I Am Clearly Utterly Past It As I Really Do Struggle To Understand What Is Actually Being Suggested Here!

This release appeared last week:

Digital health skills and training more important than ever 29.6 million telehealth services delivered

A national digital health skills and training plan has been released today to help the Australian health workforce use technology and further drive the digital transformation of health services to meet community demand.

The Hon Greg Hunt MP
Minister for Health

Date published: 14 September 2020

Media type:  Media release

A national digital health skills and training plan has been released today to help the Australian health workforce use technology and further drive the digital transformation of health services to meet community demand.

As with every other sector, adoption of technology is critical for the healthcare system and the Roadmap sets out how the Australian health workforce of more than 767,000 registered healthcare providers (as at March 2020) can be transformed over the next decade.

The development of the National Digital Health Workforce and Education Roadmap acknowledges people are the health sector’s most valuable asset and that we need to shape education and training to meet their needs and to support the provision of the best care possible to patients.

The Morrison Government has invested in a range of areas to expand the use of digital health, including workforce training, incentives to providers, and support for telehealth, My Health Record and electronic prescribing.

The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the importance of these systems to ensure delivery of quality patient care during an emergency.

A dramatic expansion in the use of telehealth has been a key element of the fight against COVID-19. Between 13 March and 9 September, 29.6 million Medicare-eligible telehealth services were delivered to 10.4 million patients, resulting in $1.52 billion paid in Medicare benefits.

As part of the COVID-19 National Health Plan, the Australian Government also fast tracked the start of electronic prescribing. This gives prescribers and patients the option to use an electronic prescription, sent by text message or email, as a legal alternative to a paper prescription.

The e-prescription contains an electronic token and other instructions which can be shown to or forwarded to the dispensing pharmacist, who scans the token to reveal the prescribed medicine.

The Roadmap is a key element of the National Digital Health Strategy and was developed following a summit late last year attended by healthcare educators, professional bodies and employers.

I thank the Australian Digital Health Agency and all of the individuals and organisations who contributed to development of the Roadmap.

Here is the link:

https://www.health.gov.au/ministers/the-hon-greg-hunt-mp/media/digital-health-skills-and-training-more-important-than-ever-296-million-telehealth-services-delivered

Wow, I thought, here will be some actionable plans, timelines and funding to get the health workforce up to speed with Digital Health – whatever that actually means.

So I followed the link and found a glossy 153 page document with 238 references! Impressive!!

I read with gradual disillusionment through the pages hoping to see a few specifics and actions. The section cited below will provide a hint as to what this document actually is – a Road Map pointing to some plan development.

Here is the “Next Steps” section (p99) :

5.9 Next steps

A draft of this roadmap was a key input into the National Digital Health Workforce and Education Summit held on 20 November 2019. The summit brought together key stakeholders across health, with the goal of developing a shared understanding of the work required to support achievement of the goals described in Australia’s National Digital Health Strategy. The summit sought to agree specific tangible commitments from health sector participants and develop measures against which progress can be tracked.

In advance of the summit additional reference materials were released to attendees. This included reference points to support participant action planning in the summit. The Agency is exploring the development of a digital adoption maturity scale, mapping typical progression towards beneficial adoption of digital health solutions. The scale will be elaborated in the CAP in concert with jurisdictions. Such a scale could be used in a number of useful ways:

·         A maturity scale provides a basis for understanding the current state of digital health in a given segment of the health sector, agreeing priorities and setting targets; and

·         Example participant actions aligned to each maturity level can help to fast-track summit planning processes to identify specific actions and measures.

Through the summit consultation process the foundations of a CAP were established. The CAP, along with the finalised roadmap, will provide guidance to participants across the sector on the work required to support beneficial adoption of digital health solutions. They will also provide a basis against which to measure progress and identify areas where additional focus may be required. As highlighted previously the development of the CAP will occur following finalisation of the roadmap and is a critical next step to ensure implementation of the roadmap and realisation of the benefits that will flow to Australia’s health workforce.

Work is underway in many areas; however, a coordinated approach is needed. This will require leadership, support and engagement from participants across the health and education sectors. It is critical that the pathways and roles to build the digitally capable health workforce are clearly articulated, widely understood, adopted and enacted.

The change ahead is exciting, and the development of the roadmap recognises the importance of a digitally capable health workforce as central to delivering health services and outcomes, now and into the future.

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What is out of scope is also important:

2.6 Out of scope

The roadmap is intended to provide a common foundation for the work that will be performed by a broad range of health system participants to address the challenges and opportunities presented by digital health. It is not intended to catalogue all initiatives that will be required to support the transformation of the health workforce. While it anticipates the changes that are likely to reshape healthcare delivery, it is not intended to plan for their implementation. Some consideration has been given to participants’ roles in enhancing workforce digital capabilities. However, further consultation will be required to develop a cohesive CAP with specific actions, targets and measures of success. This consultation will be undertaken in close collaboration with all Australian jurisdictions, university and education providers, clinical and consumer peaks and accreditation authorities, and will commence as a critical next step.

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So really what we have here is a plan to develop a Capability Action Plan and the 153 page document is not the place to have any details, measureables or funding.

I have to say it is time to nod off again and see if anything more concrete emerges by say 2030!

And it is such a pretty .pdf. Pretty much useless I reckon.

David.