The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is being rolled out in three key milestones—M1, M2, and M3. Each milestone unlocks a new layer of India’s digital healthcare ecosystem.
In this blog, we’ll focus on Milestone M1—the starting point of the journey—where individuals generate and verify their ABHA (Ayushman Bharat Health Account) number. Having worked on implementing this milestone for hospitals and healthtech platforms, I’ll walk you through both the concept and the implementation process.
🔹 What is Milestone M1?
Milestone M1 is all about ABHA creation and verification. It gives every citizen a unique 14-digit health ID, which becomes their digital identity in healthcare.
This milestone is critical because:
- Without ABHA creation, patients cannot participate in the ABDM ecosystem.
- It lays the foundation for later milestones (M2 for record sharing, M3 for consent-based access).
🔹 How ABHA IDs Are Created
There are multiple ways to create an ABHA number:
- Using Aadhaar (via OTP or biometric authentication)
- Enter Aadhaar number
- Receive OTP or biometric confirmation
- Generate ABHA
- Using Mobile Number
- Enter mobile number
- Verify with OTP
- Generate ABHA with minimal KYC
- Using Driving License(where Aadhaar is not available)
- Enter DL number
- Verify identity
- Create ABHA
- Hospital/Clinic Flow
- Patients can generate ABHA directly at hospitals integrated with ABDM APIs
🔹 Verification of ABHA
Once ABHA is created, it must be verified to ensure authenticity. Verification can happen through:
- Aadhaar e-KYC (most common)
- Demographic matching (name, age, gender, address)
- Biometric validation (fingerprint/iris for Aadhaar-seeded records)
This ensures that duplicate or fake IDs are not created in the system.
🔹 The Technical Workflow (Simplified)
Here’s a simplified version of how M1 works behind the scenes:
- User Input → Patient provides Aadhaar/Mobile/DL
- API Call → Hospital/health app sends request to ABDM gateway
- OTP/Biometric Validation → User verifies their identity
- ABHA Creation → A 14-digit ABHA number is generated
- Profile Setup → User can add demographics, address, and link records
✅ I’ve implemented this workflow for healthcare providers using ABDM’s sandbox APIs and helped them integrate ABHA generation into their existing patient onboarding flow.
🔹 Benefits of Implementing M1
- For Patients → Quick onboarding, no repeated KYC, unique health identity
- For Hospitals/Clinics → Faster patient registration, integration into HIS/EMR
- For Startups → Build health apps that can issue ABHA IDs directly to users
🔹 My Implementation Experience
In my projects, I’ve:
- Integrated ABDM M1 APIs into hospital management systems
- Built front-end ABHA creation forms (with Aadhaar/mobile flows)
- Automated verification workflows for faster onboarding
- Ensured compliance with ABDM’s security and privacy standards
This means if you’re a hospital, clinic, or healthtech startup, I can help you:
- Get started with ABHA creation for your patients
- Set up the necessary APIs and workflows
- Train your staff on how to onboard patients into the ABDM ecosystem
🔹 Final Thoughts
Milestone M1 is not just about generating an ID—it’s about laying the foundation for India’s digital health future. With ABHA numbers in place, patients can seamlessly move to M2 (record sharing) and M3 (secure data access).
💡 And if you’re planning to integrate ABHA creation in your hospital or app, I can help you implement M1 end-to-end, based on my hands-on experience.
📩 Get in touch: info@nxstechies.com | 🌐 nxstechies.com