The Health Ministry is also in the process of standardizing codification for health procedures.
"We need to have an e-health authority which will be the regulator and which will see that EHR standards are being adhered to," said Mr Lov Verma, secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare while addressing a conference organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.
The Health and Family Welfare Ministry is also in the process of standardizing codification for health procedures in India and framing metadata and data standards (MDDS) for health sector, informed the secretary.
"MDDS will facilitate interoperability of e-governance applications by providing a common data information model for various stakeholders in the health system - national and state, public and private, to begin sharing meaningful information with each other in a timely manner," he said.
Talking about the importance of bringing in information and communication technology into the healthcare system, Mr Verma said, "With the adoption of ICT in health systems, we are hoping to achieve remote consultation, diagnosis and treatment through tele-medicine, and also facilitate collaboration and co-operation among healthcare providers."
He said the current method of paper-based record keeping system makes a lot of key information inaccessible to patients as well as healthcare providers, which add to the problems being faced by patients.
