Digital Competencies and Training Approaches to Enhance the Capacity of Practitioners to Support the Digital Transformation of Public Health: Rapid Review of Current Recommendations.
JMIR Public Health Surveill
; 10: e52798, 2024 Sep 09.
Article
em En
| MEDLINE
| ID: mdl-39248660
ABSTRACT
Background:
The COVID-19 pandemic highlighted gaps in the public health workforce's capacity to deploy digital technologies while upholding ethical, social justice, and health equity principles. Existing public health competency frameworks have not been updated to reflect the prominent role digital technologies play in contemporary public health, and public health training institutions are seeking to integrate digital technologies in their curricula.Objective:
As a first step in a multiphase study exploring recommendations for updates to public health competency frameworks within the Canadian public health context, we conducted a rapid review of literature aiming to identify recommendations for digital competencies, training approaches, and inter- or transdisciplinary partnerships that can enhance public health practitioners' capacity to support the digital transformation of public health.Methods:
Following the World Health Organization's (2017) guidelines for rapid reviews, a systematic search was conducted on Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid Embase, ERIC (Education Resources Information Center), and Web of Science for peer-reviewed articles. We also searched Google Scholar and various public health agency and public health association websites for gray literature using search terms related to public health, digital health, practice competencies, and training approaches. We included articles with explicit practice competencies and training recommendations related to digital technologies among public health practitioners published between January 2010 and December 2022. We excluded articles describing these concepts in passing or from a solely clinical perspective.Results:
Our search returned 2023 titles and abstracts, of which only 12 studies met the inclusion criteria. We found recommendations for new competencies to enable public health practitioners to appropriately use digital technologies that cut across all existing categories of the core competencies for public health framework of the Public Health Agency of Canada. We also identified a new competency category related to data, data systems management, and governance. Training approaches identified include adapted degree-awarding programs like combined public health and informatics or data science degree programs and ongoing professional certifications with integration of practice-based learning in multi- and interdisciplinary training. Disciplines suggested as important to facilitate practice competency and training recommendations included public health, public health informatics, data, information and computer sciences, biostatistics, health communication, and business.Conclusions:
Despite the growth of digital technologies in public health, recommendations about practice competencies and training approaches necessary to effectively support the digital transformation of public health remain limited in the literature. Where available, evidence suggests the workforce requires new competencies that cut across and extend existing public health competencies, including new competencies related to the use and protection of new digital data sources, alongside facilitating health communication and promotion functions using digital media. Recommendations also emphasize the need for training approaches that focus on interdisciplinarity through adapted degree-awarding public health training programs and ongoing professional development.Palavras-chave
best practice; competencies; competency; continuing education; digital health; digital public health; digital transformation; digital transformations; guideline; guidelines; practitioner; practitioners; public health; public health workforce; rapid review; rapid reviews; recommendation; recommendations; review methodology; review methods; skill; skills; synthesis; training; training and practice recommendations; worker; workers; workforce
Texto completo:
1
Coleções:
01-internacional
Base de dados:
MEDLINE
Assunto principal:
Saúde Pública
/
Tecnologia Digital
/
COVID-19
Limite:
Humans
País/Região como assunto:
America do norte
Idioma:
En
Revista:
JMIR Public Health Surveill
Ano de publicação:
2024
Tipo de documento:
Article