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The Digital Health Academy

The Digital Health Academy is the first UK online training portal designed to support all health and care professionals with the appropriate knowledge and confidence to effectively and safely use Digital Health Technologies (DHTs) in practice. The Digital Health Academy has been developed in partnership with NHS clinicians, universities, and digital health experts at ORCHA (Organisation for the Review of Care and Health Apps), and the two foundation modules are sponsored by Boehringer Ingelheim UK.

The Digital Health Academy is available via:

The Digital Health Academy

Building the digital capabilities of health and care professionals

The Covid-19 pandemic has accelerated the need and use of DHTs as health and care professionals in primary and secondary care have needed to find innovative ways to connect with their patients. 

Recent findings from a first of its kind UK-wide survey of DHT innovators by Boehringer Ingelheim, in partnership with ORCHA, highlighted the key concerns facing health entrepreneurs. Of those surveyed, 86% didn’t believe healthcare providers have the resources and confidence to access, use and recommend digital health technologies to patients.1

Additionally, 70% of innovator respondents ranked the reluctance of healthcare providers to recommend digital health technologies as one of the top four factors affecting patients use of and access to DHTs.2

Supporting health and care professionals to deliver digitally-enabled care 

The Digital Health Academy, launched nationwide in March 2022, is made up of foundation modules about all things digital, with each delivered in 5-minute videos to best fit around the working schedule of health and care professionals. 

Each foundation module takes approximately 45 minutes in total to complete and is CPD accredited. Completion of both modules ensures all users obtain a consistent standard of knowledge. 

The NHS Long Term Plan outlines the ambition and need to make digitally-enabled care mainstream across the system, to empower patients and support staff.3 By improving the confidence of health and care professionals in referring to, prescribing and using DHTs, the Digital Health Academy will actively help facilitate digital transformation in the NHS, increasing the range of digital tools and services available to patients. 

The training portal will also help accelerate the procurement and utilisation of new technologies across the NHS, a key ambition identified in the UK government’s Life Sciences (LS) Vision document.4 

The Ambition of the Digital Health Academy

The Digital Health Academy aims to actively engage with over 50,000 health and care professionals from the UK in its first year and aspires to improve the digital skills of all NHS health and care professionals by 2031.

The objective of the Digital Health Academy also supports the requirements for 95% of NHS and Local Authority organisations to have achieved foundational digital skills by March 2025, including implementing professional development and front-line skills, for a digital-ready workforce.5

If you’re a health and care professional, you can register your interest by completing a form found at: orchahealth.com/digital-health-academy

References

  1. ORCHA (2021). Digital Innovation within the NHS, barriers & opportunities: An Innovator's perspective. Table 12. pp36

  2. ORCHA (2021). Digital Innovation within the NHS, barriers & opportunities: An Innovator's perspective. Table 9. pp32

  3. NHS England (2019). The NHS Long Term Plan. Available at: https://www.longtermplan.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/nhs-long-term-plan-version-1.2.pdf. Accessed 17 January 2022.

  4. Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (2021). Life Sciences Vision. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/life-sciences-vision/life-sciences-vision-html. Accessed 17 January 2022.

  5. NHSX (2021). NHSX Delivery Plan. Available at: https://www.nhsx.nhs.uk/digitise-connect-transform/nhsx-delivery-plan/#digital-readiness. Accessed 02 February 2022.

 

NP-GB-104937    August 2024