The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is looking at setting up a central authority to ensure healthcare providers — both institutional as well as individuals — comply with the electronic health record (EHR) guidelines.

“We need to have an e-health authority which will be the regulator and which will see that EHR standards are being adhered to,” Lov Verma, Secretary, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said, while addressing a conference organised by Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India.

He said the Government was looking at framing metadata and data standards (MDDS) for the health sector, which will provide a common data information model for various stakeholders — national and state, public as well as private.

Talking about the importance of bringing in information and communication technology into healthcare system, Verma said, “With ICT adoption in health systems, we are hoping to achieve remote consultation, diagnosis and treatment through tele-medicine, 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.

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