UHI stands for Unified Health Interface, which is a network of open protocols that allow interoperability in healthcare services. It is a part of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) in India.

What are open protocols?

Open protocols are universally usable technical norms that are not owned by a particular entity and are not restricted to that entity's products.

How does UHI differ from the platform-centric model of healthcare services?

The platform-centric model mandates that patients and health service providers use the same platform to access digital health services, while UHI allows patients and healthcare service providers to use different applications and still connect effortlessly.

What are the benefits of UHI for patients and healthcare service providers?

For patients, UHI allows them to get in touch with any healthcare service provider of their choosing, obtain prescriptions and lab results digitally, share health records with healthcare providers, and choose from a variety of healthcare options with complete openness on the cost of health services. For healthcare service providers, UHI allows them to list and make their services available to users regardless of the end-user application, determine the service cost and receive the full amount without cutting their profits, and retain users even if they change end-user applications.

What are the concerns with UHI implementation?

UHI's open protocols may cause resistance for existing aggregators in the digital health services market, and patients may have privacy concerns if they are not provided with an option to hide some part of their medical history that they would prefer not to share.

What is UHI

UHI - Unified Health Interface is one of the fundamental schemes of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM). It is a network of open protocols that enable interoperability in healthcare services. Open protocols are a group of universally usable technical norms. A protocol that is open (nonproprietary) is one that is not owned by a particular entity and is not restricted to that entity's products.

Approach

Currently, the digital infrastructure of the Indian Healthcare ecosystem is way too fragmented, non-interoperable, and works on a platform-centric model. The platform approach, for instance, mandates that both patients and health service providers use the same platform in order to access a digital health service like teleconsultation or appointment scheduling.

But, the Open Network-Centric Model of UHI will allow Patients and health service providers to use different applications and still connect effortlessly.

Benefits

For Patients :

Any UHI-compatible application will allow them to get in touch with the doctor of their choosing. Not only doctors but any HSP.
Additionally, users will be able to obtain prescriptions, lab results, and doctor notes digitally on their smartphones.
With UHI patients can share their health records with their healthcare providers.
With complete openness on the cost of the health service, UHI will make it possible to choose a variety of healthcare options.
There would be quality assurance in HSPs discoverability as patients can search for NABH approved Hospitals and NABL Accredited Labs

For Healthcare Service Providers :

The Health Service Provider will be allowed to list and make their service available to the User regardless of the End User Application (EUA).
With UHI, HSPs are able to determine the service's cost and receive the full amount without cutting their profits in order to provide commission.
User retention is easy in case of the user changing End User Applications. HSPs are still accessible with their Health professional ID or Health Facility ID and they can contact users with their Health ID.

Concerns

UHI may cause resistance for the existing aggregators in the digital health services market since UHI's open protocols can accelerate new players.
However, the above point can be beneficial for the common public as it would make the market more competitive so HSPs would be bound to deliver a better user experience.
Patients may have privacy concerns if they're not provided any option to hide some part of their medical history that they'd prefer not to share.

Conclusion

UHI seems to be the spark that the Indian digital healthcare system needs. The COVID-19 pandemic and the collapse of the Indian healthcare system proved the inefficiency of existing infrastructure. Discoverability, accessibility, and availability were the main issues during the pandemic, and ABDM and UHI are expected to revolutionize this infrastructure in order to avoid such crisis. While UHI seems to simplify healthcare infrastructure on paper, its on-ground are awaited to analyze "The Healthcare Revolution".

Unified Health Interface (UHI), A Healthcare Revolution ?