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Digital
Contents
A major role for the future clinical team will be to harness digital technologies ethically, and guide patients and colleagues in its use to optimise healthcare outcomes and reduce health inequalities. There is also potential for technology to facilitate collaboration and flatten the hierarchy amongst different professions through sharing of information, expertise and responsibility whilst supporting each profession to use their unique skills.
Exploring and exploiting the potential of ‘digital’ is an essential component of the enhance programme, with participants expected to be digital champions across all of the domain areas. But in doing so, participants should remind themselves of principles proposed by the Topol Review - Preparing the healthcare workforce to deliver the digital future - commissioned by Health Education England in 2019, namely that:
- Patients need to be included as partners and informed about health technologies, with a particular focus on vulnerable/marginalised groups to ensure equitable access.
- The healthcare workforce needs expertise and guidance to evaluate new technologies, using processes grounded in real-world evidence.
- Wherever possible the adoption of new technologies should enable staff to gain more time to care, promoting deeper interaction with patients
You may want to start by assessing your own digital capability against Health Education England’s Health and Care Digital Capabilities Framework (2018).
Digital resource guide
The enhance digital theme guide is for everyone who works in health and social care and has a passion for making it better, regardless of existing digital knowledge and skills. It is designed to offer information, inspiration and exploration of the current digital landscape and provide resources to improve our digital literacy, enable a digital mindset and encourage active participation in digital transformation.
Access the full Digital Resource Guide: Adopting a digital mindset from our Learning Hub (a free Learning Hub account is needed to access the guide).