Milestone 4 (M4): Register Healthcare Professionals and Facilities
Milestone 4 is the Registries milestone, commonly referred to as NHPR (National Healthcare Professionals and Facilities Registry). It establishes the identity of healthcare professionals and the details of healthcare facilities within the ABDM ecosystem.
The Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) is a comprehensive repository of registered and verified healthcare professionals. It includes doctors from various Systems of Medicine, including Modern Medicine, Dentistry, Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha, Sowa-Rigpa and Homeopathy, as well as Nurses and Pharmacists delivering healthcare services across India. A healthcare professional registers on the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and is issued a unique HPID.
Health Facility Registry (HFR) is a comprehensive repository of health facilities across the country, covering both modern and traditional systems of medicine. It includes public and private health facilities such as hospitals, clinics, diagnostic laboratories, imaging centres, pharmacies, and other healthcare establishments. A healthcare facility is onboarded to the Health Facility Registry (HFR) and is issued a unique Facility ID.
Neither HPR nor HFR is responsible for moving health records. Instead, these registries establish who the healthcare professional is and what the healthcare facility is, providing a verified identity and facility layer for subsequent ABDM transactions and health-record flows.
Relationship with M2 and M3
M2 and M3 require a Facility ID in the production environment. Milestone 4 provides the registry layer through which this Facility ID can be obtained. There are two primary routes for facility onboarding:
- NHPR Portal: Facilities can be registered directly through the NHPR portal.
- M4 APIs: Products can integrate with the M4 APIs to register.
HPR and HFR dependency
The HP-ID registration comes first for the API-based facility onboarding flow. Facility onboarding requires an HPR token, which is associated with a healthcare professional having a valid HPID.
Key identifiers include:
- HPID: 14-digit identifier issued to a registered healthcare professional.
- Facility ID: 12-character identifier beginning with
IN, issued to a registered healthcare facility.
M4 scope and capabilities
| Capability | Key output | Target user |
|---|---|---|
| HPID creation | A 14 digit HPID, issued after Aadhaar authentication | Doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and facility managers |
| Register professional | A complete HPR profile, including qualifications, council registration, and current work details | Healthcare professionals after HP-ID creation |
| Facility onboarding | A 12 character unique Facility ID for registration in the HFR | Hospitals, clinics, laboratories, imaging centres, pharmacies, blood banks, and other health facilities |
| Bridge linkage | A link between a Facility ID and one or more bridges, each identified as a HIP or HIU | A facility whose software is going live |
| Search and master data | Facility search and nearby search | Anyone building either of the above |
Intended users
- Facilities going live. A facility must be registered in the HFR and have a bridge linked to it to share health information as a HIP or retrieve it as an HIU. For facilities that have implemented M2 (Attach) or M3 (Retrieve), M4 is the next step towards production readiness.
- Professionals registering. An HPR ID provides a verified professional identity within ABDM. Currently, registration is available for three categories: doctors, nurses and pharmacists.
- Software acting for others. An HMIS or practice management product can drive these calls for its own customers.
How HPR and HFR work together
HPR and HFR represent two connected parts of the healthcare ecosystem. HPR enables healthcare professionals to register and maintain their professional identity and profile, while HFR enables hospitals, clinics, laboratories, pharmacies, and other healthcare facilities to register and maintain their facility information.
Once a facility is registered in the HFR, healthcare professionals can link their professional profile to that facility as their place of work. Similarly, an HPR-registered professional can declare the HFR facility where they currently work. This creates a connection between who provides healthcare and where healthcare is provided, allowing professionals and facilities to be linked within the ABDM ecosystem.
Build M4 with an AI coding assistant
The M4 skill gives an AI coding assistant this milestone as one file: every M4 call with its fields and identifiers. Install it, or open it in your assistant in one click.
Certification
M4 does not have a separate certification process. A single exit process covers the complete integration and is conducted once all the required milestones for your role are working end to end.
The Going live process outlines the four steps involved and the requirements for each step. The cases used for certification are covered under the M4 testing use cases, in Developer resources.
The journey, step by step
Milestone 4 (M4) of ABDM covers the following key journeys:
- HP-ID Creation and Role Selection. A healthcare professional completes Aadhaar authentication and creates an HP-ID (HPID). The professional then selects the required role: HPR, HFR, or Both.
- HPR Registration. If HPR is selected, the professional completes the required details, including personal details, qualification details, registration details and work details.
- HFR Registration. If HFR is selected, the professional completes the Health Facility Registry (HFR) registration form with the required facility details.
- HPR + HFR Registration. If Both is selected, the professional completes the HFR registration followed by the HPR registration.
