Several of us have just had a very fruitful conversation on Zoom about setting up our own Digital Health Academy; I thought that it would be good for us to share this with the wider group.
A Digital Health Academy (as per the UK model) can:
Provide practical skills and education for those currently working in Digital Health (doctors, other clinicians, and non-clinicians)
Be designed to be done while ‘in post’ with express support from the employer
Provide a university level qualification (eg PGDip) with an option to continue/deepen further
Be supported financially by central government
It would address a key gap in Health Informatics education in NZ - people who are ‘in post’, feel under or untrained, and for whom a standard university course is impractical. I found myself in this position recently, and was fortunate that I could radically re-arrange my life to enable going back to Uni; most aren’t.
In the UK this has been wildly popular and successful, and is now in its second year. It is currently filled with people in senior informatics leadership roles, both clinical and non-clinical. In the future it is envisaged to take people in more junior roles.
I think you’ve summed it up really well @NathanK. I am wondering if I might be seen as a supporter but would much rather be able to participate. Even as a doctor (with all the professional privilege that brings) I doubt that I would get release (I would have to use my leave) and likely to pay my own way.
Keen to hear what others think
Rebecca I took heart from the UK approach of winding up our health services to make them ready for peolle graduating from the Digital Acabemy. Having said that, we have our own unique constraints and talents for overcoming them.
Mention was made of the South of Ireland’s trans-university diploma arrangement. I think it would be worth finding out how they managed the university regulations issues that can arise with tran-university programmes. Do we have a contact?
I think this is a great idea, and I would be keen to help make it happen. We need to build Health Informatics as career path especially for the clinical groups (medicine, nursing and the Allied Health spectrum). Some DHBs are appointing into these roles already, and Shayne Hunter was talking of the importance of such to build our future health system at ETIH. So there is a movement to support something, let’s make Digital Academy the something and vehicle to build our shared future.
In looking to design a rural health school within a virtual model there is possibility of looking at micro credentialing across interdisciplinary learning framework. This makes for interesting reading as I see a possibility for linkage of this concept with the aspiration of rural longitudinal learning clerkship whatever the wellbeing focus . Thanks for providing another discipline to consider
Thanks for a great meeting this evening everyone.
I felt that we have made some great progress and am very excited about the possibility of an NZ Digital Academy.
In response to Nathan’s - who would be interested? I would be keen to participate and as we explore the idea perhaps we could run a poll on Discourse to the CiLN cohort specifically and extend it to organised forums in NZ that link into this field I.e. NiNZ and Allied Health. This poll could inform the level of interest, topics of interest and strategically identify at which level of leadership the interest is coming from. This would support the longevity perspective when pitching it for support perhaps.
Happy to participate also. I agree with widening the audience for interest. I think HINZ plus the professional colleges
should also be involved in a poll as they will reach other people since there are a lot of people who still either do not know or have not joined the CiLN cohort especially those who do not have
formal roles in clinical informatics but have an interest.
Exciting. I am very keen to progress ways to increase awareness, understand and literacy and to promote and grow the important role clinicians (and patients) will play in leading the transformation through data and digital, and medical device technology.
Re point 3. “Provide a university level qualification (eg PGDip) with an option to continue/deepen further”. I would support this but I would see it as a longer term goal. In the mean time it would be good if we can find appropriate CPD opportunities.
Also, re 4. “Be supported financially by central government”. Need to be clear what this means.
Hi all. I’d also be keen to participate for CPD purposes even though not currently in a data/tech/digital role.
On another note, in case anyone in the group is going to the ANZICS datathon in Brisbane next weekend, consider speaking to Leo Celi re setting up an NZ digital health academy. He’s one of the speakers there and is an intensivist/data scientist and also ex-Dunedin Hospital ICU. He may have some useful advice.
To summarise last night’s discussion… Nathan’s summary is really good. What’s not said in that summary is that the UK Digital Academy’s specified purpose is to make clinical leaders ready in a short period of time to lead the NHS through the digital transformation that has been documented in their national strategies. The Digital Academy feeds directly into this by creating a community of practice (aka network) of leaders, plus priming health boards to respond to these leaders once they have their qualification (which is a standardised way of upskilling the leadership cohort). The entire programme is funded by the NHS, i.e. ‘students’ (aka participants) do not pay any fees and their accommodation costs for residential periods (aka block learning) are covered by the NHS.
CPD (continuing professional development) assumes that one has already been trained into a profession and has to keep up with new developments. The UK Digital Academy assumes that their qualification equips clinical digital leaders to do a new role that requires more than CPD, and that CPD should follow.
Therefore, the Digital Academy meets a need that CPD does not meet. Piecemeal voluntary learning in the form of CPD can address some of the needs of untrained clinical digital leaders, but not in the same way that a consolidated programme can do, i.e. it doesn’t enable the development of a strong network, and it doesn’t result in standardised and validated learning. I would argue that both should be done together. However, if we want a successful digital transformation in the NZ health system a consolidated learning programme is what we need, accompanied by CPD. I think it’s too late for CPD (aka No. 8 wire approach on the cheap) if we want to equip our leaders to transform the health sector.
With the discussion around the potential of/for a NZ Digital Academy, I would like to debate the wider ideas of:
Do we consider that clinical information leader roles, regardless of titles, need people who are experts in this domain?
If not, then what/who?
If so, then what does a training programme to become an expert look like?
Is continuing education a good idea, and if so what would this look like?
Is an expert similar in concept to a specialist who is responsible for their actions?
Is it similar to a clinical specialist (medical, nursing, allied health and so on) and if so, what is the connection to the NZMC, NZNC and other regulatory bodies?
Where would a Digital Academy fit in the above?
Sorry for the bullet questions, but I thought it made the potential areas for discussion more clear than sentences.
There has been extensive work done on competencies in this domain both nationally and internationally. The Australasian College of Health Informatics (ACHI) offers membership and fellowship based on experience/academic training and consultation is underway about the potential to combine with HISA to form a larger digital body- if you have not seen the consultation document, please ask and it can be emailed to you. Your opinion and thoughts are needed to inform what happens with ACHI.
HISA is in Australia, HINZ is New Zealand for anyone not familiar with these organisations.
Great discussions about the future of a NZ Digital Health Academy! I’d be keen to participate on this. Currently finishing my PGDip in Health Informatics as the academy would provide a good opportunity to progress on this. Really excited on how it would turn out!
How do I sign up? I’d be very keen to participate. I’d rather be a student cause I perpetually feel like I don’t know enough, but I’m also keen to support this endeavour in any way I can. Good ideas guys, lets make it happen!