Indian government to host hackathon series to support health startup ecosystem
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The National Health Authority is set to host its first open-to-all hackathon series in two weeks. It will focus on different components of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM).
An official statement said the series will begin with 'Round 1: Kick-starting Unified Health Interface', slated for July 14-17. The NHA wants to drive ideation and innovation to support the country's startup ecosystem.
The hackathon will be focused on the Unified Health Interface (UHI) and aim at mobilising the health start-up ecosystem. It will also bring individuals and organisations to develop solutions through UHI. It is an open network to enable inter-operable transactions of digital health services such as teleconsultation.
The first round of UHI will focus on two major themes - the innovation track and the integration track.
The innovation track will focus on solutions to power digital health in an open network around various use cases such as teleconsultation, ambulance booking, lab tests, physical consultation booking, and lab tests booking.
The integration track will focus on accelerating the development of applications that are compatible with UHI and integrate these applications with the applications of other such participants to enable digital health transactions on the UHI network.
"It will provide an excellent opportunity for innovators, data experts, and developers from all over the world to collaborate and build innovative solutions for providing access to digital health services through UHI," said NHA.
The UHI will help patients to discover, book, conduct, and pay for services offered by a variety of participating providers from any application of their choosing. NHA CEO R S Sharma said India has enabled the creation of some of the most efficient public delivery systems in the world. He said the UHI will have a similar effect as JAM and UPI.
The NHA pointed out that this is in contrast to the current model of digital health service delivery. Currently, both patients and health professionals are forced to transact through a common app or platform.
The statement further said NHA shall be organising master classes to further the participants' understanding of the ABDM ecosystem as part of the hackathon. Details like upcoming master classes, challenge statements, and prizes under each category will be posted on the ABDM website. A Prize pool of Rs 60,00,000 is reserved for top performers in round one.