19-Jun-2018: National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) launched

Shri J P Nadda, Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare released the National Health Resource Repository (NHRR) - Country’s first ever national healthcare facility registry of authentic, standardized and updated geo-spatial data of all public and private healthcare establishments.

The Union Health Minister stated that the data is an important source of navigation. It helps in understanding the goals, our strengths and weaknesses and it is also an important means to strategize. Good compiled data enables the policymakers to make evidence-based policies and aids effective implementation of various schemes. He also advised that NHRR should have inbuilt process for updating the data so that the system is relevant for times to come. Shri J P Nadda congratulated and appreciated the CBHI team for their initiatives regarding use of geo-mapping.

The vision of the NHRR Project is to strengthen evidence-based decision making and develop a platform for citizen and provider-centric services by creating a robust, standardized and secured IT-enabled repository of India’s healthcare resources. NHRR will be the ultimate platform for comprehensive information of both, Private and Public healthcare establishments including Railways, ESIC, Defense and Petroleum healthcare establishments. Under the Collection of Statistics Act 2008, over 20 lakh healthcare establishments like hospitals, doctors, clinics, diagnostic labs, pharmacies and nursing homes would be enumerated under this census capturing data on over 1,400 variables.

The Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI) has actively engaged with key stakeholders including leading Associations, Allied Ministries, and several private healthcare service providers. This resource repository shall enable advanced research towards ongoing & forthcoming healthcare challenges arising from other determinants of health like - disease, environment etc.

Approximately 4,000 trained professionals are dedicatedly working to approach every healthcare establishment for information collection. The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is the project technology partner adhering to paramount Data Security.

The key expected outcomes of the NHRR project are to provide comprehensive data on all health resources including private doctors, health facilities, chemists, and diagnostics labs, establish a National Health Resource Repository for evidence based decision making – aligned with Digital India mission. It shall also enhance the coordination between central and state government for optimization of health resources, making ‘live’ and realistic state Project Implementation Plans (PIPs) and improving accessibility of data at all levels, including State Head of Departments, thus, decentralize the decision making at district and state level.

Some key benefits of the NHRR Project are to create a reliable, unified registry of Country’s healthcare resources showing the distribution pattern of health facilities and services between cities and rural areas. Additionally, it shall generate real-world intelligence to identify gaps in health and service ratios, and ensure judicious health resource allocation and management. It shall identify key areas of improvement by upgrading existing health facilities or establishing new health facilities keeping in view the population density, geographic nature, health condition, distance, etc.

The  mandate of the NHRR is to achieve the following objectives:

1. Promote evidence based planning and decision making in healthcare sector through provision of comprehensive data on healthcare resources (both public and private sector) in the country.
2. Provide visibility of private sector healthcare resources to facilitate public private partnership initiatives for improve access and availability of health services.
3. Provide technology based solutions to improve efficiency of health systems by improving planning, provisioning of healthcare resources.
4. Improve informed decision making and community awareness by allowing access to holistic information on healthcare resources.
5. Promote meaningful use of data collection and exchange services for better healthcare management by providing a common platform for sharing information.
6. Promote convergence between similar programmes by providing interoperability.
7. Enhance effectiveness of programme planning and implementation at centre, state and district level by providing updated healthcare resource status.
8. Provide a platform for managing emergencies effectively by providing information on all the healthcare resources (public & private) in the designated geography.
9. Furnish standardized data, distribution of resources and trends on the global platform, using regularly updated health status indicators.