Evaluating the Impact of the National Health Service Digital Academy on Participants' Perceptions of Their Identity as Leaders of Digital Health Change: Mixed Methods Study.

BACKGROUND: The key to the digital leveling-up strategy of the National Health Service is the development of a digitally proficient leadership. The National Health Service Digital Academy (NHSDA) Digital Health Leadership program was designed to support emerging digital leaders to acquire the necessary skills to facilitate transformation. This study examined the influence of the program on professional identity formation as a means of creating a more proficient digital health leadership. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to examine the impact of the NHSDA program on participants' perceptions of themselves as digital health leaders. METHODS: We recruited 41 participants from 2 cohorts of the 2-year NHSDA program in this mixed methods study, all of whom had completed it >6 months before the study. The participants were initially invited to complete a web-based scoping questionnaire. This involved both quantitative and qualitative responses to prompts. Frequencies of responses were aggregated, while free-text comments from the questionnaire were analyzed inductively. The content of the 30 highest-scoring dissertations was also reviewed by 2 independent authors. A total of 14 semistructured interviews were then conducted with a subset of the cohort. These focused on individuals' perceptions of digital leadership and the influence of the course on the attainment of skills. In total, 3 in-depth focus groups were then conducted with participants to examine shared perceptions of professional identity as digital health leaders. The transcripts from the interviews and focus groups were aligned with a previously published examination of leadership as a framework. RESULTS: Of the 41 participants, 42% (17/41) were in clinical roles, 34% (14/41) were in program delivery or management roles, 20% (8/41) were in data science roles, and 5% (2/41) were in "other" roles. Interviews and focus groups highlighted that the course influenced 8 domains of professional identity: commitment to the profession, critical thinking, goal orientation, mentoring, perception of the profession, socialization, reflection, and self-efficacy. The dissertation of the practice model, in which candidates undertake digital projects within their organizations supported by faculty, largely impacted metacognitive skill acquisition and goal orientation. However, the program also affected participants' values and direction within the wider digital health community. According to the questionnaire, after graduation, 59% (24/41) of the participants changed roles in search of more prominence within digital leadership, with 46% (11/24) reporting that the course was a strong determinant of this change. CONCLUSIONS: A digital leadership course aimed at providing attendees with the necessary attributes to guide transformation can have a significant impact on professional identity formation. This can create a sense of belonging to a wider health leadership structure and facilitate the attainment of organizational and national digital targets. This effect is diminished by a lack of locoregional support for professional development.

The NHS Digital Academy Digital Health Leadership Programme.

The Digital Health Leadership Programme is commissioned by Health Education England and part of the wider NHS Digital Academy. The Programme is a consortium of Imperial College London's Institute of Global Health Innovation, The University of Edinburgh's Usher Institute and Harvard Medical School. In 2021, Health Data Research UK joined Imperial and Edinburgh to deliver phase 2. The aim is to develop a new generation of digital health leaders to drive transformation of the NHS through digitisation. Participants gain the skills and knowledge to create change so that patient care and organisational operations can benefit from the many improvements and innovations modern technology has to offer.

Evaluating the impact of a digital leadership programme on national digital priorities: a mixed methods study.

OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to determine the impact of the United Kingdom's National Health Service Digital Academy (NHSDA) Digital Health Leadership course on high-level recommendations in digital preparedness and the development of a proficient leadership to oversee digital transformation, which has been a longstanding priority within the NHS. DESIGN: A mixed methods study incorporating an online questionnaire, in-depth interviews and focus groups that were then analysed through a thematic analysis, underpinned by a constructivist approach. SETTINGS: An online mixed methods study of a defined cohort of participants who had completed the NHSDA course. PARTICIPANTS: 26 participants were recruited to the study, of whom 50% were clinicians, 26.9% in management and 19.2% in data science. All had completed the 2-year NHSDA programme in Digital Health Leadership more than 6 months prior. RESULTS: Interviews and focus groups elicited two key areas of impact of the course: loco-regional digitisation and the development of a network of change agents. The dissertation project had direct effects on local digital transformation efforts. Most of these projects focused on clinician (11.7%) or service user (10.3%) engagement, as oppose to de novo digital processes (9.4%). The development of a network of digital leaders has facilitated communication between organisations and improved the efficiency of the national digital infrastructure. CONCLUSIONS: A bespoke course incorporating a dissertation of practice model for digital health leaders can have broader impact for the attainment of digital priorities. This includes helping trusts to successfully adopt digital solutions, as well as fostering shared organisational learning. These influences, however, are mediated by resource and cultural barriers, which continue to hinder transformation efforts.

The importance of design thinking in medical education.

Design thinking provides a creative and innovate approach to solve a complex problem. The discover, define, develop and delivery phases of design thinking lead to the most effective solution and this approach can be widely applied in medical education, from technology intervention projects to curriculum development. Participants in design thinking acquire essential transferable life-long learning skills in dealing with uncertainty and collaborative team working.