Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Achieves
Major Milestone by Linking Over 1 Billion Health Records
The Government of India's Ayushman Bharat Digital
Mission has recently achieved a significant milestone. Under the mission, more
than one billion health records have been successfully linked to Ayushman
Bharat Health Accounts. This achievement is regarded as a major step towards building
an integrated, secure, and interoperable digital health ecosystem in India.
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Over 100 crore health
records have now been successfully linked with ABHA under ABDM, making it one
of the world’s largest digital health ecosystems.
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The number of linked
records doubled from 50 crore in February 2025 to more than 100 crores within
just 15 months, with nearly 10 crore records being linked every two to three
months.
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More than 450 public and
private health technology solutions have integrated with the ABDM ecosystem,
enabling seamless and paperless exchange of health records across healthcare
facilities.
¨
Major contributors to
this milestone include government platforms and programmes such as CoWIN,
PM-JAY, eHospital, eSushrut, eKavach, TeCHO and iHMS, along with several
private digital health partners.
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Among States, Uttar
Pradesh emerged as the leading contributor with over 15 crore ABHA-linked
health records, followed by Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan and Gujarat.
Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)
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The ABDM was implemented
by the National Health Authority under the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare to create the backbone for an integrated digital health infrastructure
in India.
¨
It was launched to
develop a connected, interoperable, and citizen-centric digital healthcare
ecosystem by leveraging information technology and digital public
infrastructure.
¨
ABDM draws its vision
from the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 and the National Digital Health
Blueprint (NDHB), prepared under the chairmanship of J. Satyanarayana.
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ABDM was initially
launched as a pilot project under the name National Digital Health Mission
(NDHM) on 15 August 2020 in six Union Territories — Ladakh, Chandigarh, Dadra
and Nagar Haveli and Daman and Diu, Puducherry, Lakshadweep, and Andaman and
Nicobar Islands.
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Based on the success of
the pilot phase, the nationwide rollout was announced by Prime Minister
Narendra Modi on 27 September 2021, and the mission was renamed as the Ayushman
Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).
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The mission seeks to
bridge gaps among different stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem through
digital highways and interoperable platforms.
Key Components of ABDM
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ABHA (Ayushman Bharat
Health Account) – Unique digital health identity for citizens.
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Healthcare Professionals
Registry (HPR) – Database of verified healthcare professionals.
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Health Facility Registry
(HFR) – Repository of registered healthcare facilities.
¨
Health Information
Exchange and Consent Manager (HIE-CM) – Enables consent-based sharing of health
records.
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Unified Health Interface
(UHI) – Open network for digital health services.
¨
National Health Claims
Exchange (NHCX) – Facilitates digital processing of health insurance claims.
Objectives of ABDM
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Establish digital health
infrastructure and interoperable health data systems.
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Create registries for
healthcare professionals, health facilities, drugs and pharmacies.
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Promote adoption of open
standards in digital healthcare.
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Enable creation of
accessible personal health records based on informed consent.
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Ensure national
portability of health services.
¨
Strengthen health
governance, analytics, research and evidence-based policymaking.
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Promote cooperative
federalism through active participation of States and Union Territories.
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Encourage private sector
participation in digital healthcare delivery.
Significance of ABDM
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Citizen-Centric
Healthcare: Empowers citizens with ownership and consent-based control over
their health data.
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Seamless and Paperless Healthcare:
Enables digital access and sharing of prescriptions, diagnostic reports and
discharge summaries across healthcare providers.
¨ Continuity of Care:
Allows healthcare professionals to access patients’ medical history (with
consent) for better diagnosis, treatment and follow-up care.
¨ Strengthening Digital Public Infrastructure: Leverages India’s digital ecosystem such as Aadhaar, UPI and mobile connectivity to build an interoperable healthcare system.
¨ Improved Governance and Digital Health Services: Supports evidence-based policymaking, telemedicine, faster claims processing, health analytics and medical research.
