Allied health key to sustained digital transformation

NEWS - eHealthNews.nz editor Rebecca McBeth

Allied health professionals are critical to sustaining accelerated progress in digital health transformation, a new position statement says.

The Ministry of Health and National Allied Health, Scientific and Technical (AHST) Informatics Group have jointly released a position statement, outlining how AH professionals will play a key role in leading data and digital health and disability services of the future.

“The digital transformation that has encompassed global health systems over the last decade, and our response to managing health and disability services within the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, has accelerated our pace of digital integration,” it says. 

“The AHST community have a key role to play in sustaining the progress gained.”

The statement says AH professionals are already actively engaging with health informatics and emerging health technologies.

To “improve and sustain digital and data capability and capacity” they require transparent and collaborative leadership, digital upskilling and consumer partnership across the development of new models of care.

MoH chief allied health professions officer Martin Chadwick says: “Covid-19 has seen a lot of our workforce working differently and under immense pressure.

“AH professionals are essential to leading the change and improving New Zealand’s health care, they are uniquely placed in their interprofessional practice to plan for future services using data-driven and digital tools, information sharing and data collection.”

The statement says AHST professions need to “advocate for and proactively create capable clinical informatics leadership roles” and the workforce must participate and partner in an all-of-system design approach toward innovations.

“This includes informing digital solutions to enable interprofessional care delivery and a partnership focus that allows patients,  consumers, whānau and communities to effectively manage their own health,” it says.

Also, they need to take the lead in service redesign using outcome-based data to provide delivery models suited to both care providers and consumers.

The statement says digital and data literacy skills must be core to the ongoing professional development for all AHST professions and all undergraduate programmes should include basic skills and literacy, teaching digital and data competencies.

Chair of the National AHST Informatics Group, Rebecca George, says the allied health professions are ready to embrace data-driven changes and step into leadership roles.

“(The position statement) shows our professions are capable and motivated to collect data, use analytics, co-design services and integrate digital health into the development of their services,” she says.

The allied health workforce in New Zealand is made up of more than 50 professions who are not part of the medical, dental or nursing professions.

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