Towards a digitally capable health workforce in Europe: approaches to developing digital skills and competencies

Within our Global Health connector partnership, we are launching with WHO/Europe the first of a series of webinars on digital health, this webinar will explore the digital skills of the health workforce.

WHO/Europe webinar series will address a number of digital health topics of importance to Member States in the WHO European Region including artificial intelligence, health data governance, the expanding use of telemedicine and much more. 

Building a digitally capable health workforce 

The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted the importance of a health workforce that can adapt to rapidly changing environments and leverage available data and digital technologies in providing care to populations. However, while the need for standard approaches to developing digital skills among health-care professionals in the Europe Region has been long recognized, knowledge of best practices in equipping the health workforce with the necessary digital skills is still lacking.  

Supporting countries in leveraging digital technologies to improve health service delivery 

WHO/Europe’s Data and Digital Health (DDH) programme coordinates the digital health flagship initiative. It provides technical and policy guidance and expertise on the safety and efficacy of digital health solutions, preserving equity, gender equality and human rights as core values in their deployment. Through its work, countries are supported to leverage digital technologies to improve the interface between people and health services; enhance health system performance; and strengthen critical public health functions, including disease surveillance, early warning and risk assessment.  

The webinar 

In this 1-hour dialogue, the DDH team is bringing together a panel of expert digital health practitioners who will explore perspectives on policy, research, education and clinical practice in addressing the development of digital competencies of the health workforce. They will also propose how countries and service providers can incorporate digital skills into existing training approaches for pre-service and in-service health-care professionals that will prepare them for working with today’s digital technologies and for the digital future of health and care.