What is IHIP? IHIP, the acronym for Integrated Health Information Platform, basically means that it intercepts the collected data from different towns and villages, which helps in the quick identification and prevention of diseases that might later turn into a worldwide epidemic like COVID-19.

This initiative was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, and is part of IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme). IDSP was launched way back in November 2004 with assistance from The World Bank. To know more about IHIP, we will first need to understand what is IDSP. Let’s get started.

IDSP and Its History

As already mentioned IDSP (Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme) was launched in November 2004 to identify and respond to those diseases quickly before they turn into an outbreak. In 2010, the project was extended for 2 years, from April 2010 to March 2012. Under the project data on epidemic-prone diseases was collected and analyzed weekly. As per the reports, 30-40 outbreaks were reported every week by the states.

To make communication easier, a call center was established in February 2008 to receive alerts from the people. Considering the lack of health professionals in the fields of Epidemiology, Microbiology, and Entomology, the state approved the recruitment of trained professionals in order to strengthen the disease surveillance and response system. This shows the importance of education in healthcare system and the role of education in Human Capital Formation.

Establishment of IHIP

In 2015, in view of the growing population in the country, a joint committee of the Integrated Disease Surveillance Programme strongly recommended a review and redesign of the surveillance system. Therefore, the IDSP professionals under the control of the National Center for Disease Control conducted a survey and identified 33 different health conditions for surveillance which required our immediate priority. 

With extreme research, during the peak of COVID-19, India’s Union Minister of Health and Family Welfare, Dr Harsh Vardhan launched IHIP (Integrated Health Information Platform) virtually. This platform is the highly refined version of the presently used system of Integrated Disease Surveillance System. 

Another key fact to note is that India is the first country in the whole world to adopt a disease surveillance system this advance. The new and improved IHIP with automated technology will help in real-time data collection and further analysis.  Following Modi’s “Digital India” initiative, now the reports can be shared on Mobile phones or other electronic devices. Dr Harsh Vardhan in his press conference applauded the hard work of all the great minds that worked together to make such an advanced platform that can scout even the earliest signs of disease spread in the remotest of villages.

Key differences between IDSP and IHIP

Although IHIP is part of IDSP but IHIP is significantly better than the latter. Have a look at this table to know more:

Key features of IHIP

IHIP though fully launched in 2021, it was first tested in 7 different districts namely Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, and Kerela. If you notice one detail in the selection of these districts is that these are scattered all over India to first spread awareness about this platform. This soft launch happened on 26th November 2018 at Nirman Bhawan, New Delhi. Key features of IHIP are:

1. Real-time reporting of analyzed data is made available digitally on mobile phones or other electronic platforms at all levels from villages, states, and central levels.
2. Usage of advanced data modeling and analytical tools for data collection.
3. All the data is collected into an integrated dashboard in Graphical form with the help of GIS.
4. Hierarchy-based feedback and alert mechanisms are introduced so as to not miss important information.
5. IHIP is compatible with most of the other digital information systems presently being used in India.
6. It can track 33+ diseases as compared to the earlier 18 diseases.
7. Data will be collected in 3 different forms such as:
   • Through healthcare workers at the grassroots level
   • With the data collected by doctors at the PHC (Primary Health Center)/CHC (Community Health Center)/DH (District Hospital) level when the patients visit for diagnosis.
   • Data collected by the diagnostic labs when the tests are carried out.

  Significance:

• The data collection and analysis becomes easy as the data is fetched directly from the village and block levels.
• The platform can help identify the earliest signs of an outbreak potentially preventing another pandemic or epidemic like COVID-19.
• With the “Make in India” initiative in full force, India is truly becoming Atmanirbhar Bharat through the use of technology,
• It is compatible with the NDHM (National Digital Health Mission). NDHM is extremely necessary to support the digital health infrastructure of the country.
• IHIP helps in identifying Zoonotic diseases as well.
• Trained RRTs (Rapid Response Teams) are deployed to detect and respond to outbreaks in their early phases only. 

Wrapping Up

Healthcare system in India is distributed across rural and urban areas with different kinds of healthcare providers. Therefore, with the sole purpose of collecting data and strengthening surveillance, the Integrated Health Information Platform (IHIP) was launched pan-India. IHIP was one of the earliest initiatives to integrate various health programs making it a web-based real-time electronic health information system that aims to provide details on diseases that could potentially become epidemic.

With this article, we tried summarising the whole IHIP starting from when it launched and how it is going now. Dr. Roderico Ofrin, a representative from the WHO (World Health Organisation) stated that this advanced digital surveillance platform will help in providing and connecting data pushing India towards the “One Health” approach. He applauded India greatly for this huge and timely development, terming the day IHIP was launched as a “Historic Day”