Undergraduate Medical Competencies in Digital Health and Curricular Module Development: Mixed Methods Study

Background: Owing to an increase in digital technologies in health care, recently leveraged by the COVID-19 pandemic, physicians are required to use these technologies appropriately and to be familiar with their implications on patient care, the health system, and society. Therefore, medical students should be confronted with digital health during their medical education. However, corresponding teaching formats and concepts are still largely lacking in the medical curricula. Objective: This study aims to introduce digital health as a curricular module at a German medical school and to identify undergraduate medical competencies in digital health and their suitable teaching methods. Methods: We developed a 3-week curricular module on digital health for third-year medical students at a large German medical school, taking place for the first time in January 2020. Semistructured interviews with 5 digital health experts were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using an abductive approach. We obtained feedback from the participating students and lecturers of the module through a 17-item survey questionnaire. Results: The module received overall positive feedback from both students and lecturers who expressed the need for further digital health education and stated that the field is very important for clinical care and is underrepresented in the current medical curriculum. We extracted a detailed overview of digital health competencies, skills, and knowledge to teach the students from the expert interviews. They also contained suggestions for teaching methods and statements supporting the urgency of the implementation of digital health education in the mandatory curriculum. Conclusions: An elective class seems to be a suitable format for the timely introduction of digital health education. However, a longitudinal implementation in the mandatory curriculum should be the goal. Beyond training future physicians in digital skills and teaching them digital health’s ethical, legal, and social implications, the experience-based development of a critical digital health mindset with openness to innovation and the ability to assess ever-changing health technologies through a broad transdisciplinary approach to translate research into clinical routine seem more important. Therefore, the teaching of digital health should be as practice-based as possible and involve the educational cooperation of different institutions and academic disciplines

Modern Approach to the Study of Telemedicine Technologies in the Medical Institute

Telemedicine is being actively introduced into medical practice, however, in order for it to become an effective tool in their hands, a basic knowledge of the possibilities and limitations of modern telemedicine technologies is needed, as well as practical skills in the preparation and conduct of videoconferencing. This led to the need to include a course on the basics of telemedicine technology in the training of medical personnel. The Department of Medical Informatics created the educational module "Telemedicine", which is implemented by the Telemedicine Centre of the Medical Institute of the Peoples' Friendship University of Russia. After theoretical lectures, students receive practical skills through business games and conducting videoconferencing. Classes are conducted in accordance with world trends and standards. During the classes we demonstrate to students the technologies of remote interactive learning, in particular television lectures and master classes from the leading clinics of Russia, countries of Europe, India, Brazil and Canada. This practice allows our graduates to maintain contact with their teachers through telemedicine opportunities and participate in videoconferenced postgraduate education with PFUR professors, and international conferences held at PFUR sites. The experience of teaching the senior students of the PFUR Medical Institute is presented

Digital health in pharmacy education : preparedness and responsiveness of pharmacy programmes

To ensure the sustainability of pharmacy practice and provide health for all, pharmacy as a profession must embrace the digital transformation that has been changing healthcare at a rapid pace. The International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP) has conducted a global study on digital health in pharmacy education to describe the readiness, adaptability, and responsiveness of pharmacy education programmes to train the current and future pharmaceutical workforce on digital health and to identify the knowledge and skill gaps of the existing pharmaceutical workforce with regard to digital health. An online survey was distributed to collect feedback from academics, pharmacy schools, pharmacists, and pharmacy students. The findings showed that a large proportion of pharmacy schools do not offer any digital health education, and the skillsets and knowledge of how to apply digital health technologies to solve existing clinical problems and improve care have been identified as a gap. The future of pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences is digital and exciting. A digitally enabled and agile pharmaceutical workforce will capitalise on the benefits of digital health to serve the higher purpose of providing good health and wellbeing for all, leaving no one behind. Therefore, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sciences education should act now.peer-reviewe

Advancing Ehealth Education for the Clinical Health Professions

This is the final report of a project that aimed to encourage and support program coordinators and directors of Australian undergraduate and postgraduate coursework programs in all allied health, nursing and medical professions to address the need for Ehealth education for entry-level clinical health professionals

Informatics for Health 2017 : advancing both science and practice

Conference report, The Informatics for Health congress, 24-26 April 2017, in Manchester, UK.Introduction : The Informatics for Health congress, 24-26 April 2017, in Manchester, UK, brought together the Medical Informatics Europe (MIE) conference and the Farr Institute International Conference. This special issue of the Journal of Innovation in Health Informatics contains 113 presentation abstracts and 149 poster abstracts from the congress. Discussion : The twin programmes of “Big Data” and “Digital Health” are not always joined up by coherent policy and investment priorities. Substantial global investment in health IT and data science has led to sound progress but highly variable outcomes. Society needs an approach that brings together the science and the practice of health informatics. The goal is multi-level Learning Health Systems that consume and intelligently act upon both patient data and organizational intervention outcomes. Conclusions : Informatics for Health demonstrated the art of the possible, seen in the breadth and depth of our contributions. We call upon policy makers, research funders and programme leaders to learn from this joined-up approach.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

Better medical apps for healthcare practitioners through interdisciplinary collaboration: lessons from transfusion medicine

Mobile applications (“apps”) are increasingly used in medical education and practice. However, many medical apps are of variable quality, lack supporting evidence and fall outside the remit of regulators. In this thesis, I explore how the quality and credibility of apps for healthcare practitioners could be improved. I argue that interdisciplinary collaboration throughout the app life-cycle is critical and discuss how this can be facilitated. My argument rests on prior work in eHealth and neighbouring disciplines, and on original research in transfusion medicine. Blood transfusion can be a life-saving medical treatment. However, it also carries risks. Failures to provide irradiated and cytomegalovirus-negative blood components according to guidelines are frequently reported in the UK. Such incidents put patients at risk of serious complications. Haemovigilance data indicates that enhancing practitioner knowledge may reduce mistakes. Thus, I worked with medical experts to develop and evaluate the Special Blood Components (SBC) mobile learning app. To facilitate this work, I created two tools: the Web App Editor (WAE) and the Web App Trial (WAT). The former is a collaborative editor for building apps in a web browser and the latter is a system for conducting online randomised controlled app trials. The results are reported in five studies. Studies 1 and 2, based on interviews with seven practitioners, revealed shortcomings in an existing transfusion app and the SBC prototype. Study 3 demonstrated how students using theWAE were able to collaborate on apps, including an app in stroke medicine. Study 4, an evaluation of the revised SBC app with 54 medical students, established the ease of use as acceptable. In study 5, a WAT pilot study with 61 practitioners, the SBC app doubled scores on a knowledge test and was rated more favourably than existing hospital guidelines. In conclusion, creating high quality medical apps that are supported by evidence is a considerable undertaking and depends on a mix of knowledges and skills. It requires that healthcare practitioners, software developers and otherswork together effectively. Hence, the WAE and WAT are key research outcomes. They enabled participants to contribute improvements and assess the usability and efficacy of the SBC app. The results suggest that the SBC app is easy to use and can improve practitioner knowledge. Further work remains to pilot and evaluate the SBC app in a hospital setting