What is ABDM? A plain-English guide for hospitals and clinics

ABDM, the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, is the Government of India’s programme to connect the country’s healthcare providers digitally, so that a patient’s records can follow them from one hospital, clinic or lab to the next. It is run by the National Health Authority (NHA). Here is what it is made of, and what it means for your hospital. (Hindi: ABDM क्या है?)

The building blocks

ABHA: the patient’s health ID

The Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) is a 14-digit number that identifies a patient across the health system. Each patient can also have an ABHA address, which works like an email address for their health records. Patients can create an ABHA themselves, or your front desk can create or verify one at registration.

HPR and HFR: who and where

The Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) lists verified doctors, nurses and other professionals. The Health Facility Registry (HFR) lists verified hospitals, clinics, labs and pharmacies. Registering your doctors and your facility is how other parts of ABDM know who is creating and requesting records.

Consent and the health information exchange

Records do not sit in one central database. They stay with the hospital that created them, and move only when the patient approves a request in their health records app. The consent manager handles that approval and the exchange. We explain each step in ABDM consent flows, explained in plain English.

Health records apps

Patients use a personal health records app to hold their ABHA, see which providers have their records, and approve or deny requests to share them.

What a hospital does in ABDM

A hospital usually plays two roles:

• Health Information Provider (HIP): it creates records, links them to the patient’s ABHA and shares them when the patient consents.
• Health Information User (HIU): it asks for records held elsewhere, for example when a referred patient arrives, and receives them once the patient consents.

Software that connects to ABDM is usually described in three milestones:

• M1: creating and verifying ABHA, and using it at registration.
• M2: acting as a HIP: linking records to ABHA and sharing them on consent.
• M3: acting as a HIU: requesting records from other providers with consent.

What changes at the front desk

• Registration from a scan. With Scan & Share, the patient scans your counter’s QR code with their app and their details arrive at registration. No form, a shorter queue.
• Fewer repeated tests. With consent, the doctor can see reports from earlier visits elsewhere.
• Records the patient keeps. Discharge summaries, prescriptions and reports can be linked to the patient’s ABHA, so they are not lost in a paper file.

Is ABDM mandatory?

For patients, having an ABHA is voluntary. For hospitals, the requirements depend on your state and the schemes you are empanelled with, and they are changing. The NHA also runs incentive schemes for digital health transactions from time to time. Check the current rules on the official ABDM website, abdm.gov.in, and with the schemes you work with.

Getting started

1. Register your facility in the HFR and your doctors in the HPR.
2. Use software that is integrated with ABDM, so ABHA, linking and consent are part of daily work.
3. Train the front desk to ask every patient for their ABHA, or help them create one.

How Carexa OS handles ABDM

Carexa OS is built for ABDM. ABHA creation and verification, Scan & Share registration, linking records to ABHA, consent-based sharing and HPR and HFR lookups are part of the everyday workflow, not a separate module. See ABDM software for hospitals, or book an ABDM walkthrough.