Union Health Secretary of India Apurva Chandra
Credit: X/@WHO
New Delhi: Online vaccine management portal U-Win will be launched later this month to maintain a permanent digital record of vaccination and medicines of more than three crore pregnant women and almost 2.7 crore children born annually, Union Health Secretary Apurva Chandra said on Friday.
The U-Win platform, a replication of the COVID-19 vaccine management system Co-WIN, is being run in a pilot mode in all states and Union territories, except for West Bengal, and captures every vaccination event of all pregnant women and children under the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP).
Speaking at the national conference on "Universal Access to Healthcare: Digital Solutions" held here, Chandra said that one of the goals of the national digital mission is to increase the reach of healthcare services and reduce the disparity between rural and urban areas.
The health secretary highlighted the success of the Co-WIN and Aarogya Setu apps in helping to deliver more than 220 crore vaccinations across the country.
He stated that the Union government wants to replicate the same model through its flagship scheme Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission.
Chandra also highlighted that there are already many portals operating across different segments like telemedicine, TeleManas and eRaktKosh, and the effort is to combine them in a single portal.
He also informed about the upcoming launch of the U-Win portal later this month which will keep a permanent digital record of vaccination and medicines of more than three crore pregnant women and mothers and almost 2.7 crore children born annually.
Dr V K Paul, Member (Health), NITI Aayog, who inaugurated the conference, highlighted that transformative changes are taking place across the health sector in India.
Noting that "a strong primary healthcare system is a high priority for reducing the healthcare burden in later ages", he emphasized the steps being taken to particularly strengthen this network.
Dr Paul underlined five key principles for digital health solutions to embrace which included the use of digital technologies and scaling them for saturation and creating new technologies like robotics, AI etc., but in a way that does not increase the digital divide, and can be easily used by those who are not digitally literate.
He also stressed on ensuring that solutions are within the ambit of rights and promote inclusivity, protection of human rights and further democratisation, with attention to protecting the beneficiaries from cyber fraud.
Bharat Lal, Secretary General of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC), said, "Healthcare is a basic human right and without good health, the full potential of a human being cannot be realised".
He highlighted that the scope of the NHRC has increased from economic to the domain of socio-cultural sectors and since the health sector impacts everyone, it is currently engaged in this sector as well.
Stating that "digital technologies hold tremendous promise for leapfrogging towards the achievement of the goal of universal healthcare", he emphasized the importance of engaging with all stakeholders towards improving the quality of life through such solutions.
He also stated that NHRC is involved in various healthcare initiatives involving issues like mental health, leprosy etc.