Indian healthcare IT runs on abbreviations, and vendors, tenders, and government circulars all assume you already know them. This glossary defines every term an Indian hospital is likely to meet — grouped by area, with links to deeper guides where one exists.
ABDM and Digital Health
ABDM — Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission. The Government of India's programme, run by the National Health Authority, to build a unified digital health ecosystem of registries, identifiers, and consent-based record exchange. Full guide.
ABHA — Ayushman Bharat Health Account. A free 14-digit health identifier for every citizen, used to link health records across facilities. Also called the ABHA number or health ID. Full guide.
ABHA Address. An easy-to-remember handle (similar in form to an email address) that a citizen can use instead of quoting their 14-digit ABHA number.
HFR — Health Facility Registry. The national directory of hospitals, clinics, labs, and pharmacies. Registration gives a facility a verified digital identity. Registration guide.
HPR — Healthcare Professionals Registry. The national registry of doctors, nurses, and other practitioners, linking a verified professional to their practising facilities. Registration guide.
HIP — Health Information Provider. A facility that creates and holds health records and makes them available on consent — most hospitals act as HIPs.
HIU — Health Information User. An entity that requests health records with patient consent, such as a hospital treating a patient referred from elsewhere.
Consent Manager. The ABDM component through which a patient receives, approves, and revokes requests to share their health records.
PHR — Personal Health Record. A patient-facing app where a citizen views their ABHA-linked records and manages consent.
Scan and Share. The ABDM OPD flow where a patient scans a hospital's QR code to send demographic details for instant registration. Guide.
M1, M2, M3. The National Health Authority's certification milestones that hospital software must clear to create ABHA IDs and link records. What each milestone covers.
NHA — National Health Authority. The government body that implements both PM-JAY and ABDM.
NHCX — National Health Claims Exchange. The standardised digital channel for exchanging insurance claims between hospitals, insurers, and TPAs. Explained.
PM-JAY — Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana. The health insurance arm of Ayushman Bharat, providing eligible families with cashless hospitalisation cover. Empanelment guide.
Ayushman Card. The PM-JAY beneficiary card — distinct from the ABHA card. Difference explained.
Core Software Categories
HMS — Hospital Management System. The software platform that runs a hospital end to end: registration, OPD, IPD, pharmacy, lab, billing, claims, and reporting. Full guide.
HIS — Hospital Information System. Functionally the same category as HMS; the term is more common in large and teaching hospitals.
EMR — Electronic Medical Record. The clinical record within one facility: notes, diagnoses, prescriptions, and results.
EHR — Electronic Health Record. The patient's record across facilities, shareable with consent — what ABDM enables. EMR vs EHR.
LIMS — Laboratory Information Management System. Software for the pathology lab: sample tracking, worklists, result entry, authorisation, and report release. Guide.
RIS — Radiology Information System. The radiology equivalent of LIMS, handling imaging orders, worklists, and reports.
PACS — Picture Archiving and Communication System. Stores and distributes medical images such as X-rays, CT, and MRI.
CPOE — Computerised Physician Order Entry. Doctors entering medication and investigation orders directly into the system rather than on paper.
CDSS — Clinical Decision Support System. Software that flags drug interactions, allergies, dosing issues, or protocol deviations at the point of prescribing.
ERP — Enterprise Resource Planning. In hospitals, usually refers to the back-office side: purchase, inventory, accounts, and payroll.
SaaS — Software as a Service. Cloud-delivered software on a subscription, with no server purchase and updates included. Cloud vs on-premise.
Patient and Clinical Terms
UHID — Unique Health Identification number. The permanent patient number issued by a hospital at first registration and used for every subsequent visit. Duplicate UHIDs are the single most damaging data problem in a hospital.
MRN — Medical Record Number. Used interchangeably with UHID in many hospitals.
OPD — Out-Patient Department. Consultation without admission. Best practices.
IPD — In-Patient Department. Admitted patients occupying a bed. Workflow guide.
Daycare. Procedures requiring a bed for a few hours but no overnight stay.
TAT — Turnaround Time. Time from request to result, most often tracked for lab reports and discharge processing.
ALOS — Average Length of Stay. Mean number of days admitted patients occupy a bed; a core efficiency and NABH indicator.
Triage. Prioritising emergency patients by clinical urgency rather than arrival order.
