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3.G. Round table: How to prepare the public health
workforce for a digital health future?
Organised by: EUPHA-DH
Chair persons: Duarte Vital Brito (Portugal)
Contact: duartevitalbrito@outlook.com
Digital health is a crucial field for healthcare sustainability and
adequate response to emerging health challenges. It has
potential to increase efficiency in public health areas, such as
surveillance, communication, data analysis and visualization,
planning and collaboration. While the COVID-19 pandemic
has accelerated the digitalisation of healthcare, a structured
and planned approach is needed to ensure its sustainable and
equitable integration in healthcare. Capacity building in digital
literacy plays a key role to ensure an adequate implementation
of digital public health. Moreover, the application of digital
health solutions in public health services requires a proper
training for students, young professionals, and public health
experts. To fulfil this, education on digital health should be
fully integrated in medical and public health curricula. Our
workshop aims to discuss the potential of digital health
technologies for public health services and identify proposals
for a renewed digital public health curriculum. In this
workshop, we will present a summary of potential uses of
digital health in public health, focusing advances developed
during COVID-19 pandemic. This introduction will provide a
background for participants to be aware of digital health
solutions, from basic digital services to innovations, that are
applicable in public health practice. Panellists will share both
local and national experiences. Although there are some
examples of digital health updated curricula, a more
comprehensive and structured approach to public health
training is needed. Digital public health education should
include specific topics, such as capacity building, opportunities
for youth, and an ethics-driven approach. However, it should
be tailored for public health students and professionals needs,
which are certainly different. A short presentation will provide
a guiding framework for participants to discuss the topic.
Following, during small group discussions, workshop partici-
pants will share perspectives and suggestions for an updated
digital public health curricula, including different approaches
for both undergraduate students, public health residents and
public health experts. In this round table discussion, one
panelist will present a summary of potential uses of digital
health in public health (10 minutes). The following presenta-
tion will cover main concerns that digital public health
education should consider, particularly for young professionals
(10 minutes). Following, participants will be asked to discuss
in 3 to 6 small groups which topics should be included in
curricula and training opportunities in medical schools, public
health schools and public health services (20 minutes). Finally,
each group will briefly present their conclusions (15 minutes),
which will be highlighted in a wrap-up conclusion (5 minutes).
We intend to keep in touch with all participants, in order to
develop a concrete proposal for digital health education
curricula.
Key messages:
Digital health has potential to increase efficiency in multiple
public health areas and digital health education is a key step
to ensure its implementation in public health schools and
services.
COVID-19 accelerated the digitalization in public health,
but a planned approach is needed to guarantee adequate
training for students and professionals.
The critical role of Digital Health in Public Health
Stefan Buttigieg
S Buttigieg
1,2,3
, D Vital Brito
1,4
, B Wong
1,5
1
EUPHA-DH
2
Ministry for Health, Valletta, Malta
3
Digital Health Malta, Gh
argh
ur, Malta
4
Central Lisbon Public Health Unit, Regional Health Administration of Lisbon
and Tagus Valley, Lisbon, Portugal
5
Secretariat, The Lancet & Financial Times ‘‘Governing Health Futures 2030:
Growing up in a digital world’’ Commission, Geneva, Switzerland
Contact: info@stefanbuttigieg.com
Digitalization in itself is not simply a means to an end but
involves an operational change in workflows that is on the
critical-path to the digital transformation of public health. The
COVID-19 pandemic has been a unique opportunity to put a
shining light on all the different technologies that were
available and also consider a large number of new and
innovative technologies that were developed in a breath-taking
place over a period of one year. These different initiatives also
brought relevant advances in public health needs such as
epidemiological surveillance, rapid case identification, inter-
ruption of community transmission and communication with
different audiences. Moreover, social media channels, blogs
and websites confirmed to be a fertile ground to find data for
research, but also to spread misinformation - and public health
professionals should be ready to counter that threat effectively.
This presentation aims to provide a comprehensive back-
ground on digital tools and strategies that can be used in
national and local public health services and how stakeholder
alignment across different sectors could propel forward the
implementation of digital solutions.
Preparing the public health workforce for digital
health futures: the case for digital Health training &
capacity building
Brian Li Han Wong
B Wong
1,5
, S Buttigieg
1,2,3
, D Vital Brito
1,4
1
EUPHA-DH
2
Ministry for Health, Valletta, Malta
3
Digital Health Malta, Gh
argh
ur, Malta
4
Central Lisbon Public Health Unit, Regional Health Administration of Lisbon
and Tagus Valley, Lisbon, Portugal
5
Secretariat, The Lancet & Financial Times ‘‘Governing Health Futures 2030:
Growing up in a digital world’’ Commission, Geneva, Switzerland
Contact: b.wong@ucl.ac.uk
Digital technologies are rapidly being integrated into a wide
range of health fields, public health in particular. While ‘digital
health’ has the potential to significantly improve population
health and well-being outcomes, its effective implementation
and responsible use are contingent on building a public health
workforce with a sufficient level of knowledge and skills to
effectively navigate the digital transformations in health. In
particular, the next generation of public health professionals-
namely youth-must be adequately prepared to maximise the
potential of these digital transformations. This presentation
will highlight three key priority areas which should be
prioritised in digital health education in public health to
fully harness the potential benefits of digital health: capacity
building, opportunities for youth, and an ethics-driven
approach. It will also present applications of digital health
(technologies) and best practices for public health education.
Developing a proposal for an updated digital public
health curriculum
Duarte Vital Brito
D Vital Brito
1,4
, B Wong
1,2,3
, S Buttigieg
1,5
1
EUPHA-DH
2
Ministry for Health, Valletta, Malta
3
Digital Health Malta, Gh
argh
ur, Malta
4
Central Lisbon Public Health Unit, Regional Health Administration of Lisbon
and Tagus Valley, Lisbon, Portugal
iii74 European Journal of Public Health, Volume 31 Supplement 3, 2021
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