Ayush grid: Digital health platform

Abstract

Innovative use of Information Communication Technology in the Ayush sector enables achieving Universal Health Coverage (UHC), health emergency protection, and healthier populations in the integrative health-care acumen. Ayush Grid (AG) is an Ayush-centric Digital Health Platform (DHP) created by the Ministry of Ayush, Government of India in the year 2018. It works in sync with the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)-India's national digital health infostructure platform. The components of the AG cover all the verticals of the Ayush Sector, namely Health Services, Education, Ayush Research, Central Sector and Centrally Sponsored Schemes, Training Programmes, Citizen Centric Services, Drug Licencing Portal, and Media Outreach through four distinct layers namely The core layer, National Layer, State Layer, and Citizen access. The significant contributions of AG so far are the implementation and maintenance of the National Ayush Morbidity and Standardized Electronic (NAMASTE) portal, Ayush Research Portal, development and implementation of Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) enabled Ayush Hospital Information Management System (AHMIS), Ayush Sanjivani app (during COVID-19 pandemic), assisting the World Health Organization (WHO) in the development of mYoga app, Ayurveda Siddha and Unani International terminologies and morbidity codes (as Module-2, Chapter-26, ICD-11), development of benchmarks for the use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the field of traditional medicine under the “Artificial Intelligence for Health (AI4Health)” initiative by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and WHO, etc. The paper discusses the role of AG as an enabler to integrate Ayush systems in the national and international health-care setting.