The Digital Health Curriculum
Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA
President and CEO, Society of Physician Entrepreneurs, another lousy golfer, terrible cook, friction fixer
There are big gaps i n how medical schools prepare students to use EHRs. But it goes even further in that few schools have required digital health courses, define, and measure digital health competencies or expose students to digital health entrepreneurship. Gradually, though,?things are changing as digital health goes mainstream.
Medical schools must teach core biomedical informatics competencies that address health information technology (HIT), including explaining electronic medical record systems and computerized provider order entry systems and their role in patient safety; describing the research uses and limitations of a clinical data warehouse; understanding the concepts and importance of information system interoperability; explaining the difference between biomedical informatics and HIT; and explaining the ways clinical information systems can fail. Barriers to including these topics in the curricula include lack of teachers; the perception that informatics competencies are not applicable during preclinical courses and there is no place in the clerkships to teach them; and the legal and policy issues that conflict with students' need to develop skills. However, curricular reform efforts are creating opportunities to teach these topics with new emphasis on patient safety, team-based medical practice, and evidence-based care. Overarching HIT competencies empower our students to be lifelong technology learners.
Like other medical school subjects, there are basic science and clinical components, and the apprenticeship model is used to develop competent graduates. The same should apply to digital health and learning objectives, curriculum design and assessment should be in three basic and applied areas:
1. Embryology, Anatomy and Physiology of Digital Health. In other words, how are digital health systems, products and services evolving, how are they built and how do they work?
2. Clinical Digital Health. How are digital health products and services used, where are?the gaps and opportunities and when are they effective? Like all drugs and technologies, what are the side effects or complications using them and when are they indicated?
3. Digital Health Innovation and Entrepreneurship. How are digital health products and services designed, developed, tested, validated, deployed, and transferred to patients and other end users?
The course should?be mandatory for every medical student. We should also separate education from training.?Here is what I learned teaching entrepreneurship to 1st year medical students and MBA/HA students.
Several factors are driving the growth of digital health.
Pitchbook’s Q2 2020 research report on Retail Health and Wellness Tech ?identifies growth factors, which should apply to digital health in general:
As educators, the goal is to prepare students for meaningful and successful careers and meet the needs of stakeholders. To achieve that goal, students must have a strong foundational knowledge in a range of business subjects. Here why and why now we need to reform medical education that includes digital health.
In this analysis the authors draw on literature as well as first-hand experience of practising GPs in the English National Health Service.. In June 2019 they conducted two workshops on digital health with approximately 30 GP teachers who supervise medical students’ placements, which informed our understanding of four key areas of digital health risks and challenges in general practice. Based on risks and challenges identified, we present recommendations for training to support the implementation of digital primary care.
Harvard Business School is sharing the classroom materials they use in their required curriculum to establish a common understanding of fundamental business practices among all MBA students.
Here is the Table of Contents of the Textbook of Digital Health written by an interdisciplinary faculty and taught online:
Table of Contents
Section 1: Technologies
Social media
Telemedicine
Data analytics, artificial intelligence, data literacy and business intelligence
Personalized and precision medicine
Wearables
Mobile Health Platforms
Electronic medical records
Health information exchange and interoperability
Five categories of digital health have been defined by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA ):
“The broad scope of digital health includes categories such as mobile health (mHealth), health information technology (IT), wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine, and personalized medicine.”
A sixth category i.e. digital therapeutics was added by the?Digital Therapeutics Alliance (DTA) . These categories apply to care delivery. In addition, digital health technologies are now part and parcel of drug discovery and development, including decentralized clinical trials, and medical technology development using software as a medical device and patient engagement.
