Online health records for police

Records of 73,000 cops and dependents digitised under Arogya Bhagya Yojana

Called Arogya Bhagya Yojana (ABY) health management, the project is part of the health insurance scheme of the same name. Talking to Deccan Herald, Dr Rajvir Sharma, IG in charge of Planning and Modernisation, said health records of nearly 73,000 policemen and their dependents in the state have been digitised and made available online. They have also been  given a health card that contains a summary of their health condition which can be used during emergencies.

“The idea was to bring in all their health records online, so that they can access whenever they want and can also present them to hospitals when they go for treatment. Doctors treating them can see their health records instantly and treat them accordingly,” Dr Sharma said.

Out of 73,000 health records made online, nearly 40,000 are that of policemen and the rest are of their dependents.  Apart from listing major health issues on the card, which is the same size as a credit card and is laminated and issued to the policemen and their dependent, the scheme provides a log-in ID and password which they can use to access the records. Since the records are online, they can be accessed in virtually any hospital they visit in any town or city.

“This also enables us to manage medical records of those covered under the ABY health insurance scheme efficiently,” Dr Sharma said. “It used to take two months for us to process the bills since we get about 15,000 to 16,000 bills in a month as hard copy. Now it is easier for administrators and unit heads (who also have access to the records) to have a clear idea of how many times a policy holder has visited the hospital and the treatment given.”

Unit heads can formulate specific health strategy for the police force working under them, based on the disease patterns and predominant health conditions found in their records. “If diabetes or hypertension is found to be predominant, we can evolve strategies to help the policemen manage them effectively,” Dr Sharma added.

Online health record

The department had signed an MOU with Bangalore-based IT company Yos Technology, who specialise in providing online public health record services. Collection of police health record began in November and is expected to have about 3,00,000 individual health records of police and their dependents. The state is served by 92,000 policemen.

“The initial digitisation of the records is done by us since we wanted to make the process uniform and also to ensure the data is authentic,” said Vijaya Varma, Founder and CEO, Yos Technology.

“Health details of each personnel and his/her dependent is collected as a hard copy (along with their photographs). We also take responsibility for maintaining the records.” Though issuing of smartcards was considered under the scheme, lack of adequate infrastructure and the additional costs prompted the police department to opt for a paper card.