Around 60 per cent of respondents favoured availing ‘Digital Health ID’ to be created under the Centre’s National Digital Health Mission, but do not want to share sensitive personal data beyond health and medical records, a recent survey said.
The survey was conducted by LocalCircles, a community social media platform.
According to the survey, 59 per cent of respondents said they want to avail’Digital Health ID’ under the Digital Health Mission programme, but do not want to share sensitive personal data beyond health and medical records.
It said 23 per cent respondents supported creating the health ID, saying it could help in faster access to healthcare. While 18 per cent said it should not be created as it could lead to personal sensitive data getting compromised.
Around 9,000 people responded to the question on whether Digital Health ID should be created under the National Digital Health Mission (NDHM), it said.
The social media platform received around 34,000 responses on four questions related to the draft National Health Data Management Policy, which proposes to create Digital Health IDs for all Indians.
“Around 8,600 responses were received on a question on how and where their digital health ID data should be stored to which 57 per cent said the data storage should only be done for health information and the same be done at central level. They also said that authorisation should be required for its use by any health facility,” the survey said.
When asked about making aggregate or anonymised data of people available for the purpose of research or promotion of diagnostic solutions, to external agencies, 48 per cent respondents said they do not approve of it, while 45 per cent said they were ‘okay’ with it and 6 per cent were unsure.
Akshay Gupta, General Manager, LocalCircles said the survey results will be submitted to key stakeholders associated with the Digital Health ID initiative, so that citizen inputs can be kept at the forefront as the government lays out the blueprint of the initiative.
To safeguard confidential health data collected from people under NDHM, the Government has proposed a framework and a set of minimum standards for data privacy protection to be followed across the board in compliance with applicable laws and regulations.