The report stressed that digital access to patient histories reduces the duplication of diagnostic tests and improves clinical decision-making.
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Around 51.03% of government-owned healthcare providers in India have access to more patient histories, compared to 48.97% of privately owned healthcare providers, according to the second edition of a report titled “State of DPI in India 2026”, under the State of Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) in Healthcare section.
Commissioned by Protean eGov Technologies Limited and authored by the Centre for Digital Public Goods (CDPG) at IIM Bangalore (IIM-B), the report was released on Wednesday. It examined the state of DPI in five sectors: finance, health, agriculture, commerce, and education.
The report stated that government-owned facilities or providers account for a slightly higher share than private facilities, reflecting a strong public infrastructure presence in healthcare.
It stressed that digital access to patient histories reduces the duplication of diagnostic tests and improves clinical decision-making.
“Patients benefit from greater continuity of care as their health information becomes portable across healthcare providers and care settings. Insurers can also process claims more efficiently using standardised clinical information, while government can promote interoperability across the healthcare sector without centralising sensitive health data,” the report read.
While the finance sector demonstrated the scale and maturity possible through interoperable digital transactions, healthcare is developing a connected health information infrastructure through shared registries and consent-based systems like the Health Professionals Registry (HPR) and Health Facility Registry (HFR) under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), said a release.
The agriculture sector is using interoperability infrastructure to address fragmentation across farmers, markets, advisory services, and government programmes. Commerce is seeing the emergence of digital marketplaces, logistics, and procurement systems, while education is developing shared infrastructure for learner identity, portable credentials, digital learning, and continuity across the learning journey.
Its findings suggest that the next phase of the DPI journey, moving beyond the creation of individual digital guardrails, will steer towards connecting existing infrastructure into interoperable networks, building digital institutions around them, and enabling trusted interactions across complex systems.
On the future ahead, the report considers how emerging technologies, particularly artificial intelligence (AI), could add a new intelligence layer to DPI. “As digital infrastructures become increasingly interconnected, AI could potentially draw on multiple trusted infrastructures to support decision-making, anticipate needs and enable more personalised and coordinated services,” the report said.
However, it also suggested that the proliferation of AI and its deeper integration in digital ecosystems must be accompanied by governance mechanisms that embed privacy, accountability, transparency, and interoperability into digital infrastructure.
Published – September 30, 2026 08:21 pm IST
