Webinar by WHO Europe: Towards a digitally capable health workforce in Europe

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

In this one-hour dialogue hosted jointly by the European Connected Alliance’s Global Health Connector Partnership and the WHO Regional Office for Europe, we hear from a panel of expert digital health practitioners who will explore perspectives of policy, research, education and clinical practice in addressing the development of digital competencies of the health workforce and propose how countries can go about incorporating digital skills into existing training approaches for pre-service and in-service healthcare professionals that will prepare them for working with today’s digital technologies, and for the digital future of health and care.

Speakers

• Richard Price, Global Health Education Technology Advisor, Health Education England 
• Natasha Phillips, Chief Nursing Information Officer England – Director of Digital Clinical Safety – Transformation Directorate, NHS England. 
• Cris Scotter, Policy Advisor, Human Resources for Health, Health workforce and service delivery unit, Division of Country Health Policies and Systems, WHO Regional Office for Europe 
• Moderator: Henrique Martins, Associate Professor @ISCTE-IUL, @FCS-UBI @CLSBE and Digital Consultant 

About the Global Health Connector Partnership

The Global Health Connector Partnership is an initiative of the European Connected Health Alliance that connects global health communities targeting health inequalities, skills and data. It reflects a determined commitment of existing organisations to improve health and care for citizens worldwide through the appropriate use of digital technologies in the provision of health and care services.

About the WHO Regional Office for Europe

The WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) is one of WHO’s six regional offices around the world. It serves the 53 countries and approximately 900 million inhabitants of the European Region. The Data and Digital Health (DDH) programme coordinates the digital health flagship and 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 the use of digital technologies for improving the interface between people and health services; for enhancing health system performance; and for strengthening critical public health functions including disease surveillance, early warning and risk assessment.