The digitalization initiative under Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) primarily aims to:?

NORCET 9 Mains - 2025

Community Health Nursing

Easy

Appeared in: NORCET 9 Mains - 2025

Explanation

The primary goal of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is to develop a national digital health ecosystem.
It aims to provide a unique 14-digit Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) number to every citizen.
This ABHA number allows citizens to link their personal health records, creating a longitudinal health history that can be accessed and shared with consent.
This system empowers patients and ensures continuity of care across different healthcare providers and locations.

Option B: Creating a database of hospitals refers to the Health Facility Registry (HFR). While HFR is a core building block of ABDM, it is a means to an end, not the primary goal. The main objective is centered on the patient's data, not just a directory of facilities.
Option C: This describes the function of Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (PM-JAY), the health insurance scheme. ABDM is the separate, parallel initiative focused on creating the digital backbone for healthcare data.
Option D: Launching apps for doctors is related to the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR), another component of ABDM. These tools support doctors in the digital ecosystem but are not the primary aim of the mission, which is to empower citizens with their health data.

Visual 1: Flowchart: Illustrating how a citizen's ABHA number acts as a key to unlock and share their health records (lab reports, prescriptions, discharge summaries) from different hospitals and labs, all stored in a connected digital ecosystem.

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Primary objective of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
For nurses, ABDM facilitates better patient care by providing access to a patient's complete medical history with their consent. This reduces medical errors, avoids duplicate testing, and allows for more informed clinical decisions.
It improves continuity of care, especially for patients with chronic diseases or those who move between different cities or healthcare providers.
What if a patient arrives unconscious in the emergency department? In the future, the ABDM framework could potentially allow emergency access to critical information like blood type, allergies, and chronic conditions, which could be life-saving.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the key term in the question: 'Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)'.
Next, focus on the qualifier 'primarily aims to'. This asks for the main, overarching goal, not just a feature or component of the mission.
Analyze the options by categorizing them: Option A is patient-centric (records), Option B is facility-centric (hospitals), Option C is finance-centric (insurance), and Option D is provider-centric (doctors).
Recall or deduce that a 'Digital Mission' for a country's health system would logically have the citizen's data at its core.
Differentiate between the two main pillars of Ayushman Bharat: PM-JAY (the insurance scheme) and ABDM (the digital infrastructure). This helps eliminate the option related to insurance claims.
Recognize that registries for hospitals and doctors are necessary infrastructure, but the ultimate beneficiary and primary goal is to empower the citizen with their health records. This points to the patient-centric option as the correct answer.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Primary objective of Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)
Stem keywords: Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, ABDM, digitalization initiative, primarily aims
Lead-in keywords: primarily aims to

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