Australia to incorporate digital health education into university degrees

The Australian Digital Health Agency is collaborating with universities to incorporate digital health education into academic programs.

As stated by ADHA CEO Amanda Cattermole, the project aims for a "cohesive strategy for digital health education on a national scale, enhancing the health workforce's readiness to meet the needs of Australians across various environments, both presently and in the future."

The Australian Council of Senior Academic Leaders in Digital Health (ACSALDH), consisting of 37 universities connected to the Digital Health Cooperative Research Centre (DHCRC), will implement the project through a working group that will assess current digital health education frameworks and course materials, and create standardised core topics for integration into undergraduate health degrees and current curricula. The council will additionally create and test a training kit for university instructors who are presently teaching digital health.

Enhancing the digital skills and abilities of the Australian health workforce has been recognized as essential to address the difficulties faced by an overburdened health system. "Digital health offers potential solutions to these problems, enabling us to operate on a larger scale, spanning various regions, and to tackle difficulties within the healthcare system."

Digital health technologies play a crucial role in improving healthcare outcomes, therefore our future workforce must be equipped to utilize them. "To stay aligned with the rapid changes in the health system, we require a curriculum that adapts to guarantee health professionals provide the best possible care," Dr. Melanie Haines, director of Education and Workforce at DHCRC, also stressed.

This new initiative is part of the ADHA-directed National Digital Health Capability Action Plan, a seven-year effort to enhance the digital health skills of health professionals. The action plan aims to achieve one of the four main objectives of the 10-year Digital Health Blueprint from the Department of Health and Aged Care: creating a "digitally empowered" workforce.