Policy dialogue on digital health governance

The  Indian Social Responsibility Network (ISRN) and Prasanna School of Public Health (PSPH), Manipal Academy of Higher Education (MAHE) organised a high-level policy dialogue to  discuss the future of digital health in India at New Delhi recently. It was a first of its kind event held to discuss and inform how technology can improve health outcomes.

Speakers from India and abroad covered a wide range of topics pertaining to the increasing use of digital technology in healthcare.  Ram Yeleswarapu from Navitas Life Sciences presented the latest approach to engage citizens in sharing their health data. Dr Ain Aaviksoo from the Estonian Government explained the success story of digitisation of Estonian health services.  

In the discussion, Dr R K Srivastava, former director, General Health Services India commented on the arrival of artificial intelligence and how the human and ethical aspects must be protected. Dr Helmut Brand, Director of Prasanna School of Public Health called for common principles and good governance for all innovation that is happening in both the public and private sectors.

Robert Madelin, Chairman of FIPRA International, and formerly with the European Commission, shared his experience and called for "bringing the lab to society" to make sure that new technology and services are acceptable to society. Dr Matthias Reumann from IBM Research agreed and said that digital health solutions require a new governance model and that this model could be developed jointly by public policy makers and private sector innovators. Dr Sumeet Bhasin, director, Public Policy Research Centre (PPRC), announced the continuation of the policy dialogue and said that the date of a second meeting will be communicated.