Dipak Kalra, Ph.D., FRCGP, FBCS Closed Now

Dipak Kalra is a leading international authority on health data quality, interoperability, and electronic health records (EHRs). He currently serves as President of The European Institute for Innovation through Health Data (i~HD), an organization dedicated to improving the trustworthy use of health data for research and healthcare innovation across Europe.

Trained originally as a general practitioner in the United Kingdom, Kalra shifted his career towards medical informatics and became deeply involved in shaping European and international standards for health records. He played a significant role in the development of ISO standards for EHRs, including frameworks for semantic interoperability and patient data security. His efforts have been crucial in enabling large-scale, cross-border health research projects in the EU.

Kalra’s leadership at iHD focuses on ensuring that health data can be reused responsibly for clinical research, real-world evidence generation, and AI development. He has led initiatives around data protection, informed consent, and governance, ensuring alignment with regulations like GDPR. Beyond iHD, he has contributed to European Horizon 2020 projects, advancing platforms that integrate hospital, primary care, and patient-reported data for research and policy-making.

As a frequent advisor to the European Commission, WHO, and other international agencies, Kalra emphasizes balancing innovation with ethics—making sure that health data systems not only unlock insights for medicine but also safeguard patients’ rights. He is widely published in scientific journals, covering topics from EHR architectures to strategies for scaling health data reuse