Aadhaar Card for Digitalization of the Healthcare System
Anshika Garg1, Anuradha Verma1, Babita Kumar1, Muskan Rathor1,
Manish Kumar Singh2, Ritu Chauan3
1Sanskar College of Pharmacy and Research, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
2B.N. University, Udaipur, Rajasthan, India.
3H.R. Institute of Pharmacy, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh, India.
*Corresponding Author E-mail: anshikacreations03@gmail.com
ABSTRACT:
Today, we are living in an era of technology where everything we use comes from technology. Technology has uplifted the lives of people by reducing work time and increasing efficacy and precision. So why not use this technological advancement in healthcare to raise the quality of patient care and digitize the healthcare system to global heights? Aadhaar card consists of a 12 digits unique identification number which is unique to every cardholder and can be helpful as a source of unique patient identifiers. Aadhar card can play an important role in digitizing the healthcare system by generating a database through which past medical history reports of patients in the country can be collected by trained medical professionals and can be used whenever a patient needs treatment. This database can be generated by linking the patient’s unique identification number on Aadhaar card with his/her medical reports, so that, they get stored in the database and can be used whenever required for further treatment in any part of the county. This approach can be very useful in raising patient care quality and also can reduce the workload of both the patients and healthcare professionals by organizing the whole work systematically. The day is not so far when the whole healthcare system will be digitized, and the patient care quality will reach the topmost height.
KEYWORDS: Unique identification number, Aadhaar card, Digitization, Identification, Medical History.
INTRODUCTION:
In today’s world technology plays an impactful role in everyone’s life because technology can lead any sector to a great height. Advanced technology is a basic need in every sector from the education sector to the healthcare sector, it is needed to achieve the desired results within a short period, and have high accuracy1. In modern times, where everything we are using consists of advanced technology be it a small household machine to big instruments, why not use technology in digitalizing the healthcare system which can be very helpful for the future development of the healthcare system? Digitalizing the healthcare system using an Aadhaar card can be very beneficial for the healthcare system because it enhances the efficacy of work and reduces the chances of medical error2,3. Storing prescriptions and diagnostic reports properly by the patients after treatment is a major challenge, we see in the healthcare sector. So, to tackle this problem with advanced technology, an Aadhaar card can act as a medium of E-healthcare for identifying patients and their health profiles. Aadhar card can be a helpful way in this regard to digitalize our healthcare system. It can work like an electronic medical record of patients. It can store complete information about patients including patient demographic reports past prescriptions and diagnostic reports in a database using a unique identification number allotted to a particular Aadhar card4. This database can act as a unique patient identifier which can identify a particular patient by his unique identification number given on his/her Aadhar card. This database in the healthcare sector can be very helpful for identifying the particular patient, his/her disease condition, and also health-related information required by a healthcare physician for the treatment of a particular patient. This idea can also help to connect physicians working in rural areas with physicians working in a controlled environment for any assistance. It can also help in reducing storing paper documents because whole data is safely stored in a database that can be operated by healthcare professionals throughout the country. Thus, it reduces work and emerges as an efficient way of handling patient information. There is a lot of future work regarding this method, and if this gets widely accepted in the country it can lead the healthcare system to greater heights5
Artificial Intelligence:
AI in healthcare mainly works by mimicking human functions using computerized technological systems, and this mimicry benefits humans because efficacy is far greater than human capabilities6. AI has been proven successful in the management of various chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, etc7. AI is also helping to reduce the costs of clinical trials by reducing the time and increasing the efficacy of the results8. Approaches based on AI such as various health apps and electronic health records have made patient monitoring easy using digital technology. Virtual health assistants are also AI-based approaches that increase patient compliance and improve healthcare9. AI can take the healthcare sector to another level and can set a benchmark in the development process but in a developing country like India, affordability is the key factor affecting the growth of the healthcare system. The healthcare authorities of the country are continuously trying to overcome this hurdle and the digitized healthcare system in India will be a dream turning into reality10.
