According to reports, DigiLocker, which has been provided a huge push in the Union Budget, is expecting to soon have another major use case by becoming a repository for digital health documents making it convenient for individuals.

In the Budget, DigiLocker has been expanded for both personal and organisational support to streamline know-your-customer (KYC) processes.

“This is going to be used as ‘a very effective container’ for all the health-related documents,” says RS Sharma, who is the founder Chief executive of Aadhaar and former IT and telecom Secretary who launched DigiLocker in 2015 who was till recently the chief of the National Health Authority of India.

Abhishek Singh, CEO, Digital India Corporation, under which DigiLocker is hosted, says, “The facility of storing and sharing health documents on the cloud-based platform has been there for quite some time but is going to be upscale for more people to use it.”

The platform currently stores documents ranging from Aadhaar, PAN card, Covid vaccination certificate, Class X/XII marksheets, driving licence, and ration card among others.

“The health ministry under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission needed a place to store health records, hence came the health locker on the DigiLocker app, where prescriptions, lab reports, X-rays, CT scans and blood reports can be accessible,” Singh adds.

Asked how this was different from Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) App — where patients can maintain and manage their health information in a secure environment — he said integration with DigiLocker enables all ABHA-linked health records to be verified and shared with consent.

“The number of documents currently being stored is not very high because not all hospitals are issuing digital health records. This year I'm expecting a big push in the number of health documents that will come into DigiLocker,” says Singh.