- Facility Software Integration. A registered facility can link its Bridge to the Facility ID, enabling it to publish health records as a HIP and retrieve records as an HIU through its software.
| Journey | Sequence |
|---|---|
| HPR Journey | Aadhaar Authentication → Role Selection → HP-ID Creation → HPR Registration |
| HFR Journey | Aadhaar Authentication → Role Selection → HP-ID Creation → HFR Registration → Facility Software Integration as HIP/HIU, where applicable |
| Both Journey | Aadhaar Authentication → Role Selection → HP-ID Creation → HFR Registration → HPR Registration → Facility Software Integration as HIP/HIU, where applicable |
Journey 1: creating an HPID for a professional
Aadhaar authentication
The professional authenticates using Aadhaar. The integrating system does not handle the Aadhaar number or OTP. Instead, it handles the transaction ID and redirects the user to the URL returned by the HPR service.
The URL is valid for five minutes. If it expires before authentication is completed, call Generate Aadhaar Link again to obtain a new authentication URL. After authentication the professional selects the role to register for: HPR, HFR, or both.
Login using Mobile number and OTP or credentials
If an HP-ID already exists, the professional is already registered. The system should authenticate the professional and proceed directly to login, skipping the HP-ID creation journey.
A returning professional can also log in without Aadhaar authentication using either a Mobile OTP, or a Password. Both login mechanisms are covered under the M4 Operations and Fields: see HPR authentication in the M4 API reference.
If no HP-ID exists, the mobile number must be verified before creating the HP-ID.
- Fetch the public certificate from
/v4/int/api/v1/auth/cert. - Encrypt the mobile number using
RSA/ECB/PKCS1Padding. - Send the encrypted value in the API request.
Create HPID returns a token. The register professional call carries an hprToken in its payload.
Journey 2: registering a professional on HPR
The HP-ID is an identity, not a professional profile. The professional profile is created through the registration process, which captures details such as qualifications, council registration, and current work information. Professional registration requires the HPR Token returned from Journey 1.
The following documents are mandatory for upload: the qualification degree certificate, and the registration certificate. A proof of work certificate is mandatory for professionals working in government, or in both government and private settings.
The registration API requires codes rather than names. Therefore, the application must first fetch the relevant master data through the respective master APIs and use the corresponding codes during registration. Master data includes council, course, college, university, state, district and language.
Journey 3: onboarding a facility to the HFR
Onboarding consists of one search, three updates, and a final submission, with each update adding another layer of facility details. If you stop before submission, the facility remains in Draft status and is not visible on ABDM.
The first update captures the basic facility information and creates a Facility ID. The Facility ID is retained throughout the onboarding flow, but remains masked until the facility is fully submitted. Once submission is complete, the Facility ID becomes visible. The API returns it as trackingId, and that is the value every later update carries.
What each update carries
| Call | Information captured |
|---|---|
| Basic facility information | Facility name, ownership, system of medicine, facility type and subtype, address with LGD codes, contact details, board and building photographs, and operating hours |
| Additional information | Availability of services and units such as a pharmacy, blood bank, dialysis centre, cath lab, diagnostic laboratory, or imaging centre, along with scheme identifiers such as ABPMJAY, ROHINI, ECHS, and CGHS |
| Detailed information | Specialities by system of medicine, bed and ventilator counts, and applicable sections for pharmacy, blood bank, diagnostic laboratory, and imaging services, based on the facility type |
| Submit facility | Captures the tracking ID and optional source of information, and moves the facility application out of Draft status |
The mandatory fields under detailed information vary based on the facility type, service type, and system of medicine selected during registration. Diagnostic laboratories, imaging centres, blood banks and pharmacies do not require medical infrastructure counts, such as bed or ventilator counts.
OTP based facility verification
A shorter verification flow is available for government programmes. An OTP is sent to the contact number registered against the Facility ID, which is then validated to complete verification.
Journey 4: linking bridges to a facility
Facility-Bridge linkage
A Facility ID alone does not enable health record exchange. The facility must be linked to a bridge, with each linkage designated as either a HIP or an HIU.
- A single facility can be linked to multiple bridges.
- A single bridge can be linked to multiple facilities. See one bridge, many facilities.
- The HIP/HIU role is defined for each facility-Bridge linkage.
- Integration-level configurations are set once, while facility-specific configurations are maintained separately for each linked facility.
The HIP name is the name displayed to patients in their ABHA or PHR app when they search for a hospital. The following rules apply to the HIP name:
- Maximum 15 characters
- No special characters
- Must be unique for every Bridge linked to the same facility
For example, the HIP name can be derived by combining the hospital name and Bridge name, while ensuring that the above naming rules are met.
A facility with a Facility ID and a linked HIP bridge can perform M2 activities, including linking care contexts and sharing health records. A facility with a linked HIU bridge can perform M3 activities, including requesting patient consent and fetching health records. M4 covers the registration of the facility and the healthcare professionals working at the facility.
Next: M4 API reference.
Next
- The base URLs and the operation list: M4 API reference.
- The patient side of all four: P1 Identity and profile.
- Take your integration to production: Go live.