance sector side or the government side.

5. Massive reduction in health care frauds: Digitisation is expected to weed out unqualified health professionals or professionals who pose with augmented qualifications thereby empowering the consumer. Digitisation will also help reduce frauds around health care delivery costs experienced by the Health Insurance Industry. It also has the potential to incrementally improve Insurance sectors underwriting skills going forward.

While it will take some time to see the actual impact of ABDM, it is for sure that healthcare as a sector will not remain the same and consumer privacy, health, and health outcomes will all see a change in positive direction with this massive digitisation.