IIT Guwahati - a catalyst in revolutionizing health sector in northeast India

Guwahati (Assam) [India], October 17 : The Indian Institute of Technology Guwahati in collaboration with the central and state authorities is working towards revolutionizing the entire health sector by developing a digital highway for the stakeholders of the healthcare ecosystem while ensuring accessibility, affordability, inclusivity, and interoperability.
Under this, IIT Guwahati is progressively participating in multiple initiatives to contribute in improving the health sector in the Northeast region.
Some recent activities include -
Regional Workshop of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission for Northeast
IIT Guwahati recently hosted the first Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) workshop with the Northeastern States to understand the challenges faced by the states and support them to prepare a future roadmap.
The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) aims to develop the backbone necessary to support the integrated digital health infrastructure of the country. It will bridge the existing gap among different stakeholders of the Healthcare ecosystem through digital highways.
The State Mission Directors and their representatives from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim participated in this workshop and showcased their way forward and support required from the National Health Authority, Government. of India.
Proposed by the Mission Steering Group of ABDM, the National Health Authority plans to conduct regional workshops throughout the country to clarify various myths about ABDM and the challenges of ABDM adoption.
Conducting Training Program for Master Trainers of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission:
In order to build the capacities of the state for enhanced adoption of ABDM, the National Health Authority organised training of master trainers at the state level in collaboration with IIT Guwahati.
Recently a batch of 34 participants from Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Tripura and Sikkim participated in this program.
While addressing the participants and stakeholders, Prof T.G. Sitharam, Director, IIT Guwahati emphasized the role that bright budding engineers of IIT Guwahati can play in the ABDM mission.
He also encouraged wider collaboration between the NHA and newly established multidisciplinary schools of IIT Guwahati on Health Sciences and Technology and Data Science and Artificial Intelligence.
The program was organized by the Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology at IIT Guwahati.
During the event, Kiran Gopal Vaska, Director, of Information Technology, National Health Authority, Government of India said: "ABDM focuses on to shift from 'illness to wellness', 'facility centric to patient-centric and 'platform-centric to network-centric."
Rajiv Kar from the Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology, IIT Guwahati provided an overview of the digital health scenario in India and the world over.
Daksha Parmar, Assistant Professor, Department of Humanities and Social Sciences and Jyoti and Bhupat Mehta School of Health Sciences and Technology at IIT Guwahati, emphasized the importance of communication in healthcare training.
The Components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission include:
Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) Number
Healthcare Professional Registry (HPR)
Health Facility Registry (HFR)
Unified Health Interface (UHI)
ABHA Mobile App (PHR)
NHA conducted discussion and briefing sessions on the components mentioned above and its benefits during the training program at IIT Guwahati. Along with this, discussions on how to address various challenges being faced by the stakeholders and workers while implementing ABDM were also discussed.
These sessions motivated the participants towards the implementation of ABDM with all technical knowledge and effective ways of communication. This program gave them a sense of confidence and belief in the ABDM system and the change in the country's healthcare system it can bring.