Experts in a webinar said National Identity (NID) number should be verified in health services to bring more accuracy in diagnosis.

Youth Policy Forum organised the webinar titled “Verifiable National ID: Impact on E-healthcare” organised by on Sunday night.

ICT Division Information Security Consultant Mahdi Mashrur Matin, Digital Healthcare Solution Chief Executive Sajid Rahman and Praava Health founder Sylvana Q Sinha discussed the challenges and opportunities of verifiable NID number in health services amid the pandemic situation.

Mahdi Mashrur said the service providers can accommodate any government service and fill in any application without being physically present, saving each person valuable hours through the identification system.

“This will also save the government millions of dollars since they can connect all e-governance applications to this central identity layer and significantly increase government service-delivery efficiency,” he added

Sajid Rahman said as privacy is a major concern in implementing a self-sovereign identity approach in Bangladesh, the most tech stacks are based on the foundation of private and portable IDs. It is an important element to build a strong healthcare business offline or online.

“Many businesses face dilemmas about the implementation of such guidelines as it may increase the cost. However, a strong firewall is important for patients’ data protection as they trust the healthcare system with their personal information, he added.

In his speech, Sylvana Q Sinha explained that the healthcare landscape has become even more scattered in the Covid-19 context.

“Many Bangladeshis already feel invisible in the healthcare system… often carrying their health records around in bags with no continuity of care from doctors. This has been exacerbated by the pandemic as patients can easily fall through the cracks if they do not have consistent and reliable access to quality care,” she said.