UIDAI chief Nandan Nilekani on Thursday urged the healthcare sector to make use of Aadhaar ID numbers to create a database of patients with a view to improving services and expediting settlement of insurance claims.

"The medical industry can also build up a database using 'Aadhaar' as base for seamless use by various health chains. That could also be used for insurance claims", Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) Chairman Nilekani said at a Health Summit organised by CII.

Regretting that there is no national record of immunisation, he said, "Aadhaar number could be used to create a single immunisation record countrywide.

"There could be some national healthcare data depositors that can store all data and also ensure regulations on authentication, security and privacy are followed", he added.

UIDAI is entrusted with the task of generating the Aadhaar unique identity cards and so far it has enrolled 12.5 crore citizens under the scheme and issued unique identity numbers to over 7.5 crore people.

Under the first phase of the project, UIDAI is to enrol 20 crore citizens by March 2012. The project aims to provide about 60 crore unique identification numbers by 2014.

The scheme was launched in September 2010 and is intended to improve implementation of social sector schemes of the government. Aadhaar identity cards are accepted as valid documents under the Know Your Customer (KYC) norms for opening bank accounts, securing mobile connections and cooking gas connections.

The Aadhaar cards will also be used to plug leakages in the government's poverty alleviation programme. The Task Force on Direct Subsidies, also headed by Nilekani, has been mandated to prepare a payment system for the scheme.