Why in News?

India’s aspiration to become an economically developed nation (Viksit Bharat) by 2047 hinges on the health and productivity of its population.

To achieve this, robust health systems must emerge by 2025, prioritizing prevention, equitable treatment, and the integration of digital solutions.

What’s in Today’s Article?

• Key Pillars for a Healthy India
• Data-Driven Decision-Making for a Healthy India
• Digitally Integrated Healthcare for a Healthy India
• Conclusion

Key Pillars for a Healthy India:

• Universal Health Coverage (UHC) through primary healthcare:
  • Financial and service goals: UHC aims to ensure financial protection and extensive service coverage.
  • Resource allocation: Higher public financing is essential, with a focus on central and state budgets.
  • Health workforce: Immediate efforts must address the shortage of highly skilled doctors by training technology-enabled frontline workers and allied health professionals.
• Ayushman Bharat as a template for transformation: Key components -
  • Upgraded primary care architecture.
  • Financial protection for vulnerable groups.
  • Enhanced health infrastructure.
  • Integration through digital health technology.
• Digital Health Mission: Vital for epidemiological intelligence, programme monitoring, and system integration.

Data-Driven Decision-Making for a Healthy India:

• Disaggregated and integrated data systems:
  • Local-level insights: Data must be available at district and block levels for informed, resource-efficient, and equity-driven actions.
  • Epidemiological transition:
    • Rising burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) and mental health disorders requires accurate tracking of trends and risk factors.
    • While the integrated disease surveillance programme (IDSP) provides data on some infectious diseases through sentinel sites, the rapid rise in zoonotic diseases calls for extensive and real-time surveillance data.
• Advanced surveillance systems:
  • Infectious diseases: Real-time surveillance for infectious diseases, including zoonotic threats. Big data analytics will need to be at the heart of infectious disease surveillance.
  • Techniques: Wastewater surveillance and antimicrobial resistance (AMR) monitoring must become routine.
  • One Health Approach: Integration of data across human, animal, and environmental health systems to tackle climate-related health threats.

Digitally Integrated Healthcare for a Healthy India:

• Patient-centered data systems:
  • Interoperability: Diagnostic and treatment data must be accessible across healthcare facilities.
  • Challenges: Lack of private sector integration disrupts continuity of care.
• Public-private collaboration:
  • Bridging gaps: Digital systems must connect primary care and publicly funded health insurance programmes that support secondary and tertiary hospital care (like PMJAY and state health insurance programmes).
    • This will integrate public and private health data repositories.
  • AI-driven insights: Application of artificial intelligence to Indian health data can enhance diagnostics and clinical management.
• Community participation: Digital tools can enable crowdsourcing for outbreak surveillance and address programme implementation issues.

Conclusion:

• India’s journey toward a healthy and productive population by 2047 requires immediate and sustained efforts.
• By 2025, a digitally integrated, data-driven, and universally accessible healthcare system must take root, propelling the nation toward its health goals.