PATNA, Aug. 24 -- Over 52%, or around 21,000 of Bihar's nearly 40,000 doctors in both public and private sectors, have registered on the health professionals registry (HPR) under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), leaving a substantial gap in the state's efforts to shift healthcare delivery towards a digital, paperless system. The low enrolment persists despite state health authorities seeking the Indian Medical Association's (IMA) intervention to persuade private doctors to complete their registration. The Bihar Swasthya Suraksha Samiti (BSSS), the state agency overseeing ABDM implementation, approached the IMA on July 31 for support and coordination. The same day, the Bihar IMA subsequently wrote to its district units, urging them to examine the BSSS request and cooperate effectively with ABDM implementation. The Bihar government had earlier set February 2026 as the deadline for government doctors to register on the HPR dashboard. Updated data on the status of government doctors enrolling for HPR was not immediately available on Sunday, officials said. According to official data till January this year, compliance remains significantly uneven between the government and private sectors. Of 12,896 government doctors, around 66% had completed HPR registration, while nearly 87% of 34,214 government nurses had enrolled till January this year. The gap is wider in the private sector, where only around 12% of doctors and 14.5% of nurses have completed the registration process, according to officials. The HPR creates a verified digital identity for healthcare professionals within the ABDM ecosystem. For doctors, one of its key practical applications will be the ability to issue digital prescriptions, supporting the state's move towards paperless healthcare. The government plans to use the digital ecosystem to streamline consultations, diagnostic investigations, and free drug dispensing in outpatient departments - from district hospitals to health sub-centres. For doctors and nurses, registration can provide a portable professional identity and facilitate their integration with digital health services and patient-care systems. It can also help patients and healthcare institutions identify verified healthcare professionals. For the government, an authenticated registry will provide a centralised database of healthcare professionals, helping authorities map their availability, improve deployment and planning, monitor services, and integrate health facilities with digital platforms. Officials said the Aadhaar-linked nature of the registration has contributed to reluctance among some doctors, as the system can reflect their engagement across multiple healthcare facilities. Absenteeism concerns involving some government doctors who also engage in private practice have also emerged as a related issue. With Bihar increasingly digitising patient records, referrals, prescriptions, and health-facility monitoring, officials said the government was pushing for wider HPR enrolment to ensure that doctors and nurses are adequately integrated into the state's digital health ecosystem. Dr Sahajanand Prasad Singh, registrar of the Bihar Council of Medical Registration (BCMR) and chief patron of IMA-Bihar, said, "We have provided a registration link of HPR on the BCMR portal itself for new doctors registering with us to complete their registration on the ABDM dashboard as well. We are hopeful that the participation of private doctors in the state's digital ecosystem will go up."...