Measuring the Digital Competence of Health Professionals: Scoping Review.

BACKGROUND: Digital competence is listed as one of the key competences for lifelong learning and is increasing in importance not only in private life but also in professional life. There is consensus within the health care sector that digital competence (or digital literacy) is needed in various professional fields. However, it is still unclear what exactly the digital competence of health professionals should include and how it can be measured. OBJECTIVE: This scoping review aims to provide an overview of the common definitions of digital literacy in scientific literature in the field of health care and the existing measurement instruments. METHODS: Peer-reviewed scientific papers from the last 10 years (2013-2023) in English or German that deal with the digital competence of health care workers in both outpatient and inpatient care were included. The databases ScienceDirect, Scopus, PubMed, EBSCOhost, MEDLINE, OpenAIRE, ERIC, OAIster, Cochrane Library, CAMbase, APA PsycNet, and Psyndex were searched for literature. The review follows the JBI methodology for scoping reviews, and the description of the results is based on the PRISMA-ScR (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses extension for Scoping Reviews) checklist. RESULTS: The initial search identified 1682 papers, of which 46 (2.73%) were included in the synthesis. The review results show that there is a strong focus on technical skills and knowledge with regard to both the definitions of digital competence and the measurement tools. A wide range of competences were identified within the analyzed works and integrated into a validated competence model in the areas of technical, methodological, social, and personal competences. The measurement instruments mainly used self-assessment of skills and knowledge as an indicator of competence and differed greatly in their statistical quality. CONCLUSIONS: The identified multitude of subcompetences illustrates the complexity of digital competence in health care, and existing measuring instruments are not yet able to reflect this complexity.

Teaching Digital Medicine in a Virtual Classroom: Impacts on Student Mindset and Competencies.

Digital competencies, as well as knowledge about digital medicine, are becoming increasingly relevant but are rarely reflected in teaching concepts at universities. One reason for this is probably the fact that they are not yet part of the curricula in many areas or countries (such as medicine in Germany). Therefore, courses that address digital competencies and intend to impart knowledge about digital medicine are not subject to any curricular specifications and have a correspondingly broad range of possible designs. This article reports findings from an investigation on an interdisciplinary and cross-faculty course on digital medicine. An online questionnaire was used to assess student attitudes toward digital medicine topics and conduct self-assessments of their digital competencies before and after the course. The aim of this study was to test whether such a course could influence students' attitudes and competencies. Group comparisons revealed statistically significant changes. They proved that the described course and its content regarding digital transformation in healthcare and digital medicine had an impact on digital competencies and participant opinions on digital topics. In order to teach students important competencies for the 21st century, universities should offer more courses that address digital transformation and support students in improving their competencies.

Interprofessional Needs Analysis and User-Centred Prototype Evaluation as a Foundation for Building Individualized Digital Education in Dementia Healthcare Supported by Artificial Intelligence: A Study Protocol.

Continuous profession-specific training is necessary to provide high-quality care for people with dementia. Research shows the need for more educational programmes that are personalized and responsive to the learning needs and preferences of staff. Digital solutions supported by artificial intelligence (AI) may be a means of making these improvements. There is a lack of formats that support learners in selecting the right content according to their learning needs and preferences. The project "My INdividual Digital EDucation.RUHR" (MINDED.RUHR) addresses this problem and seeks to develop an automatized delivery system for individual learning content using AI. The sub-project presented here aims to achieve the following: (a) explore learning needs and preferences regarding behavioural changes in people with dementia, (b) develop learning nuggets, (c) evaluate the feasibility of the digital learning platform, and (d) identify optimization criteria. Following the first phase of the framework for the design and evaluation of digital health interventions (DEDHI), we use a qualitative approach with focus group interviews for exploration and development, and co-design workshops and expert audits to evaluate the developed learning nuggets. The developed e-learning tool is the first step in supporting the digital training of healthcare professionals in the context of caring for people with dementia, individualized through AI.

Virtual Classrooms and Their Challenge of Interaction-An Evaluation of Chat Activities and Logs in an Online Course about Digital Medicine with Heterogeneous Participants.

Learning digital competencies can be successful if the information is also tried out immediately using interactive elements. However, interactive teaching poses a particular challenge, especially in large group formats. Various strategies are used to promote interaction, but there is little known about the results. This article shows different strategies and evaluates their influence on the interaction rate in a large group course over two terms that teaches digital medicine. Log files and participation in surveys as well as participation in chat were quantitatively evaluated. In addition, the chat messages themselves were evaluated qualitatively. For the evaluation, relation to the total number of participants was particularly relevant in order to be able to determine an interaction rate in the individual course sessions. A maximum average interaction rate of 90.97% could be determined over the entire term while the participants wrote an average of 3.96 comments during a session in the chat. In summary, this research could show that interactive elements should be well planned and used at regular intervals in order to reap the benefits.

Approaches to Improvement of Digital Health Literacy (eHL) in the Context of Person-Centered Care.

The skills, knowledge and resources to search for, find, understand, evaluate and apply health information is defined as health literacy (HL). If individuals want to use health information from the Internet, they need Digital Health Literacy (eHL), which in addition to HL also includes, for example, media literacy. If information cannot be found or understood by patients due to low (e)HL, patients will not have the opportunity to make informed decisions. In addition, many health apps for self-management or prevention also require (e)HL. Thus, it follows that active participation in healthcare, in terms of Person-Centered Care (PCC) is only possible through (e)HL. Currently, there is a great need to strengthen these competencies in society to achieve increased empowerment of patients and their health. However, at the same time, there is a need to train and improve competencies in the field of healthcare professionals so that they can counsel and guide patients. This article provides an overview with a focus on HL and eHL in healthcare, shows the opportunities to adapt services and describes the possible handling of patients with low (e)HL. In addition, the opportunities for patients and healthcare professionals to improve (e)HL are highlighted.

Selection procedure human medicine and psychology at the University of Witten/Herdecke: adaptation to the virtual zoom room.

Introduction: For the selection of students for the winter semester 2020/21, the established selection procedure of the University of Witten/Herdecke (UW/H) was adapted to the virtual space in view of the current contact ban and recommended keeping of distance. The three stations in the second step of the procedure, the biographical one-on-one interview, presentation and discussion on a subject-specific topic as well as multiple mini interviews (MMI) on the social skills of the applicants were audiovisual and in real time in zoom meetings. Project description: The medical, psychological and student reviewers were prepared for the virtual selection procedure in training sessions. Three weeks before the selection days, the applicants received information on the technical requirements for the interviews and on data protection for the persons affected by the collection of personal data. The evaluation of the virtual selection procedure was carried out by the reviewers using an online questionnaire with 8 socio-demographic, 5 organizational, 8 content and 3 open questions. Results: The 108 reviewers conducted selection interviews in tandems (medical/psychological and student reviewers) with 178 applicants for human medicine and 105 applicants for psychology. The online evaluation by 58 reviewers (response rate 53.7%) showed a positive agreement with the virtual selection procedure, with a more favorable assessment of organization and content by the medical and psychological reviewers compared to the student reviewers. Discussion: The adequate adaptation of the selection procedure of the UW/H to the virtual zoom room as well as its acceptance are confirmed by the successful execution of the selection days for the students for the winter semester 2020/21 and the evaluation of the reviewers. Conclusion: The results and analysis of this exceptional situation will be used to also conduct the upcoming selection procedure for the summer semester 2021 in the virtual space. A valid assessment for the future use of a virtual selection procedure as a possible supplement to the personal selection interviews at the University of Witten/Herdecke remains to be made.