Health records glossary — ABHA, ABDM, PHR and the words that matter

This is a plain-language dictionary of the terms you’ll run into around digital health records in India. Most of them are acronyms from the government’s health stack, and most explanations online assume you already know the other acronyms. Here, each one is defined on its own, in words anyone can follow.

ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account)

ABHA is India’s free digital health ID — one identity that links your medical records across hospitals, clinics and labs, under your control. It comes in two parts: a 14-digit ABHA number (your ID) and an ABHA address like name@abdm (your login handle). It’s created under ABDM and is voluntary to set up. See our full guide: What is ABHA.

ABDM (Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission)

ABDM is the national programme that builds India’s digital health infrastructure, run by the National Health Authority. It defines the standards and “rails” that let your records move between providers with your consent. ABDM is the system; ABHA is your account within it.

NHA (National Health Authority)

The NHA is the government body that runs ABDM (and the Ayushman Bharat insurance scheme). It sets the rules that apps and hospitals must follow to connect to the network.

PHR (Personal Health Record)

A PHR is a record of your health that you own and control, gathered across every doctor and lab you’ve visited. It’s different from the record any single hospital keeps about you. MediBrief is a PHR app — your records live with you, not scattered across providers.

EHR (Electronic Health Record)

An EHR is the digital record a hospital or clinic keeps about its patients. It belongs to the provider, not to you. The point of ABDM is to let the relevant parts of many EHRs flow into your single PHR, with your permission.

HIP and HIU (Health Information Provider / User)

A HIP is a provider that holds your records (a hospital, lab or clinic). A HIU is one that wants to access them (often a doctor you’re newly seeing). In a single visit a hospital can be both. Records move from a HIP to a HIU only after you approve the request.

HIE-CM (Consent Manager)

The consent manager is the part of ABDM that asks for and logs your permission before any record is shared between a HIP and a HIU. Full name: Health Information Exchange & Consent Manager. It’s why nothing in the system moves without a consent you actively approve — for a specific purpose, and a limited time.

Consent artefact

A consent artefact is the digital record of one permission you gave — what data, to whom, for what purpose, and for how long. You can see and revoke your consents. It’s the receipt that makes “with your consent” something you can actually check, not just a promise.

Health Locker

A Health Locker is an ABDM-approved app where your linked records can be stored and managed. Different lockers make different trade-offs — some keep records on company servers, others (like MediBrief’s device-first approach) keep them encrypted on your own phone.

Device-first / on-device

Device-first means your records are stored and encrypted on your own phone, not on a company’s servers. It’s a privacy choice: if the sensitive data never sits in a cloud, there’s nothing central for anyone to leak or lose. This is MediBrief’s core design — see your data stays on your phone.

DPDP Act (Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023)

The DPDP Act is India’s data-protection law. It sets rules for how any organisation collects, stores and uses your personal data — including health data — and gives you rights over it, like access and erasure. When we say MediBrief is “built to align with the DPDP Act,” we mean designed around those rules — not “certified,” which is a claim we won’t make until it’s earned.

Emergency Health Card

An Emergency Health Card is a small set of critical details — blood group, allergies, medications, emergency contacts — kept ready for a crisis. In MediBrief it’s viewable on your phone without unlocking it and works offline, so a bystander or paramedic can see what matters when you can’t speak. See Emergency Health Card.

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New terms join the digital-health vocabulary often. If there’s one you met and couldn’t find here, tell us and we’ll add it.