The ‘smart doctor’ at the heart of India’s digital health push

The tool, dubbed “smart doctor”, has been developed by AIIMS New Delhi and will be rolled out under the government's flagship programme Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) across all Indian hospitals, said two officials and a document reviewed by Mint.

The clinical decision support system (CDSS) acts as a highly intelligent digital assistant for doctors and is designed to help treat long-term health issues by analyzing a patient's medical details and suggesting the best care plan.

CDSS advises doctors on the optimal drugs and exact dosages to prescribe. It also flags contraindications, alerting doctors if a drug could be harmful or interact adversely with other medications.

“The CDSS is fundamentally a decision support mechanism designed to assist clinicians, not to override their judgment. Developed by AIIMS, it uses a rule-based framework that allows doctors to cross-reference symptoms and protocols against a standardized database," said one of the officials.

"By scaling this tool specifically for non-communicable diseases, we aim to minimize misdiagnoses and medical errors, while ensuring that the doctor’s final decision remains supreme,” the official added.

The development assumes significance amid India’s high disease burden. Non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and hypertension affect an estimated 11.4% and 35.5% of the population, respectively, conditions that often require long-term medication management and careful dosing.

While officials say the tool is meant to assist doctors, its nationwide rollout raises concerns questions around data safety.

“If this system allows for the patient’s data to be collected without consent and used only in the event of an emergency, then there needs to be strong safeguards that prevent an overreach and abuse of personal data,” said Akash Karmakar, partner, Law Offices of Panag & Babu, and senior advisor, Flint Global.

"One potential method here would be to tokenise the data and hold it with custodians who cannot decrypt the data unless mapped to a specific request…There is also the product question of whether there is enough trust created for the government to act as the sole custodian of the data without having clarity regarding what the end uses of the data are that are permitted, and with government access being unfettered,” Karmakar added.

Queries sent to the health ministry spokesperson on Sunday remained unanswered till press time.

Hospitals using software platforms not on the ABDM-approved list have been asked to upgrade their systems to enable integration, with the Centre offering technical support.

In a 9 December directive, reviewed by Mint, the NHA described CDSS as a key component of ABDM’s digital ecosystem, calling it an evidence-based advisory system tailored to individual patient profiles.

The authority stated that the tool could also serve as an educational aid for clinicians, particularly in high-volume or resource-constrained settings.

This timely and important initiative reflects the growing maturity of India’s digital health ecosystem, said Dr. Alexander Thomas, founder and patron of the Association of Healthcare Providers India (AHPI), which represents nearly 20,000 hospitals.

Though the system acts as a "clinical safety net" by ensuring rational prescribing and reducing medication errors, these must be integrated seamlessly into workflows to support rather than replace clinical judgment, he added.

ABDM’s underlying digital rails have expanded rapidly. As of August 2025, about 79.9 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts (ABHA) have been created, with roughly 67.19 crore health records digitally linked.