The platform to build a digital-ready frontline workforce will be available to all NHS and social care staff
The Digital Health Academy – which aims to help build the UK’s first digital-ready frontline workforce – is now open to health and care staff across the UK. All NHS and social care staff will have free access to the programme.
Research reveals that while 65% of the public are open to trying digital health technologies, only a fraction of tools are recommended by health or care professionals.
Furthermore, in the same survey from the Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps (ORCHA), among those using digital health, only a small proportion of recommendations came from healthcare professionals. 17% came from GPs, 8% from hospital doctors and only 2% from nurses.
Commenting on the academy’s resources, Dr Neil Ralph, head of health education England technology enhanced learning, said: “COVID-19 accelerated the rapid adoption of digital health across health and care services and the need to embed digital health in the long term. We are delighted that ORCHA has contributed its Digital Health Academy foundation content to the Learning Hub and look forward to hosting new content in the future, further supporting health and care professionals in their roles.”
ORCHA has created the infrastructure of the online training portal and designed courses, drawing on experience gained from reviews of over 17,000 health apps, and operating health app libraries in 70% of NHS regions.
Dr Michelle Webster, chief clinical information officer and consultant clinical psychologist at Coventry and Warwickshire NHS Partnership Trust, explained: “The ORCHA Digital Health Academy has helped to demystify digital health, strengthen our clinicians’ digital skills and boost their confidence in using healthcare apps. The bite-sized modules are easy to follow, interesting and relevant and designed to flexibly fit around their busy jobs.”
The team anticipate training as many as 50,000 healthcare staff in one year of the project, with all 630,000 NHS health and care professionals given the opportunity for training by 2031.