MAR — Medication Administration Record. The nursing record of which drug was given to which patient, when, and by whom.
Discharge Summary. The clinical summary of an admission, required for continuity of care, insurance claims, and NABH compliance.
ICD — International Classification of Diseases. The WHO standard for coding diagnoses; increasingly required for structured claims.
SNOMED CT. A detailed clinical terminology standard used for coding clinical findings and procedures.
LOINC. The standard coding system for laboratory tests and observations.
Billing, Insurance, and Finance
TPA — Third Party Administrator. The intermediary that processes cashless claims on behalf of insurers. Claims management guide.
Pre-authorisation. The insurer's approval, obtained before or during treatment, confirming a cashless claim will be covered.
Package Rate. A fixed all-inclusive rate for a defined procedure, used heavily by government schemes and corporate tie-ups.
Empanelment. A hospital's formal registration with a scheme or insurer allowing it to treat their beneficiaries cashless.
Tariff. The hospital's own price list for services, distinct from scheme and insurer rates.
Claim Ageing. How long submitted claims have been outstanding — the most important receivables report in a hospital.
GST — Goods and Services Tax. Healthcare services are largely exempt, but pharmacy sales to outsiders, certain room categories, and non-clinical supplies can be taxable. GST guide.
E-invoicing. Mandatory GST invoice reporting to the government portal above a prescribed turnover threshold.
Revenue Leakage. Services delivered but never billed — unbilled consumables, missed OT charges, untracked pharmacy issues. How to stop it.
Compliance, Security, and Standards
NABH — National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers. India's hospital accreditation body; its standards drive much of a hospital's documentation requirements. NABH and software.
NABL. The equivalent accreditation body for testing and calibration laboratories, including pathology labs.
DPDP Act — Digital Personal Data Protection Act. India's data protection law, under which a hospital is a Data Fiduciary with duties around consent, security safeguards, and breach notification. Guide for hospitals.
Data Fiduciary. The entity that determines why and how personal data is processed — the hospital, under the DPDP Act.
Data Principal. The individual whose data is processed — the patient.
CERT-In — Indian Computer Emergency Response Team. The national agency for cyber security incidents, with mandatory reporting and log retention obligations. Compliance checklist.
HIPAA — Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act. A United States law. It does not apply to Indian hospitals legally, but its safeguards are widely used as a benchmark. What it means in India.
RBAC — Role-Based Access Control. Restricting what each user can see and do according to their job role. Guide.
Audit Log. An immutable record of every view, edit, export, and delete, with user and timestamp — required for both DPDP accountability and CERT-In enquiries.
Data Leakage. Patient data moving outside its intended boundary, usually through shared logins, uncontrolled exports, or messaging apps rather than external attack. How it happens and how to stop it.
FHIR — Fast Healthcare Interoperability Resources. The international standard for exchanging healthcare data, used across ABDM and NHCX.
HL7. The older family of healthcare messaging standards, still widely used for integrating lab and imaging equipment.
DICOM. The standard format for medical imaging, used by PACS and imaging modalities.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the full form of HMS in healthcare?
HMS stands for Hospital Management System — the software that manages patient registration, OPD, IPD, pharmacy, laboratory, billing, insurance claims, and reporting from one connected database.
What is the difference between ABDM and ABHA?
ABDM is the mission — the whole digital health ecosystem including registries, standards, and consent-based exchange. ABHA is one component of it: the 14-digit health account issued to citizens so their records can be linked and shared with consent.
What is the difference between HFR and HPR?
HFR (Health Facility Registry) registers institutions — hospitals, clinics, labs, and pharmacies. HPR (Healthcare Professionals Registry) registers individuals — doctors, nurses, and other practitioners. A hospital needs both: itself on HFR, and its clinicians on HPR.
Is FHIR relevant to a small Indian hospital?
Indirectly, yes. A small hospital never works with FHIR directly, but ABDM record linking and NHCX claim exchange are built on it, so whether your software speaks FHIR determines whether you can participate in either.
Put the Terminology to Work
Healthixio brings these pieces together in one ABDM-integrated platform — ABHA and consent, HFR and HPR-linked identities, EMR within a full HMS, LIMS and pharmacy, GST-ready billing, TPA and scheme claims, RBAC and audit logs. Explore the modules, read the blog library, or talk to our team on 07513135857.