A national approach to embed digital health education into university degrees is part of a groundbreaking project to deliver greater capability to Australia’s healthcare workforce.
As part of the National Digital Health Capability Action Plan (CAP), the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) will collaborate with the Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health (the Council) to support digital health capability for new and existing workers.
Agency CEO Amanda Cattermole PSM said the Agency recognises the critical role of building the digital health capability of the health workforce, a key component in the National Digital Health Strategy. Working in partnership with the Council, this project will support a consistent approach to digital health education at a national level.
“This collaboration reflects a shared mission to build digital health capability across the health workforce that can respond to the needs of Australians in more settings, both now and in the future,” Ms Cattermole said.
“The Agency’s vision is that university graduates will enter workforces with an understanding of digital health systems and how these can be used to support clinical decisions and to provide better care, enabling them to ‘hit the ground running’ in their chosen career.
“In an increasing digital world, a workforce with strong digital health capability ultimately benefits the patient by driving safer, higher quality care where consumers are empowered.”
An initiative of the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC), the Council was launched last year with 37 founding member universities to promote the use of digital technology, informatics and data science to health in Australia.
Inaugural Council Chair and Director of the Queensland Digital Health Research Centre at the University of Queensland, Professor Clair Sullivan, said “the Council has been established to promote, foster and support academic collaborations that help address Australia’s key challenges and contribute to national and global health and economic prosperity.
“Our workforce needs to be progressively ‘retooled’ to face the future of healthcare. Embedding digital education into university degrees will advance digital health research and education to positively impact Australia’s healthcare system.”
DHCRC Director of Education and Workforce Dr Melanie Haines said this collaboration with the Agency will address the knowledge and skills gap in digital health education in Australia.
“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.
“The Council is uniquely placed to deliver on this project given it has a national footprint and its foundation of transdisciplinary expertise and collaboration,” Dr Haines said.
Under the new initiative, the Council will work to:
- establish a cross sector, education and health industry working group, review current national digital health education competency frameworks and education course content;
- develop standardised core topics that should be embedded within undergraduate health degrees and position these within existing curriculum; and
- develop and pilot a “train the trainer” kit for educators currently teaching digital health in Australian universities.
A final report will include recommendations for the development of future resources or course content and an implementation plan to promote the embedding of digital health into university degrees.
The CAP is a seven-year program of work that sets out initiatives to equip Australia’s health workforce for a connected, digitally enabled future.
