How are health professionals prepared for digital transformation?

The evolution of technology, however, requires continuous training and skill development of health professionals.

According to the report “Empowering the health workforce to make the most of the digital revolution,” published by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development in 2021, between 30% and 70% of health professionals admitted, at the time, that they did not have the skills they needed to use technologies. Fingerprints.

According to the same Deloitte study referenced above, 30.7% of professionals surveyed in Portugal said they had received online training to improve the use of technologies (44.8% in Europe), but 47.3% said they had not received any type of training (25.5%). only in Europe).

How did we get here

As we wrote here last weekDigital transformation in healthcare in Portugal began to take its first steps in the 1980s, but in the 2000s it made the biggest leap, especially during the pandemic.

“COVID-19 has been an accelerating driver of digital healthcare innovation in 2020. It has helped break down the regulatory, financial and behavioral barriers that have allowed the widespread integration of virtual care into our healthcare system,” reads Deloitte’s 2021 study on digital transformation in Portugal.

For example, in the National Health Service (SNS), SNS24 began to have a portal in 2019, and with the outbreak of the epidemic, new functions were added almost every day, allowing patients to book appointments, request sick leave, or even get a remote consultation . Tools that, in 2021, are also available on the SNS24 app, where you can even configure alerts to take your regular medications.

In the private sector, in this case at the Cascais Hospital – which is considered a reference in digital transformation – a teleconsultation service for general medicine, family medicine and pediatrics has also been created in 2021, with the possibility of home delivery of medicines or consultation in the health cabin, located outside the hospital .

In 2023, the first video endoscopic surgery to correct a hernia was performed in the same unit, while at the Hospital da Luz, in Lisbon, a pilot project was started with 50 chronic patients who will use sensors in ‘smart watches’ and bedside mats and mattresses to monitor physical activity. and sleep quality.

Therefore, it is not surprising that there is more and more talk about digital training for health professionals, not only those who are already working, but also those who are at university. Because, as Sandra Matthews, currently in charge of health at Microsoft, says, “In health, you’re always learning.” And despite the challenges that remain in Portugal with regard to the digital literacy of the population and the health professionals themselves, Sandra Mateus considers that “there is no lack of desire to learn”.

Where we walk

If it were a question, the answer would be simple: we are moving towards a medicine that is “increasingly dependent on technological development” that allows to reduce the administrative burden for health professionals, to make faster diagnoses or to focus more on the treatment of the patient, you can read- In a study on human resources in health by Nova SBE professors, Pedro Pita Barros and Eduardo Costa.

For Sandra Matthews, the strategy should be “teaching with use”, because “we can’t put something new in front of citizens and health professionals without explaining what it is and what its purpose is. It has to explain itself in order to trust the technology.” Therefore, the specialist advocates “training on the job” – “training through use”. In addition, he considers it important “to have some kind of ambassadors who encourage the use of technologies, for example, managers or senior positions”, but also to create “training programmes”, which can be face-to-face or digital and, in the case of digital ones, can Being ‘asynchronous’, i.e. documents and/or videos are available for access as and when available on the part of the intern.