The Australian Digital Health Agency is partnering with universities to integrate digital health education into degrees.
The project, according to ADHA CEO Amanda Cattermole, will pursue a "consistent approach to digital health education at a national level, better preparing the health workforce to respond to the needs of Australians in more settings, both now and in the future."
The Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health (ACSALDH), a 37-member formation of universities under the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC), will carry out the project by establishing a working group to review current digital health education frameworks and course content and develop standardised core topics to be embedded in undergraduate health degrees and existing curriculum.
The council will also develop and pilot a trainers' kit for university educators currently teaching digital health.
WHY IT MATTERS
Building the digital competencies and capabilities of the Australian health workforce has been identified as an imperative to deal with the challenges of an overwhelmed health system.
"A third of Australians over 65 are living with chronic diseases, the cost of traditional healthcare is rising, and a stretched workforce is making it difficult to deliver the level of care we want at scale," noted Clair Sullivan, professor and director of the Queensland Digital Health Centre at the University of Queensland and the founding chair of the ACSALDH.
"Digital health promises to help address those issues, allowing us to work at a large capacity, across geographical locations and to deal with challenges facing the healthcare system."
According to Dr Lee Woods, who is also from the same UQ centre, Australian universities are united in pursuing a consistent approach to digital health education.
"We need to embrace digital transformation, including [AI] and virtual care, but we also need to be cautious because patients must be kept safe. Having a curriculum that teaches students how to use it responsibly and confidently is needed."
"Digital health technologies are key to transforming healthcare outcomes, so our future workforce needs to be capable of using them. To keep pace with dynamic change in the health system, we need an evolving curriculum to ensure health professionals can deliver optimal care," Dr Melanie Haines, director of Education and Workforce at DHCRC, also emphasised.
ADHA, said Cattermole, envisions university graduates entering the health workforce with "an understanding of digital health systems and how they can be used to support clinical decisions and provide better care."
THE LARGER CONTEXT
This latest project is part of the ADHA-led National Digital Health Capability Action Plan, a seven-year program to upskill health workers in digital health. The action plan seeks to fulfill one of the four key targeted outcomes of the 10-year Department of Health and Aged Care's Digital Health Blueprint: having a "digitally empowered" workforce.