Digital technologies have started to greatly influence healthcare. Despite the range of areas in which new digital technologies could make a substantial contribution to enhancing health care access, quality, and service while reducing costs, the health system has been slow to invest in and embrace such technologies. But despite this slow investment trends, digital health is part of the future of health and the EU is observing that they will sooner or later require new and different skill sets within health professionals: but EU countries are still lagging. The project “Training Blueprint for the Digital Transformation of Health and Care” aims at increasing health professionals digital & soft skills in order to reduce the current existing gap between digital technology trends and their effective use in the health sector. A Consortium of 7 complementary and experienced transnational partners (Italy, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and UK), together with their group of Associated Partners will work on 4 Intellectual Outputs: IO1 - Digital Health Technology Trends & Implications for health professionals, which will create the knowledge base about current successful practices on new health technologies & training methods; IO2 - Report on Digital Health & Soft Skills of tomorrow’s health professionals, which will provide a map on the soft skills of health professionals working in a digital based/supported environment.; IO3 - The Digital Health Lab based Training Scheme, the learning method and environment where trainees are able to understand the potential of new technologies and their applicability and to see how technologies work in “real-living” environments IO4 - Digital Health Training Guidelines, aimed at strengthening health sector stakeholders’ capacity in investing in digital solutions and appropriate training methodology To deliver these Intellectual Outputs, the project has been structured around 7 workpackages: WP1 - Project Management, WP2 - Communication and Dissemination, WP3 - Evaluation and Impact Assessment, WP4 – Digital Health Technology excellences, WP5 – Digital Health and Soft Skills, WP6 – Setting up Digital Health Lab Training schemes, WP7 - Launching the Digital Health Soft Skills Observatory. Intellectual Outputs will be mainstreamed through 5 Multiplier events (focused on IO1 and 2) and 1 final multiplier event which will provide evidence of the training method and launch the permanent Observatory on Digital Health Soft Skills. The project targets Health professionals (managers, doctors, nurses, pharmacists, etc.), Non-clinical and administrative staff of the health system, IT professionals working in and for the healthcare environment (including external technology solution providers). This means that it will positively affect regional and local health systems, clustering entities focused on digital technologies and – also – it will provide benefits (narrowing digital technologies and training) to educational and research stakeholders. The main results of the project will be: Available common method to understand digital technology trends and an available map of successful cases of digital health based working processes and related training methods, increased awareness level of healthcare system actors about digital technology trends at transnational level, increased knowledge of training providers about successful training methods adopted to introduce digital health solutions, identification of core skills needed to facilitate the adoption of digital solutions in the health sector, a flexible lifelong training Lab targeted to health professionals + online library, a consolidated team of training experts ready to follow up, an agreement on the Observatory structure and ownership.
Digital technologies have started to greatly influence healthcare. Despite the range of areas in which new digital technologies could make a substantial contribution to enhancing health care access, quality, and service while reducing costs, the health system has been slow to invest in and embrace such technologies. The project “Training Blueprint for the Digital Transformation of Health and Care” aimed at increasing health professionals digital & soft skills in order to reduce current existing gap between digital technology trends and their effective use in the health sector. A Consortium of 7 partners (three from Italy, Germany, Austria, Netherlands and UK), worked for 34 months on 4 Intellectual Outputs: O1 - Digital Health Technology Trends & Implications for health professionals. This output created the knowledge base on successful practices on new health technologies & training methods; each identified three successful cases of adoption of digital solutions in healthcare and interviewed three people involved in them. O1 has been delivered as a report containing the results of the interviews and the analysis based on them. O1 was produced in English entirely, and extracts were translated into partner languages (Italian by PAT/FBK, German by FHS and TUD, Dutch by SSH). O2 - Report on Digital Health & Soft Skills of tomorrow’s health professionals, produced a profile on the soft skills of health professionals working in a digital based/supported environment. each partner identified 3 successful cases to be interviewed to create a transversal skills profile. COGES prepared the questionnaire to be submitted to the respondents and each partner (excluding COGES and PAT) prepared their own interview report and shared with COGES which produced the O2 in reporting formats, ppt, and Layman report. O2 was produced in English entirely, and extracts were translated into partner languages (Italian by PAT/FBK, German by FHS and TUD, Dutch by SSH). O3 - The Digital Health Lab-based Training Scheme. This Output produced the learning method and delivered the pilot courses (Digital Health Learning Labs - DHLLs), attended by around 150 trainees over the partners' countries. This Output allowed the attendees to understand the potential of new technologies and their applicability in daily work life. The involved partners identified two important issues to be addressed within the training laboratories and developed their training programmes following a module provided by FBK, activity leader. O4 - Digital Health Training Guidelines, aimed at strengthening health sector stakeholders’ capacity in investing in digital solutions and appropriate training methodology. The resulting document is structured in three sections and provided guidelines to Human Resources and training bodies to identify the skills present and those to be included in the staff employed in their structures, on the basis of which it is possible to prepare specific training courses using the methodology of the Third Output (Digital Health Learning Labs). The draft was shared with the partners and their feedback was collected, which was incorporated into the final document. O4 is produced in English as a document containing a Memorandum of Understanding among the partners countersigned by their respective representatives. The four Intellectual Outputs were disseminated through 5 Multiplier events which were the occasion to launch and engage participants in the pilot courses of O3 (DHLL). UON was the only partner able to have the ME in person (February 2020). Subsequently, the other partners had to re-organise or postpone their MEs and finally, SSH, FHS, PAT, TUD kept them online, in compliance with COVID 19 management guidelines. The final project multiplier event was held on 13 July 2021 at the MEI2021 (=4th International Conference on Medical Education Informatics). The Conference was jointly organised by the University of Nottingham, project partner, and the University of Malaya, Malaysia. The main results of the project are a common method available to understand trends in digital technology and an available map of successful cases of digital health-based work processes (Intellectual Output1); a profile of key soft skills needed to facilitate the adoption of digital solutions in healthcare (Intellectual Output 2); available training method and material (Digital Health Learning Labs - DHLLs) with an established team of training experts (Intellectual Output 3); a Memorandum of Understanding signed by one representative per partner, establishing an Observatory and formalizing a collaboration among the partners for follow-up the project’s results (Intellectual Output 4)). Overall, TBDTHC contributed to an increased awareness of healthcare actors on cross-border digital technology trends, increased knowledge of training providers about successful training methods adopted to introduce digital health solutions.