The National Health Authority (NHA) has onboarded the Quality Council of India (QCI) for six months to accredit and rate HMIS (Health Management Information System)/ LMIS (Laboratory Information Management System) solutions that have integrated with Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). The National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH), the constituent board of QCI is responsible for national accreditation in the domain of healthcare. NABH will undertake the responsibility of accrediting and rating the ABDM compliant solutions on various parameters, including ease of usage, user interface, pricing, number of modules/features and value for money/pricing so that prospective purchasers may get credible information.
Talking about the purpose of this initiative, Dr. R. S. Sharma, CEO, NHA said – “With ABDM, we aim to encourage innovations by streamlining delivery of health tech services in a significant way. We plan to develop a framework to ensure that ABDM compliant digital healthcare solutions are accredited and rated and to adequate information is available to consumers for choosing one solution over another. For this, we are partnering with the QCI to develop a review plan and complete the accreditation and review of at least 10 HMIS solutions (public and private) that have successfully integrated with ABDM in the next six months.”
Addressing the impact of the initiative, Shri Adil Zainulbhai, Chairman, QCI said – “The way NHA is revolutionizing public healthcare access in India through its digital health initiatives is simply phenomenal. This programme for accreditation of software solutions under ABDM for management of hospitals, labs, and clinics is a big leap for health tech in India. I am delighted that QCI & NABH will join hands with the NHA in shaping this programme. Accredited health tech solutions will help healthcare organizations manage their patient journeys and business more methodically in accordance with ABDM standards. And ultimately, this initiative will help the citizens of India get better and more timely healthcare and help India become one of the leaders in digitization of healthcare in the world”
This accreditation exercise will be conducted in a phased manner. Phase I shall focus on accreditation and rating of HMIS solutions successfully integrated with ABDM. Subsequent phases shall include other subjective parameters and other categories of healthcare solutions like LMIS, Health Lockers, Health Tech, PHR (Personal Health Records) apps etc.
As part of this initiative, NABH, QCI will onboard digital health experts for developing an accreditation standard for digital health solutions across various categories of products (e.g., HMIS, LMIS, Health Locker etc.) that have successfully completed their ABDM integration. The test environment for the review parameters shall be provided by NHA. Applicants like public health programs, software providers, hospitals, labs, healthcare aggregators etc. who wish to get this accreditation are required to submit their ‘Accreditation Application’ to NABH along with their compliance to accreditation standards and the ABDM requirements.
The solutions shall be reviewed on the finalized accreditation standards (based on international standards in the healthcare software ecosystem as well as the indicative list of technical standards provided by NHA). An independent team of experts engaged by QCI will then rate the accredited healthcare solutions and monitor them periodically for their operational performance, compliance with minimum viable requirement as per guidelines and maintenance of standards, and user experience. Users will also be able to submit their feedback which will be added to the rating mechanism. The ratings and reviews for the solutions shall be published on ABDM Website along with the platform suggested by QCI.
With this initiative, NHA aims to enable a prospective buyer to make an informed decision by comparing healthcare solutions that fall under the same category (like HMIS, LMIS, health locker, health tech etc.). The QCI is an autonomous body instituted by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Government of India with the objective to provide a credible, reliable mechanism for third party assessment of products, services and processes which is accepted and recognized globally.
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