Digitalization of the Healthcare System:
Digitizing means using several technologies for improving the quality of patient care because quality in healthcare matters rather than quantity11. As we see other industries are progressing in using artificial intelligence-aided advanced technologies, but the healthcare system is not so much developed yet to use these highly advanced services in patient care. Digitization of the healthcare system is very much needed in today’s era to improve and uplift the quality of patient care12. The utmost need for digitizing the healthcare system is to compile the complex amount of hard copies of patient reports into electronic medical records to facilitate the quality of service and also to reduce the workload of personnel involved in organizing the complex hard copies of patient reports13. The basic factors triggering the need for rapid digitization of healthcare are improved patient care, reduced costs, easy accessibility, and better patient compliance14. Digitization of healthcare will not just uplift the quality of patient care but can also act as a success ladder for other industries as well15. Electronic medical records can be useful in this regard because electronic medical records can manage patient data efficiently and that data can be used by healthcare professionals precisely to centralize patient care16. In the world of digitized healthcare systems data will act as its major asset because these data will be used to analyze patient conditions and decision-making will also be it`17. Thus, technical advancement in the healthcare system will act as a connecting link between the patients, and healthcare service providers and will overall improve the quality of service provided. Various health-related outbreaks can be easily detected using digital healthcare measures. Artificial intelligence can be truly called a revolution in healthcare because various complex healthcare-related problems have been smoothly solved using AI-aided techniques18-20.
Benefits of Digitizing The Healthcare System:
Digitizing the healthcare system will surely benefit the quality of patient care. Here are some major benefits thatthe healthcare system can avail by digitizing it-
1. Easy communication between various healthcare providers
A digitized healthcare system can be a major key to interconnecting several healthcare professionals for discussing emergency and life-threatening patient conditions21.
2. Ease of maintaining records
A digitized healthcare system is the best way to maintain patient treatment records in a database efficiently. And also there will be no chance of misplacing the prescriptions and diagnostic reports22.
3. Good patient and healthcare provider coordination
Digitized healthcare records help in the coordination of healthcare providers with the patients because the healthcare provider can easily access the patient’s treatment and medication history by searching the database in which the patient’s chronological health information and past medical records are available and Also patient does not need to carry his/her medical records every time he/she visits the physician23.
4. Data preservation
The digitized healthcare system also preserves patient medical data in a precise manner. Because, in the case of manual record handling there are chances of misplacing or losing the records, but in the case of digitized records, patient medication records are completely secured in the computer-generated database24.
LITERATURE REVIEW:
1. Model of faithful patient medical records
According to the work done by Rector et al. in 1991, it was found that medical records should be trustworthy and should contain only the information provided by the physician or the clinician. It should contain the true information which was found according to the observation by the physician. This model also emphasized the process of descriptive rather than prescriptive medical records25.
2. FIRD framework for electronic health records
The work proposed and done by D.C. Leonard et al. (2009) found that electronic health records play a very important role in shifting paper medical records to universal electronic health records. The main hurdle which should be resolved is to identify the patient correctly using the patient identifier system. So, they proposed a framework according to which biometrics in the form of FIRD (fingerprint, iris, retina, DNA) can help identify the patient correctly26.
Unique Identification Number:
The unique identification authority of India (UIDAI) issues unique identification numbers to all the residents of INDIA. UIDAI was established under the Aadhar Act, 2016 on 12 July 2016. This unique identification number is specific to a person, and it was given to eliminate any kind of duplicity27. UID is a 12-digit number that enables the identification of Indian residents. This number is unique for every citizen because it includes the demographics and biometric information of that particular citizen or resident28. This UID is notfor tracking people by the government, but also it will help the citizens for availing various schemes. It is a SCOSTA-based electronic device system which means only authorized personscan access it. This UID is enough to distinguish between fake and genuine identities29. Any citizen of India can avail of several government schemes and other benefits as well just by having a UID issued by UIDAI30. This unique identification number can help healthcare professional to get patient’s information by logging in to the database, and one most important advantage is that this process is completely secured by the biometric of the UID holder so that it cannot be misused and only authorized professionals can use this database31.
Proposed Framework:
A fully computerized automatic database can be generated with which all the treatment and medication history of the patient can be stored. This database information will be linked with the patient’s UID or Aadhar card and whenever the patient visits the hospital, he/she does not have any need to carry his/her prescriptions and past medical records because they are already saved in the database32. This database can be very helpful in times of emergency conditions like accidents, and natural calamity when a patient is unable to show his past medical records, at that time past medical information of the patient can be collected immediately and immediate health services can be provided to the patient. EMR has not yet been completely followed by all healthcare centres in our country, Government of our country should come forward to authenticate patients’ medication history with this database so that the interpretation of the information should be done efficiently and immediate treatment can be provided. This proposed framework can act in the same way as electronic health records do. This will also help connect various healthcare professionals where they can discuss any critical patient and can uplift the quality of healthcare33-36.
