The growing emerging technology in health systems, what is termed the 4th revolution on health care systems, Health4.0, is creating an increase in the digital working environment in this sector.
Health 4.0 will cause a disruptive change in the provision of health services and also on how health workers will work with each other and how they will interact with patients, at home, health centres and hospitals.
In response to this phenomenon, health care employees need to be assisted to proactively catch up with these emerging technologies if they are to feel confident, comfortable and skilled in working in a Health4.0 environment.
The Erasmus+ project digi4HEALTH appears in this context, and the main aim is that the healthcare professionals be supported in their daily work and tasks, all aimed towards enhancing inter-professional cooperation and ultimately patients’ care and safety. digi4HEALTH develops a novel digital toolkit by which European VET system (Vocational Education and Training) can support health care professionals and stakeholders to engage with emerging technologies of the 4th Industrial Revolution: AI, internet of things (IoT), big data, blockchain, robots, drones, 3D Printing, Reverse Engineering, 3D Virtual and Augmented Reality, among others.
Kveloce participates in this ambitious project, joining together 6 intersectoral partners from Greece, Lithuania, Malta, Romania and Spain, including VET Institutions, IT companies, an international network of VET and health workforce educators, a health innovation enterprise as well as a technology park with access to expertise in digital and medical technologies.
On the 31st of October, 2019, all partners met in Malta, holding the kick-off meeting. In this first meeting, we agreed on the means for defining the necessities of VET graduates and, specifically, in-service healthcare professionals in digital competencies.
During February, we conducted two focus groups in Valencia City and Ontinyent: VET trainers and trainees attended to the workshop, including also formal caregivers, held at the Highschool Pou Clar.- Also, two professionals in the area of dentistry and optometry participated in a personal interview. The results obtained in this activity offered us the first clarities of how to move forward with the objectives of digi4Health: a project with a huge social impact, by reinforcing the urgently required competencies for growing the human capital in the XXI Century.