JP Nadda Launches Unified Health Interface for Digital Care

The new system removes platform barriers, giving citizens greater choice while allowing healthcare providers to reach a much wider audience.

India has taken another major step in expanding its digital healthcare ecosystem with the launch of the Unified Health Interface (UHI), an open and interoperable network that allows patients and healthcare providers to connect across different digital platforms. Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda unveiled the initiative, which has been developed under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) to make healthcare services more accessible, transparent and convenient for citizens.

Unlike the existing digital health ecosystem, where both patients and healthcare providers must use the same application to interact, UHI enables verified users to discover and access health services regardless of the app they are using. The new system removes platform barriers, giving citizens greater choice while allowing healthcare providers to reach a much wider audience.

One Network Connecting Patients and Providers

The Unified Health Interface functions as the service layer of the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission and operates through open technical standards developed and maintained by the National Health Authority (NHA). When a citizen searches for a healthcare service using any UHI-enabled application, the request is routed through the ABDM Gateway, which connects the user with registered healthcare providers across the network.

The platform relies on several core components of India's digital health infrastructure. ABHA serves as the patient's unique health identifier, while the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Health Facility Registry (HFR) verify doctors and healthcare facilities participating in the network. Health information is shared only with patient consent through the Health Information Exchange framework, ensuring greater privacy and trust.

The system has been built around four guiding principles: interoperability, fair discoverability, verification and open protocols. This allows patients and providers to interact without depending on a single application, gives verified healthcare providers equal visibility regardless of their size or location, ensures only authenticated professionals join the network and enables developers to build compatible healthcare applications in multiple languages and on different devices.

Wide Range of Services Already Available

Several healthcare services have already gone live on the Unified Health Interface, allowing citizens to access them through any compatible application. Users can check real-time blood availability across the country through integration with e-RaktKosh, helping families quickly locate blood banks during emergencies.

The platform also enables Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendra discovery, allowing citizens to find nearby stores offering affordable generic medicines. PMJAY beneficiaries can search for empanelled hospitals based on their location and required speciality using the Health Empanelment Module.

Another important feature is ambulance discovery and booking, which enables users to locate verified ambulance services and request emergency transportation through UHI-enabled applications. Citizens can also search for nearby doctors and book in-person consultations, bringing multiple healthcare providers together on a single interoperable network.

These services are expected to simplify access to healthcare, particularly for people living in semi-urban and rural areas, where finding reliable healthcare providers has often been more difficult.

Expanding India's Digital Health Infrastructure

The National Health Authority plans to steadily expand the range of services available through UHI. Upcoming additions include laboratory diagnostics discovery and booking, vaccination centre discovery with appointment scheduling, pharmacy discovery covering both private and government outlets, and integration with major government healthcare programmes. The long-term vision is to create a nationwide digital health network where every citizen can discover verified healthcare services through any compatible application while allowing every healthcare provider, regardless of size or location, to participate on equal terms.

For developers and technology companies, the open protocol architecture creates opportunities to build innovative health applications that connect seamlessly with the national network. This approach encourages innovation while ensuring healthcare services remain accessible without being restricted to individual platforms.

With the launch of the Unified Health Interface, India is strengthening the digital foundation of its healthcare system by making verified medical services easier to discover, improving access to quality healthcare and creating a more connected, citizen-focused health ecosystem that can serve millions of people across the country.