One of the key challenges facing the European society is the demographic change and the effect that this risks to have on the European health care systems. Rising life expectancy and the ageing population, which will increase the number of elderly people that need health care, will put our health systems under further stress, including health workforce shortages and insufficient public funding.In order to respond to this challenge, a wide range of eHealth solutions are being developed and proposed, with the objective of 1) ensuring good quality care, despite less resources available, 2) supporting health care workers to ensure more transparent communication channels and 3) empowering patients and relatives to better participate in their own health.An overall European challenge is that many of these solutions do not reach full implementation stage because; a) the solutions have too often not been developed in close collaboration with the health staff; b) lack of overall digital competences and specific eHealth literacy within the staff and c) there are barriers to changing organisational practices, pathways and models of working that enable smart solutions to be deployed.The Digital & Innovation Skills Helix = The DISH project will develop three different concepts; 1) a concept for a “learning innovation unit” based on a triple helix partnership to ensure better development and uptake of eHealth solutions, 2) a concept for on the job training, providing staff in the health care sector with better eHealth competences and 3) a concept to assess and acknowledge skills and comptences, which ensures the recognition and mobility of health care staff.The project includes a preparation phase, a development phase and a testing phase, where health care providers, eductional institutions and clusters work closely together, which ensures that the deliverables are developed as close to the real needs as possible and to improve the level of exploitation of results.
The specific objectives are1.Identification of the future competence needs in the health sector2.Identification of factors that can support the facilitation of innovation and dissemination of eHealth solutions, as well as the learning of digital skills among healthcare professionals.3.Development and testing of three tools to achieve digital skills, innovation readiness and implementation competencies4.Dissemination of good implementation practice
The healthcare sector has changed and will change further in the coming years to remain sustainable. Unfortunately, skills development has not kept pace with the changes. Therefore, the primary purpose of the DISH project is to provide healthcare professionals with digital skills, innovation readiness, and implementation/change management skills to ensure that the changes in the healthcare sector is implemented to their best potential.
<< Background >> The healthcare sector has changed and will change further in the coming years to remain sustainable. Unfortunately, skills development has not kept pace with the changes. Therefore, the primary purpose of the DISH project is to provide healthcare professionals with digital skills, innovation readiness, and implementation/change management skills to ensure that the changes in the healthcare sector is implemented to their best potential. << Objectives >> The specific objectives are1.Identification of the future competence needs in the health sector2.Identification of factors that can support the facilitation of innovation and dissemination of eHealth solutions, as well as the learning of digital skills among healthcare professionals.3.Development and testing of three tools to achieve digital skills, innovation readiness and implementation competencies4.Dissemination of good implementation practice << Implementation >> The project was implemented with success. All deliverables were produced and tested despite a heavy influence of the COVID crisis in the sector, where health care staff was overworked and it was difficult to meet physically. In most countries, partners managed to divert project activities into either online activities or organization of training in very small groups. The implementation has been based on a democratic and participative approach to ensure contextualization and regional relevance. << Results >> The DISH project has developed three tools.Innovation and Digital Skills Adoption (IDSA). This tool is a planning tool when the implementation and skills development process begin.The On-the-Job-Training tool is the tool used for planning and performing the training.The competence assessment tool is used to plan the assessment and the competence level, and to ensure that the right skills have been achieved. The project has trained 839 health care staff and involved 45 test sites.