NHA releases consultation paper on Unified Health Interface

The National Health Authority (NHA) has released a consultation paper on the Unified Health Interface (UHI). UHI is intended to be an open, interoperable platform to connect all digital health solutions. The consultation paper provides an overview of the proposed design, scope and role of UHI. In light of the upcoming national rollout of National Digital Health Mission (NDHM) comments from the public are invited to ensure that UHI is designed and developed in a collaborative and consultative manner. Through the UHI, NDHM aims to transform the way digital health services are rendered in India. Currently, patients and healthcare providers need to be on the same application to avail and provide digital health services, respectively. It is envisioned that the open network created by UHI will serve as the digital infrastructure for patients and healthcare providers to engage in the discovery, booking, payment and fulfilment of a variety of digital health services across applications. The services include but are not limited to, teleconsultation and the discovery of pharmacies and hospitals. Over time, the services enabled by the platform will evolve with the market ecosystem. UHI is designed to be similar to the UPI (Unified Payments Interface) ecosystem which has emerged for digital payments.