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Nepal Digital Health

Documented from publicly available sources, following the sourcing rules for this section: strategy is distinguished from deployment, and anything not traceable to a public source is marked Needs verification rather than asserted.

Last verified: 2026-08-24.

On link reachability

Several hosts cited here were not reachable from outside Nepal at the time of verification, and one — km.mohp.gov.np, which hosts the e-Health Strategy PDF — did not resolve in DNS at all. The links are retained because the documents are attested by other sources, but expect to need a Nepal-based connection, or an archived copy, to open some of them. This is noted rather than hidden: a citation you cannot open is a weaker citation.

Institutions​

BodyRoleSource
Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP)National health policy, digital health strategyhttps://mohp.gov.np/
Department of Health Services (DoHS)Service delivery, programme divisions, annual reportshttps://dohs.gov.np/
Management Division / HMIS section, DoHSRoutine health information system and HMIS operationReferenced throughout MoHP publications
Health Insurance BoardNational health insurance schemehttps://hib.gov.np/
Department of National ID and Civil RegistrationNational identity card and civil registrationhttps://donidcr.gov.np/

The seven-province federal structure, established under the 2015 constitution, matters architecturally: health service delivery responsibilities are shared across federal, provincial and local levels, which distributes the ownership of health information systems and is a recurring theme in assessments of Nepal's digital health ecosystem.

Policy and strategy documents​

These are the published instruments that govern digital health in Nepal.

National e-Health Strategy 2017​

Sets an overarching vision for a digital health ecosystem.

https://km.mohp.gov.np/sites/default/files/documents/2019-04/Nepal_e_health_strategy_2017_final.pdf (Tier 1 — MoHP knowledge management portal)

e-Health Roadmap (2019)​

The implementation roadmap endorsed by MoHP to operationalise the 2017 strategy.

Summary and context: https://publichealthupdate.com/ehealth-roadmap-ministry-of-health-and-population-nepal/ (Tier 3 — secondary summary; the primary document is held by MoHP)

Digital Nepal Framework (2019)​

The cross-sector national digital transformation framework, with health as one of its domains. Published by the Ministry of Communication and Information Technology.

Integrated Health Information Management System (IHIMS) Roadmap​

A roadmap for coordinating Nepal's health information systems and strengthening the use of digital architecture. Published sources cite it variously as covering 2021–2030 and 2022–2030; the discrepancy is in the secondary literature and should be resolved against the primary document before citation.

Summary: https://publichealthupdate.com/integrated-health-information-management-system-ihmis-roadmap/

Health Facility Registry Procedure 2081 (2024/25 CE)​

A procedure governing the national health facility registry. Nepali fiscal years are given in Bikram Sambat; 2081 BS corresponds to 2024–2025 CE.

Summary: https://publichealthupdate.com/nepal-health-facility-registry-procedure-2081/

Systems​

HMIS on DHIS2​

Nepal migrated its HMIS to DHIS2 in 2011, and DHIS2 is the platform for routine health facility reporting. The national instance is reachable at https://hmis.gov.np/.

This makes Nepal one of the longer-running national DHIS2 deployments, and — as in most DHIS2 countries — the DHIS2 organisation unit hierarchy has functioned as the de facto facility list. See facility registry on why that is a reasonable starting point and a poor permanent arrangement, and note that the Health Facility Registry Procedure 2081 indicates movement toward a formally governed registry.

Sources: World Bank and WHO country documentation; DHIS2 in action — https://dhis2.org/in-action/

Health insurance — openIMIS​

Nepal's Health Insurance Board uses openIMIS for the national health insurance scheme. Publicly documented aspects include:

  • Use of resources from MoHP's interoperability framework, specifically the health facility registry
  • Electronic claim submission from EMR systems, with hospitals and EMR vendors adapting APIs to FHIR R4 for digital claiming
  • An openIMIS–Bahmni integration deployed at a small number of facilities, including Bayalpata Hospital, submitting claims automatically

Sources: https://openimis.org/nepal-health-insurance and the openIMIS Nepal wiki — https://openimis.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/OP/pages/40501266/Nepal+-+Health+Insurance+Board (Tier 2 — the openIMIS community)

See health financing.

National FHIR implementation guide (draft)​

A Nepal HMIS FHIR Implementation Guide is published at https://fhir.hmis.gov.np/, defining among other things a National Health ID naming system. Published material identifies it as a draft ballot version based on FHIR R5.

Two cautions:

  1. It is a draft. Do not cite it as a settled national standard. Check its current version and status before relying on it in a specification.
  2. The host was not reachable from outside Nepal at the time of verification for this page. If you cannot reach it, that is likely why.

Needs verification: current version, ballot status, scope of profiles, and the governance body responsible for it.

See FHIR implementation guides.

Other national systems​

Public sources describe an integrated ecosystem intended to encompass HMIS/DHIS2, eLMIS (logistics), CRVS (civil registration and vital statistics), EMR/EHR platforms and disease surveillance.

Needs verification for each: current operational status, platform, ownership and the extent of actual interoperability between them. Strategy documents describing an integrated ecosystem are not evidence that the integration is in production.

Electronic health records​

An electronic health record system was piloted in 2014. A World Bank Electronic Health Records in Nepal: Readiness Assessment was published in June 2023 — https://documents1.worldbank.org/curated/en/099431112112339951/pdf/IDU099b7af14050e0881109b16c839125e.pdf (Tier 1). WHO Nepal reported a consultative workshop on EHR and telemedicine in June 2024 — https://www.who.int/nepal/news/detail/11-06-2024-consultative-workshop-on-electronic-health-records-(ehr)-and-telemedicine-(tm)-held

These are the best current public sources on EHR status. Needs verification: whether a national EHR programme has moved beyond assessment and pilot.

Architecture observations​

Drawn from the above, and stated as observations rather than as an official architecture:

Nepal has the strategy layer. e-Health Strategy, e-Health Roadmap, Digital Nepal Framework and the IHIMS Roadmap together constitute more policy infrastructure than many comparable countries have.

The HMIS layer is mature. Fifteen years of DHIS2 is substantial institutional capability, and it means the aggregate reporting problem is largely solved.

Registry governance is in progress. The Health Facility Registry Procedure 2081 suggests movement from a DHIS2-derived facility list toward a governed registry — which, per registries, is the correct first move.

Health financing is the live interoperability driver. The openIMIS claims work is the most concretely documented instance of FHIR-based exchange in Nepal, which is a common pattern: financing creates the incentive that clinical interoperability alone does not.

Individual-level exchange is the open question. Needs verification: whether a national client registry / master patient index is operating, what the national health identifier arrangement is in practice, and whether an interoperability layer is in production. These are the components that determine whether the ecosystem can move from maturity level 2 to level 3.

Federalism is an architectural constraint, not just an administrative one. Shared responsibility across federal, provincial and local levels affects who owns registries, who funds shared services and who can mandate conformance — see governance.

Further reading on this site​

Longer-form analysis of Nepal's digital health ecosystem:

Sources​

Primary and near-primary:

Secondary:

Contributing​

If you can supply a primary source for any item marked Needs verification, or correct anything on this page, that is welcome. The rule is unchanged: a public, citable source, with its date.

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