As the program director for the Federal Health Architecture, an E-Gov initiative managed by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT within the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), Mr. Sankaran is responsible for bringing together and coordinating health IT activities for more than 20 federal agencies. Federal collaboration achieved through FHA is responsible for progress in a wide variety of health domains, including: improving healthcare for our Wounded Warriors, enhancing public health monitoring, accelerating disability eligibility determinations, advancing research, enhancing tribal health services, and supporting many other critical federal health mandates.

Mr. Sankaran’s leadership resulted in a major milestone for health IT interoperability in 2008 when six federal agencies and multiple private sector organizations demonstrated the ability to securely exchange information using Nationwide Health Information Network (NHIN) standards, constructs and governance. This groundbreaking health information exchange was made possible due to the CONNECT gateway software solution which was built by FHA and its federal partners.

In 2009, additional federal agencies and organizations began piloting CONNECT, and Mr. Sankaran’s leadership drove the first production use of NHIN-compliant health information exchange. He is now leading the charge to foster further development and adoption of CONNECT by building an open source community comprised of public and private sector members.

FHA and Mr. Sankaran have received multiple awards in the last year for accomplishments in promoting health IT interoperability, including being named to Federal Computer Week’s Fed 100 and receiving AFFIRM’s Leadership Award.

Before joining HHS, Mr. Sankaran serves as the director of information technology and product operations for CareScience Inc, a healthcare applications service provider that used cutting-edge research and methods to assist hospitals and health systems improve quality, care management, clinical performance and community data sharing. While with CareScience, Mr. Sankaran administered architecture and operations of multiple healthcare software products that included the Santa Barbara community regional health information exchange (RHIO).

Mr. Sankaran’s has a proven track record in the healthcare industry, specifically in leading and managing multi-million dollar, multi-site IT architecture and operations. He is an expert strategist, proficient in multiple applications, operating systems, programming languages, and IT security and privacy.

Mr. Sankaran attained an Engineering Degree from Bharathiyar University in India in 1992.