The education and training of digital health specialists must keep pace with the rapid evolution of digital health. Significant gaps remain to be tackled. They include the lack of internationally harmonised curricula and comparable qualifications. To address these challenges, EHTEL has joined the Master of Digital Health (MDH) Alliance, an international initiative established by Prof. Dr. Georgi Chaltikyan of the Deggendorf Institute of Technology (Germany). The Alliance now has more than 12 signatories.
Source: DTI-ECRI
What is the MDH Alliance doing?
The MDH Alliance aims to bridge the challenging knowledge and workforce gap in digital health by promoting internationally recognised standards for Digital Health education.
The Alliance’s founding Pfarrkirchen Declaration was adopted by its task force and founding partners at the DigiHealthDayS-2025 congress. Held in November 2025, the congress was hosted by the European Campus of the Deggendorf Institute of Technology. Participants, including EHTEL’s General Secretary, Marc Lange, presented the first draft of the declaration.
As a long-standing European multi-stakeholder platform for digital health and care, EHTEL is contributing its extensive expertise in the competencies required for the successful implementation of digital health solutions and the transformation of health and care systems. Through its broad network of healthcare, industry, research, academic, and public sector partners, EHTEL will help strengthen collaboration and support the international development of the MDH Alliance.
Stakeholders are now working together across national borders to promote key qualifications in digital health, principally the MDH degree. The signatories include universities, professional associations, industry partners, and others.
The Alliance envisions the MDH as the leading educational pathway for preparing future digital health professionals within an internationally standardised and recognised framework.
The idea for the MDH Alliance was introduced by Prof. Dr. Georgi Chaltikyan in 2025. It builds on his abiding vision of a harmonised and globally recognised MDH degree.
“In the long term, the MDH should become – for the field of Digital Health and Artificial Intelligence in healthcare – what the Master of Public Health is today for global and public health: an internationally recognised degree with common quality standards which open up comparable qualifications and career prospects worldwide,” explains Prof. Dr. Chaltikyan.
For more information
See more on the Pfarrkirchen Declaration and the Master of Digital Health Alliance here