India to build on success of Co-WIN system to create national digital health programme: RS Sharma

India will build on the success of its Covid Vaccine Intelligence Network (Co-WIN) application to create a National Digital Health Programme in near future, RS Sharma, CEO, National Health Authority (NHA) has said.

Delivering a keynote address at the CoWin Global Conclave organised by the central government, Sharma said in a couple of years, the new architecture will ensure the entire country is connected through a grid that connects and validates the identities of patients, healthcare providers, healthcare facilities, and the pharmacies. "All these stakeholders will get connected through an open and interoperable grid that will leverage the extensive internet connectivity and the robust digital identity - Aadhaar, helping plug the current gaps in healthcare delivery," he said.

According to Sharma, the pandemic has taken its toll on nations globally and the gaps in healthcare delivery have become more apparent than ever. India will build on the success of Co-WIN to address these gaps and invest in the development of the tech infrastructure for healthcare, he said.

Addressing representatives from over 100 countries through the conclave, Sharma said Co-WIN'S open design is allowing India to share it with the world as a public digital good. "Countries interested in availing Co-WIN enjoy the liberty of customising and modifying the platform as per their needs. What makes the system highly configurable is its dynamic and evolvable design, and the parameterisation of inputs. This allows them to add new brands of vaccines on the fly, while adapting their administration schedules based on research and concurrent developments. It is exactly this dimension of the platform that makes it inclusive and accessible to all, as there is no black box of rules," he explained.

With an interoperable design, Co-WIN has been designed as an amalgamation of open APIs (application programming interface). Sharma said this allows private and public organisations to build on top of the Co-WIN platform, while all systems continue to talk to each other and maintain that single source of truth. Co-WIN platform is not only handling the overall management of citizen registration, appointment scheduling and certification, but it has also ensured vaccine accessibility and inclusivity for all. It has helped with efficient vaccination utilisation and decentralised governance and management, he added.

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