Structure of the Proposed Framework:
Patient demographics are in the form of an Aadhar card linked with the database of the hospital whenever a person visits the hospital or any healthcare centre. This database will contain all the reports of the patient and can be used for future reference when the patient will visit the same or any other healthcare centre throughout the country. A combined database that is authorized to be used by physicians, and medical laboratories in which all the medical information of the patient is given is prepared using suitable database management software. This interlinked database system is connected to a cloud storage system in which the whole information and medical records are kept secure. On every visit, the medical reports of the patient and laboratory test results are updated in the database by the healthcare provider staff using the patient UID mentioned on the Aadhar card. Healthcare authorities can act as the highest authority or the administrator to regulate this whole system. Figure 1 depicts Structure of Proposed Framework.
Fig 1: Structure of Proposed Framework
Implementation:
PhpMyAdmin is a key tool that allows to access the MySQL database management system in which data can be stored. This database administrator allows to entryof the medical reports of the patients which further gets stored in the cloud service37. This entered information can be accessed by an authorized person after entering the login details of the patient, and thus, act as a sign of relief for the patients too because they do not need to carry their medical reports anywhere with them38. Figure 2 depicts Implementation of the Aadhaar card in the digitalization of the Healthcare system.
Fig 2: Implementation of the Aadhaar card in the digitalization of the Healthcare system
Challenges:
The healthcare system of our country is divided into primary, secondary, and tertiary healthcare services. The private sector of healthcare is very much developed because it involves funding from individual’s pockets and also from insurance companies, but in the case of the public healthcare sector funding is the major challenge in implementing this framework39. Another major challenge is the implementation problem from the side of the government because linking Aadhar with medical records is not sufficient, proper implementation is very much required for efficient working of this proposed framework40.
FUTURE ASPECTS:
This framework has a lot of beneficial potential for improving healthcare system status in the future. This database system can be used to identify patients with rare and chronic diseases and can be further used to invent proper treatments for them. Health outbursts in a particular area or a large area can be detected using the health information present in this database. Thus, future disease conditions can also be predicted to an extent and future research work can be done by the collected and analysed data.
National Digital Health Mission:
PM NARENDRA MODI launched a digital health mission in India on the 74th Independence Day, the blueprint of this mission was prepared by the Ministry of Health. Under this mission, every resident of India will get a health card in which all their medical information will be available, and also on every medical visit further record will be updated in it accordingly41. It is a great initiative taken by the government of India and it will help in improving patient and health-providerrelationships. It will also help the government to collect the combined data on the health of the nation and necessary measures can be taken accordingly42. This scheme has been launched under Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojna for the healthcare benefit of the residents of India. This health card will be most probably in the form of a mobile application, and it allows sharing of patient health records with the healthcare provider43. It will help the government and Ministry of Health to analyse disease conditions prevailing in the country and proper preventive and curative measures will be taken timely by the Government of India44.
CONCLUSION:
It is a beneficial strategy for both the physicians and the patients because it safeguards the complete medical records of a patient in a completely secure database. If this system gets adopted in the country it will help in providing improved patient care and can act as a major pathway for developing our healthcare system. Patients with chronic conditions for whom urgent treatment is required and if that particular patient is unable to find a hard copy of his/her past medical records then this strategy will help because using a unique identification number mentioned on the individual’s Aadhar card, whole medical information can be obtained by the consulting physician and proper treatment can be provided to the patient at the right time. It can also help in analysing any future disease of the patient. Thus, this framework has a lot of potential in the coming time for improving the healthcare system.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:
The authors are highly thankful to the management of Sanskar Educational Group for their constant support.
CONFLICT OF INTEREST:
None.
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Received on 29.06.2023 Accepted on 29.08.2024 ©AandV Publications all right reserved Research J. Engineering and Tech. 2024; 15(1):1-6. DOI: 10.52711/2321-581X.2024.00001 |
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