The Australian Digital Health Agency and the Australasian Institute of Digital Health have launched a new digital health capability self-assessment tool designed to support digital literacy across the Australian health workforce.
The assessment is intended to support understanding of current capabilities and areas for development, mapped across five domains set out in the Australian digital health capability framework: technology, digital professionalism, leadership and advocacy, data and information quality, and information enabled care and services.
In a LinkedIn post, Nathan Moore, programme manager – clinical at eHealth New South Wales, congratulated all those involved in the project, stating: “As a sector we are all still exploring how we can best support the essential digital literacy and fluency uplift of our workforce. Baselining current state is an essential first step and providing learner self-assessment and reflection tools is a great way to start.”
Anja Nikolic, CEO at the Australasian Institute of Digital Health, commented on the post, acknowledging the institute’s focus on “enabling a concerted uplift of digital capability in the healthcare workforce”.
“This tool is provided to help you determine your workforce’s current level of capability across a broad range of digital health areas,” the Australian Institute of Digital Health explains. “The results can be used as a guide to determine areas for further development. This Tool can be repeated at regular intervals to monitor the growth of your workforce digital health capabilities.”
Wider trend: Digital skills
For a session exploring best practices around building workforce digital literacy and skills, HTN was joined by an expert panel from across the health sector, including Shanker Vijayadeva, GP lead – digital transformation in primary care, London Region, NHS England; Neill Crump, associate director for innovation and partnerships at The Dudley Group and Sandwell and West Birmingham; and Rebecca Ellis, associate director for education at Moorfields Eye Hospital. Our panellists started out with some introductions. “This topic is really close to my heart,” said Neill, “because I see digital skills as part of innovation. When I eventually leave the NHS, I’d also like to have a legacy that I helped not only my own local teams, but also nationally and regionally helped to embed digital skills within the workforce.”
HTN was joined by an expert panel to discuss digital in community care innovation, taking a deep dive into best practice, approaches, challenges, and the 10-Year Plan. Our panel included Sheikh Mateen Ellahi (Mateen), GP partner, clinical director, and clinical safety officer at Elm Tree Medical Centre and Antonia Frost, CNIO at Sussex Community NHS Foundation Trust. A survey conducted by Sussex Community identified that 27 percent of those who responded felt that they didn’t have the skills and confidence to use the digital tools or systems they needed to use for their role, Antonia highlighted. “That is a worry, because if people can’t use the EPR safely, or work with remote monitoring tools, that can be a safety problem. We’re taking it very seriously right now, and trying to create a whole digital skills framework along with support and training – it’s key to find those people that need support and bring them with us, but at the same time not over-train people who are already confident.”
South Yorkshire ICB has launched three digital strategies designed to modernise services, strengthen cyber resilience, and empower its workforce with digital skills to continue to deliver safe and effective care. The ICB sets out planned actions in its digital workforce and skills strategy, including the creation of professional networks for digital training colleagues to support the sharing of resources, and a review of current training programmes. It also plans to look at current approaches to the assessment of digital skills across the system, with the intention of better matching training to individual needs and role requirements.
