ERASMUS+ – Educational Concept for Digital Transformation

TBDTHC – Training Blueprint for the Digital Transformation of Health and Care

As part of the Erasmus+ programme, seven partners from five European countries are working together in the project Training Blueprint for the Digital Transformation of Health and Care over a period of 34 months to entrench innovations in vocational education and training in the field of healthcare. The project is dedicated to the key action Cooperation for Innovation and the Exchange of Good Practices of the Erasmus+ programme.

The project is an essential building block of the EU to encourage the modernisation of vocational education and training for health professionals and the realignment of the available means in supporting digital competences. Furthermore, the planning and forecasting of the future qualification needs in healthcare are expected to be easier to anticipate. Therefore, the professional development shall be strengthened by a continuous, advanced training.

Background and ambition

Nowadays, digital technologies are considered to be a pivotal driver of innovation in modern medicine. They have the potential to ensure a better access to health services, to personalize services and to harmonize quality and profitability. Equally, the potentials come along with a severe shift of the workplace and the everyday work in the healing and nursing professions. Health professionals have to adapt to these challenges and master new skills and qualifications.

Against this background, the project aims to develop basic principles- and requirements- profiles for improved digital and social competencies of health professionals, closing the current gap between technology and its application.

In the course of the project, actions that use instruments to develop high-quality skills and competences are taken. These instruments include training labs and systems to advance existing learning methods.

To these actions count in particular the following:

• Digital competences: providing a learning method, that imparts diverse competences: communication, data analysis, computer knowledge, compatibility with medical devices, data privacy programmes, mobile applications, cloud storage, surfing the internet, ability to read, understanding and forwarding information using smart devices
• Soft Skills: raising awareness of the relevance of communication skills in the digital age of healthcare, reinforce attitudes to become a team player, increase flexibility, support dealing with criticism, language skills

The project consortium of seven complementary and experienced transnational partners (I, D, AUT, NL und GB) will work in four thematic areas (intellectual outputs – IO):

• IO1 – Increase the level of understanding of digital technology trends and their implications in the health practice
• IO2 – Identify core skills needed to facilitate the adoption of digital solutions in the health sector
• IO3 – Introduce a flexible lifelong training Lab targeted to health professionals (IO3)
• IO4 – Strengthen health sector stakeholders’ capacity in investing in digital solutions and appropriate training methodology

Overview of the work packages

The project is divided up into seven work packages:

AP1 Project management

AP2 Communication and dissemination

AP3 Evaluation and impact asessment

AP4 Digital health technology excellences

AP5 Digital health and soft skills

AP6 Setting up digital health lab training schemes

AP7 Launching the digital health soft skills observator

Our tasks in the project

The helict team is involved in the processing of all work packages. While working package 1 to 3 relate to general project management, communication between the project partners and quality assurance of the project outputs, work packages 4 to 7 deal with the preparation of the content of the project objective.

Work package 4

Creation of a best practice database of practices in dealing with new health technologies and training methods

Work package 5

Identification of soft skills of health professionals working in a digitally supported environment

Work package 6

Introduction of flexible training labs for lifelong learning for health professionals

Work package 7

Provide guidance to (a) the health care system, (b) training providers in relation to the use of the training lab

Novelty content compared to previous projects

The project starts where current initiatives in the field of digital health still lack solutions to problems:

• EHealth solutions do not always reflect the existing healthcare pathways, nor the needs of patients and health professionals. The Training Lab approach provides a concrete and easy to transfer solution.
• As patients and healthcare professionals are not yet involved in the development of solutions, the training lab provides a kind of common playground where all participants can learn from each other and jointly develop new solutions.

Counterparts

Dr. Hannes Schlieter hannes.schlieter@tu-dresden.de

Peggy Richter, M.Sc. peggy.richter2@tu-dresden.de

Stefanie Kaczmarek, M.Sc. stefanie.kaczmarek@tu-dresden.de

Further Information

Project website: http://trainblue.eu/