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Digital health · The card

The universal health card

QR code and NFC, ABHA linked, personalised per beneficiary. Under EPIC, a 32 GB SD-chip enabled card that is FHIR compliant for storing medical records including CT and MRI.

The artifact

What is on it, and what is behind it

AID BY CARE · UNIVERSAL HEALTH CARDABHA NUMBERXX – XXXX – XXXX – XXXXNAME / పేరు / नाम / பெயர்Lifetime valid · Portable · Consent-controlledBLOOD GROUPEMERGENCY CONTACTALLERGIESNFCThe card carries• ABHA identity• Emergency profile• Consent record• Offline QR read• 32 GB store (EPIC)
Card face and payload
Why a physical card at all

Three arguments

It works when nothing else does

No network, no app, no login. A printed panel and a QR code function in a power cut at a district hospital.

It is understood immediately

A card is a familiar object. A cloud record is not. Adoption in the populations we serve depends heavily on this.

It carries the imaging

Under EPIC, the 32 GB chip means a CT or MRI study travels with the patient rather than staying on a disc in a drawer.

Reading the card

Four routes, in order of availability

  1. NFC tap

    Any NFC-capable phone, no application required.

  2. QR scan

    Opens the emergency view in a browser.

  3. ABHA lookup

    A connected facility retrieves the linked record, with consent.

  4. Printed panel

    Blood group, allergies and emergency contact, printed. Works with no technology at all.

Security of the card

What a lost card exposes

The emergency minimum, and nothing more

A card that is found by a stranger exposes the emergency view: blood group, allergies, conditions, medications and an emergency contact. It does not expose the clinical history, which requires consent. This is a deliberate trade: the emergency view is the whole point of the card, and a card that requires authentication in an emergency is useless.

Issue cards to your population.

Included in both programmes.