The Special Interest Group

Meet the SIG.

A community of medical educators, clinicians, researchers and implementation expertise working to strengthen clinical communication in undergraduate medical education.

Leadership & Core Team
Prof. Avinash Supe

Prof. Avinash Supe

Chairperson

Senior medical educator and surgeon; former Director and Dean, Medical Education and Major Hospitals, MCGM, and Emeritus Professor of Surgical Gastroenterology and Medical Education at Seth GS Medical College, Mumbai.

Medical educationFaculty developmentAcademic leadership
Prof. Meenal Mohgaonkar

Prof. Meenal Mohgaonkar

Co-Convenor

Officiating VC, SMBT Deemed University, and Professor of Radiology, with more than three decades of experience in medical education, faculty development and institutional leadership.

Medical educationFaculty developmentInstitutional leadership
Prof. Bidita Khandelwal

Prof. Bidita Khandelwal

Co-Convenor

Professor & Head, Department of Medicine, Sikkim Manipal Institute of Medical Sciences. Physician, academic and researcher with experience in clinical research, research governance and institutional academic leadership.

Clinical educationResearchAssessment
Prof. E. Venkata Rao

Prof. E. Venkata Rao

SIG Member

Professor, Department of Community Medicine, IMS & SUM Hospital, Bhubaneswar. Public-health physician, medical educator and researcher with experience in teaching, epidemiology, research methodology and implementation.

Medical educationPublic healthImplementation
Maj (Dr) Ashlesha Tawde-Kelkar

Maj (Dr) Ashlesha Tawde-Kelkar

SIG Member · CHAKRA

Associate Professor and Consultant Digital Health, CHAKRA. Her work spans public health, digital health, responsible AI and workforce capacity building.

Digital healthPublic healthAI governance
Dr Bhaskar Rajakumar

Dr Bhaskar Rajakumar

SIG Member · CHARAKA

CEO, CHARAKA CoE, the Government of Karnataka Centre of Excellence for HealthTech, MedTech & Assistive Technologies. Physician and healthtech ecosystem leader focused on translating innovation into institutional adoption and scale.

HealthTechInnovationInstitutional scale
Amitabh Nag

Amitabh Nag

SIG Member · BHASHINI

CEO, Digital India BHASHINI Division (DIBD), Digital India Corporation, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology, Government of India. He leads the National Language Translation Mission and the development and adoption of multilingual AI for inclusive digital services.

Multilingual AIDigital public infrastructureLanguage inclusion
Expert Network

Extending the SIG's academic reach.

The SIG will progressively bring in additional experts from medical education, assessment, faculty development, clinical communication, implementation and related fields.

The Expert Network is intended to add focused expertise to consultations, evidence review, working groups and collaborative academic initiatives without turning every contributor into a standing leadership member.

Medical education & curriculum

Assessment & feedback

Faculty development

Research & implementation

Knowledge & Implementation Partner

Knowledge development, implementation and institutional engagement

Shweta Sharma

Shweta Sharma

Knowledge & Implementation Partner · SigmaMozak Solutions

Co-Founder & CEO, SigmaMozak Solutions. Healthcare strategist with nearly two decades of experience across medical communications, partnerships and healthcare innovation in India and Southeast Asia.

Shweta leads SigmaMozak’s Knowledge & Implementation Partner role for the SIG, working with the SIG leadership across programme design, evidence synthesis, the national consultation, digital resources, institutional engagement, partnerships and implementation.

Knowledge DevelopmentImplementationPartnerships