Electronic health records are a goldmine of information in India; insurance providers can forecast trends, pharmaceutical firms can concentrate on intervention for a specific disease, and diagnostic laboratories can advertise their tests to a specific audience. This is how India is creating digital health accounts of its citizens without their knowledge.
Rajendra Butte was shocked to learn that he had an Ayushman Bharat health account number in December of last year. He had not signed up for one.
Butte oversees registrations for the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, which seeks to digitalize India's healthcare system by attempting to bring patient information, hospital information, and doctor credentials onto one platform for simple paperless interaction, as a monitoring and assessing officer in the Palghar district of Maharashtra.
The exercise is intended to be voluntary on paper. A hospital or diagnostic lab is registered as a healthcare facility, a doctor is enlisted as...