As part of the digital transformation of its health system, Catalonia receives technical support from across Europe to improve the digital skills of its healthcare professionals

The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM), the TIC Salut Social Foundation, the Estonian Ministry of Social Affairs, with the collaboration of the company NTT DATA, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and the Tallinn University of Technology, have launched a two-year project to facilitate the implementation by health authorities of a strategy to standardise, evaluate and improve the digital skills of healthcare professionals. The project also aims to improve the accessibility and quality of services offered to citizens.

The project was initiated following the request submitted by the TIC Salut Social Foundation to the European Commission seeking funding for the COMPDIG-Salut Project, an initiative established to implement the proposals set out in Challenge 4 of the Professional Dialogue Forum. These proposals include the creation of training courses in line with the digital skills of healthcare professionals and the implementation of training itineraries for the same professionals. The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Structural Reform Support (DG REFORM) aims to assist in the preparation and implementation of administrative and structural reforms that promote growth in Europe through the deployment of EU funds and expertise.

The European Commission decided to provide technical support on a joint basis to Catalonia and Estonia given the similarity of their needs in this area and in order to create joint synergies.

The project’s activities have now officially started following a joint kick-off meeting with Estonia. In subsequent internal meetings, the main needs of Catalonia have been identified, based on the results obtained from COMPDIG-Salut. This will ensure that the highest priority tasks will be tackled first. To this same end, over the coming months, different key players will provide their expertise to the project in order to develop the training strategy for professionals and define the digital skill profiles for the healthcare professionals.

The project is funded through the Technical Support Instrument of the European Union.