Patient identification
A unique health identifier that links each person’s records across facilities, protected against misuse.
Initiative 03 · Digital health
A nation’s health, connected and sovereign.
A programme model for a national electronic medical record system linked to a central, in-country data centre, so a patient’s history follows them to any facility in any province.
The challenge
Paper records cannot travel with the patient.
When records are kept on paper or in disconnected systems, every referral starts from scratch: tests are repeated, allergies are missed and ministries plan without reliable data.
A national record changes that, but only if it is designed for real conditions (intermittent power and connectivity, many languages, limited IT staff) and governed so that citizens can trust it.
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The model
Six components, one national system.
Built on open international standards, so the country is never locked in to a single vendor.
Electronic medical record
A shared record used in hospitals, clinics and mobile units, designed to work offline.
Central data centre
Secure, in-country hosting with backup and disaster recovery, operated with national partners.
Interoperability
Laboratories, pharmacies, insurers and registries exchanging data through standards such as HL7 FHIR.
Public health intelligence
Anonymized dashboards for disease surveillance, planning and resource allocation, owned by the ministry.
Training and support
Users trained, champions in every facility and a national support desk.
Continuity of care
What changes for a patient.
- 01
Registered once
A patient is identified once and recognized at any facility.
- 02
Seen anywhere
A clinician in another province sees the history, allergies and results.
- 03
Referred safely
Referrals and results travel electronically, not in an envelope.
- 04
Counted
Anonymized data helps the ministry see where care is needed next.
Deployment
From pilot province to national coverage.
Readiness assessment
Facilities, connectivity, power, existing systems, skills and law reviewed.
Architecture and governance
Standards, hosting, security and the legal framework for data agreed nationally.
Procurement
Vendor-neutral requirements and transparent selection of software and infrastructure.
Pilot and scale
A pilot province first, then phased national rollout with training and support.
Data sovereignty
The data belongs to the nation.
- National ownership
- Health data is owned by patients and governed by national law, hosted in-country.
- Privacy by design
- Access by role, every access logged, sensitive records protected by default.
- No commercial resale
- Identifiable data is never sold. Research use only under national approval and anonymization.
- No lock-in
- Open standards and full data portability, so the nation can change vendors at will.
Partnership
A national infrastructure, built together.
A national health record is infrastructure, like roads or power. We design and deliver it with the institutions that will own and run it.
- Ministries of health and digital economy
- National health insurance funds
- National data protection authorities
- Telecommunications and data centre operators
- Development partners and multilateral agencies
Frequently asked questions
Where is the data stored?
In a data centre in the country, operated with national partners, with encrypted backups under the same national control.
Can the system work in facilities with poor connectivity?
Yes. Facility applications work offline and synchronize when a connection is available, and the design accounts for power interruptions.
What happens if the country wants to change vendors?
Open standards and contractual data portability mean the nation can migrate its data and change vendors without starting over.
Plan your national health record.
We present the architecture, the governance model and a phased budget in a confidential briefing for ministries and partners.
