Improving digital competences for health and care providers in Romania

The Commission is supporting Romania to enhance the digital health literacy of the health workforce. To bolster the access and quality of services for patients, the Ministry of Health (MoH) aims to transform the healthcare system through the implementation of a strategy enabling the standardization, assessment, and improvement of the digital competencies of the health workforce with the help of stakeholders.

Context

The National Health Insurance House and the MoH, which are the main health system actors in Romania, have identified the need for encouraging and upgrading ICT skills among health professionals where there exist different degrees of knowledge, concerns, resistances, preferences, and expectations concerning the use of digital solutions. The dearth of expertise among the healthcare workforce in digital competencies was already evident before the COVID-19 pandemic but the latter emphasized the urgent need for digital reskilling and upskilling of health professionals for their adaptation to a new paradigm of delivering healthcare where digital technologies assume a more predominant role.

Support delivered

The Romanian authorities together with NTT DATA and the participation of Mercury Research and MrDelivery are developing an exhaustive analysis of the current situation regarding the Romanian health context, the applications of digital tools and services, and the digital competences required by health professionals. This information will serve to proceed with the establishment of a strategy basis. This strategy will involve the preparation of a tailored digital competence (DC) framework for health professionals, training itineraries and training content that enable the improvement of Romanian health professionals’ digital skills after conducting a pilot in Ilfov County with EU support and funding.

Expected results

This project aims to support health authorities in implementing a strategy to standardise, assess, and strengthen the digital skills of health professionals in Romania. The expected results of the project are to strengthen the digital competencies of the Romanian healthcare workforce, and ultimately to improve the access and quality of healthcare services offered to citizens.