AeHIN Executive Director Jai Ganesh Udayansankaran shares his thoughts during the panel “Digital Health Accreditation for Advancing Quality, Standardization, and Excellence: Best Practices from India.”
The Asia eHealth Information Network (AeHIN) participated in the World Health Summit (WHS) Regional Meeting, themed “Scaling Access to Ensure Health Equity,” held from April 25 to 27, 2025, in New Delhi, India.
AeHIN Executive Director Jai Ganesh Udayasankaran represented AeHIN and joined as a speaker in two digital health panels.
On April 25, Udayasankaran participated in the panel “Digital Health Accreditation for Advancing Quality, Standardization, and Excellence: Best Practices from India.” The panel underscored the importance of standardized accreditation in ensuring quality, security, and interoperability in digital health ecosystems, shared best practices from India and discussed potential challenges that may arise without standardized accreditation, such as data silo, security risks, and inefficient health service delivery.
Udayasankaran responded to the moderator’s question by sharing from the standardization efforts carried out from the EMR/HIS implementations he had led. He emphasized the importance of engagement with providers of digital health applications, possibly with incentives, as their involvement and cooperation are crucial to ensuring that the applications available on the market are standards-based. This helps the implementors of digital health solutions in terms of interoperability and associated cost savings. He recommended efforts towards evolving a core data set for health information exchange and national consensus. He also mentioned AeHIN’s efforts in advocating for the establishment of Standards and Interoperability Labs in countries to support the national digital health programmes.
Udayasankaran, fifth from the left, among the panelists discussing the need for a master’s in digital health.
On the following day, April 26, Udayasankaran joined the panel, “Do we need a Master’s in Digital Health?,” which discussed the advancements in digital health and proposed establishing a standardized master’s degree in digital health (MDH) modeled after the Master of Public Health for a structured, focused, and interdisciplinary education and training. With a standardized and formalized curriculum, healthcare professionals will be equipped with the skills necessary to implement digital health tools and receive training in data governance, the deployment of ethical artificial intelligence, and equitable access to digital innovations.
Udayasankaran stated that, in the current circumstances, where roles, responsibilities, and the career pathway in digital health are not yet well-defined, there is a need for the curriculum to be flexible, accommodating both job-specific requirements and emerging developments in terms of relevance. Since candidates for a Master’s in Digital Health may come from varied backgrounds, the curriculum could consider providing domain-specific bridging, depending on the needs and group project (interdisciplinary), for a more meaningful learning experience. Udayasankaran drew the attention of the discussants to the following examples: Digital Health: Planning National Systems, eHealth degree with four African universities, Doctor of Medicine (MD) and Board Certification in Health Informatics, Global Digital Health Competency Framework, The Digital Health Competencies in Medical Education Framework: An International Consensus Statement Based on a Delphi Study, and recommended a co-creative and collaborative approach among Universities in terms of design and delivery of curriculum for ease of accreditation and global relevance.
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