India’s first post-graduate certificate program in digital health graduates 41 students

The Academy of Digital Health Sciences and the Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Raipur recently held the graduation ceremony for their inaugural Post-Graduate Certificate Program in Digital Health on July 20, 2024. This program, delivered globally online, saw 41 students complete their studies, becoming Certified Digital Health Professionals. The curriculum, developed by experts in the field, focuses on theoretical, technological, and managerial aspects of digital tools in healthcare. 

The Chief Guest for the graduation ceremony, Dr Rajeev Singh Raghuvanshi, Drugs Controller General (India), Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation, Directorate General of Health Services, Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India, emphasised the program’s potential in addressing healthcare disparities between rural and urban India, emphasising Digital Health as crucial in shaping healthcare delivery nationwide.

“India produces the best hospital professionals, paramedic professionals as well as IT professionals but we don’t have anyone who serves the purpose of both healthcare and technology. Digital Health can bridge this gap,” he stated. “There is a big divide between the Rural & Urban India in the delivery of care, Digital Health is the Hope,” added Dr Raghuvanshi.

The course is founded by Dr Rajendra Pratap Gupta, Chairman of United Nations, Internet Governance Forum, Dynamic Coalition on Digital Health, former advisor to Union Health Minister, Government of India and former member of National Education Policy, Government of India. Dr Gupta, while addressing the graduating students said, “Each of you has embarked on a journey that will merge the worlds of technology and healthcare. Never forget that this will be incomplete without merging innovation with empathy, access with affordability, procedures with outcomes to flip the supplier-driven care to need or demand-based care.”.

Dr Ram Kumar Kakani, Director, IIM Raipur has partnered with the Academy of Digital Health Sciences and jointly set up the Centre for Health, Innovation, Policy & Digital Health for helping India lead the world in Digital Health through capacity building, innovation and policy.