The Aadhaar card’s utility has so far been limited to getting an LPG subsidy, or as an address and identity proof, but it found an unlikely mention as an effective health tool on Friday on the first day of a massive oncology conclave, ‘A Conference of New Ideas in Cancer — Challenging Dogmas’, organised by the Tata Memorial Centre to mark its platinum jubilee.
According to a presentation by Edward Trimble, director of the Centre of Global Health at the US National Cancer Institute, India can tap its unique identification number and mobile phone penetration for better patient care.
Speaking to The Hindu , he said: “In my own country, the US, we don’t have a unique personal identifier used routinely in the healthcare system, which makes it very difficult to link the records from the doctor’s office, the hospital, the pathology laboratory and the pharmacy. So what is impressive to me is that India has set up the Aadhaar system. I have been to the headquarters, I have seen the fingerprints, the iris scan, the very quick turnaround (30 seconds to identify a person). If this is integrated into the healthcare system, India is probably further ahead of many other countries in terms of being able to link all this data.”
The linking of data can come in handy in the treatment of various medical conditions, particularly cancer. “Once the data are linked, you can track if people have been screened for cancer, if they had a positive screen and if they received the appropriate evaluation and what treatment did they get for their cancer and did they get the right prescription,” Dr Trimble said.
He cited the example of France, that he said had a very good system, where each citizen has something like a data card. “When you go to see a doctor, you give them your data card and the doctor puts it in the computer and can see if there are any previous issues, laboratory studies. At the end of the visit, the doctors types on the computer and that data automatically go on to the data card. So France is possibly the furthest ahead in terms of being able to capture the data. In the UK, the NHS does a pretty good job of gathering the data because probably 90 per cent of the people are treated in the same health system,” he said.
This kind of compiled data can be an effective tool. During his presentation that was on the future of oncology and out of the box ideas, Dr Trimble mentioned the need to go beyond cancer registries and the need to map the burden of risk factors for cancer, the details of treatment, patient reported outcome and links to other key datasets. Aadhaar, with its biometric identifiers, could fill in for the need of datasets for healthcare.
India’s mobile phone penetration, which crossed the one billion mark in January, can also be used to improve access to healthcare, with phones allowing patients to reach doctors or nurses through a text message, Dr Trimble said. “India has great computer experts and we should be able to help develop the software, so that you could get a quick response from a doctor or nurse using mobiles," he said.
