Health Ministry launches a new state-of-the art Information Platform to monitor public health surveillance

New Delhi: Ms Preeti Sudan, Union Health Secretary did soft-launch of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme (IDSP) segment of the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) in seven states today. The path-breaking initiative will provide near-real-time data to policymakers for detecting outbreaks, reducing the morbidity and mortality and lessening disease burden in the populations and better health systems.

The first one-of-its-kind initiative by the Government of India, IHIP uses the latest technologies and digital health initiatives.

Speaking on the occasion, Mrs Preeti Sudan stated that the success of this platform will depend primarily on the quality of data shared by the states. “Data is power and power is to help people,” she said. She urged the state secretaries to be earnest in adopting this platform to strengthen early outbreak detection and informed public health response. She also shared that for effective implementation of the platform, 32,000 people at the block level, 13,000 at the district level and 900 at the state level have been trained.

Mrs Preeti Sudan, Union Secretary of Health also launched the IHIP vision and a ready-reckoner developed to navigate the platform.

Congratulating the government for making this ambitious undertaking a reality,  Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India said that it is imperative to collaborate with the private sector to ensure the sustainability of this initiative.

“For WHO, it has been a privilege to support the development of the platform in collaboration with numerous government stakeholders,” he added.

Among those present at the launch were MrLav Aggarwal, Joint Secretary; MrVikasSheel, Joint Secretary, Dr Sujeet Kumar Singh, Director NCDC; Dr Henk Bekedam, WHO Representative to India; Dr Ramesh Krishnamurthy, Senior Advisor, WHO HQ; Dr Pradeep Khasnobis, Joint Director, IDSP NCDC and senior officials in the Union Health Ministry. Additional Chief Secretaries/Principal Secretaries (Health) and Mission Directors from the seven states (Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Telangana and Uttar Pradesh)participated in the launch through video-conferencing.