Launched: May 2024
The challenge
Italy’s health system struggles with insufficient digital literacy among its health professionals. This hinders the effective implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan (NRRP) objectives. Despite efforts to modernise the health system through improved electronic health records (EHR) and telemedicine initiatives, there is a significant gap in digital skills. Only 4% of Italy’s National Health System staff have sufficient digital skills, and less than half use the EHR effectively. This skills deficit poses a barrier to achieving the NRRP’s goals of enhancing health services’ accessibility and quality through digital transformation.
The ambition
The ambition of the regional partnership for digital skills is to establish a robust framework for developing digital competencies among health professionals across Italy. This involves integrating education in digital healthcare into the health system through the Digital Upskilling Lifecycle Model, developed by the Technical Support Instrument (TSI) and other national bodies. This model aims to create a standardised national portfolio of digital competencies, a profiling methodology tailored to individual professional needs, a catalogue of training initiatives, and a system for evaluating digital literacy improvements. The objective is to ensure health professionals can adapt to technological advancements and contribute effectively to digitised healthcare processes, enhancing patient care and organisational efficiency.
The commitments
The partnership commits to implement the Digital Upskilling Lifecycle Model within Italy’s National Health Service. This model includes six phases: Governance, Design, Addressing, Planning, Execution, and Monitoring. Governance involves the general recommendations for regional adoption; Design focuses on creating a national digital competence portfolio; Addressing users’ needs by developing appropriate training guidelines for each profession; Planning identifies training needs and formalises objectives; Execution grounds the planned initiatives at regional and company levels; and Monitoring evaluates outcomes and identifies corrective actions.
The regional skills partnership for digital skills aims to enhance communication about the TSI financed strategy, support the definition of regional strategies, improve monitoring systems, increase the capacity to utilise EU funds for training, and enhance the use of skills intelligence methods. The partnership will also support the establishment of a Digital Health Education Steering Committee to guide continuous professional development and update national digital skills strategies. This coordinated effort seeks to foster a unified approach to digital skills development, ensuring health professionals are equipped to meet the evolving demands of a digitised healthcare environment.
Learn more about the regional skills partnership for digital skills.
Contact and more information
Email: promisalute
regione [dot] veneto [dot] it (promisalute[at]regione[dot]veneto[dot]it)
Web: promisalute.it