Creation of a methodology for digital skills management of health professionals - Spain
Digital Health is essential to cope with the continuous change in healthcare. It improves self-care, the quality of care and optimizes the efficiency of the system. The project builds on the need for health professionals to know their strengths and weaknesses in the handling of technologies to guide their digital training.
Furthermore, it helps health organisations and scientific societies properly identify the needs of their professionals to design effective and efficient training plans, as developing health digital skills improves patient and citizen care, contributes to the sustainability of the health system and benefits society as a whole.
Get to know the project
In the absence of defined digital skills profiles for health professionals and based on the Basque Government’s European Digital Competence Framework and the Ikanos project, a methodology was developed to:
- Define the digital competencies of healthcare profiles: clinical professionals (doctors, nurses..), administrative staff, and leaders.
- Develop an online self-diagnosis tool to help professionals, organizations, or health associations to develop these skills based on real needs.
The methodology has been included as a teaching subject in several universities in Spain and Portugal.
What has the project achieved so far?
Each phase has been developed with teams of professionals from all fields involved, and validated by other external professionals and scientific societies. Each time, the tool is improved with new inputs and accumulated experience.
- 2019: Development of professional profiles in the Basque Country and of the self-testing tool.
- 2020: Adaptation of health professionals from other geographical areas together with ASD (Digital Health Association).
- 2021: Development of specific health profiles, conducting the first national survey for managers together with the Signo Foundation.
- 2021: Development, together with ASD, the Signo Foundation and the Ministry of Health, of a ‘Decree for the training of health professionals in digital skills’ and ‘Seven keys to the relevant accreditation system’
- 2022: Its use is extended to other scientific communities and societies.
Why is this a good practice?
Digital competency profiles were created for clinicians, managers, and leaders, while an online self-diagnostic tool was developed for each profile. More than 1000 people have taken the self-diagnostic test on the platform individually.
Two regional public health services and two national associations in Spain have used the tool. It has been incorporated into teaching in six universities in Spain, and now we are preparing new courses in Portugal.
It has been disseminated in 14 national and international events and 6 publications have been produced so far. The project has received two national awards (2022 and 2023): the "New Medical Economics" award for the best digital health project 2022, and the "Avedis Donabedian a la Calidad" award for the best quality improvement project in Primary Care.