Section 2: Applications
Diagnosis
Treatment
Prevention and wellness
Prognosis
Rehabilitation
Behavioral Health
Disease management
Public health and social entrepreneurship
Section 3: Innovation and Entrepreneurship
Fundamentals of digital health entrepreneurship
Intellectual Property protection
Reimbursement
Business models
Financing digital health startup ventures
Leading high performance digital health teams
Product and customer development
Lean startup methodologies
Clinical validation and translational research
Data Security and confidentiality
Digital health transformation strategies and tactics
Overcoming the barriers to digital health dissemination and implementation
Healthcare data analytics and artificial intelligence
Digital health non-clinical careers
Digital health intrapreneurship
Digital health ecosystems
Digital health technologies as part of drug discovery, development and launch
Digital health technologies as part of medical device development and launch
Section 4: Organizational leaderpreneurship
Team dynamics
Leaderpreneurship
Outcomes and metrics
Conflict resolution
Here are some suggested modules for the curriculum:
1. Introduction: What is digital health?
LO: Understand and apply the definition of digital health and its different segments
Resource: https://youtu.be/q3c0Y37tWZM
Understanding Digital Health
领英推荐
2. The case for digital health: the problems
LO: Identify the problems digital health is supposed to solve
Resource: What is the Triple Aim?
???????https://youtu.be/6nS2cSYlcUA
What is the quintuple aim?
Be a problem seeker, not a problem solver
?
3. ?Digital health technologies
LO: Describe present and future digital health technologies
Resource: E/Y articles on digital health technologies and use cases
?
4. Digital health use cases, assessment and impact
LO: Assess the digital health technologies, the digital health literature and how to pick a digital health vendor
Resource: Top digital health companies and categories
?5. Data analytics/AI/ML
LO: Understand how to use analytics and improve your data literacy
Resource: How healthcare leaders can get started with AI
AI in healthcare
What do sickcare professionals need to know about AI?
Barriers to AI dissemination and implantation of AI in medicine
6. Digital health regulatory affairs
LO: Describe the various digital health product regulatory pathways in the US
Resource: FDA Digital Health Center of Excellence
7. Digital health intellectual property issues
LO: Describe the 4 basic types of IP and how they apply to digital health
Resource: Digital Health IP Strategies
https://youtu.be/ekos7jFLrMQ : Part 1
https://youtu.be/q_nIxLtCwQs : Part 2
8. Digital health law and ethics
LO: Know how to overcome digital health legal and ethical issues from the vendor, HCP and patient perspectives
Resource: Digital health law and ethics
9. Digital health entrepreneurship
LO: Describe the digital health innovation pathway
Resource: Digital Health Entrepreneurship
10.?????????????????Digital health policy issues
LO: Identify the digital health policy barriers and how to overcome them
Resource: AI policy challenges and recommendations
11.?????????????????Digital health transformation
LO: Describe the barriers to digital health transformation how to overcome them
Resource: HIMSS Roadmap
Deloitte Insights
12.?????????????????Digital health reimbursement, business and revenue models
LO: Understand digital health reimbursement and payment models
Resource: The changing landscape
ews.com/2020/10/digital-health-reimbursement-the-transforming-landscape/
Digital Therapeutics Alliance
13.?????????????????Non-clinical careers
LO: Create a career strategy
Resource: Guide to Non-clinical careers
14.?????????????????Business models
LO: Describe various digital health business models and the pros and cons of each
Resource: The elusive medical business model
How to create a business model canvas
15.?????????????????Summary and next steps
?Bioscientists struggling to find non-basic research jobs or health professionals looking for non-clinical jobs will also need the technology and other "soft skills" that are in demand.??Companies world-wide face a growing gap in technology skills ?that has pushed wages higher, especially in certain in-demand categories. The most in-demand skills are: (1) Big data/analytics, (2) Project management, (3) Business analysis, (4) Software development, (5) Enterprise Architecture, (6) Technical architecture, (7) Technical architecture, and (8) Security. The vacancy time of working days to fill an open position in these areas is also growing, from 18.8 days in 2010-2012 to 25.8 days today.
Graduate medical education and other teaching programs within academic teaching hospitals across the U.S. have not yet come to grips with educating students and trainees on the emerging technology of artificial intelligence driven by machine learning, new?research ?shows.
Digital health and health information technology?tools are as much a part of medicine today as the stethoscope has been. Failing to teach digital health to medical students and provide them with the necessary competencies is like sending them to the front with blanks in their guns. It's educational malpractice.
Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA is the President and CEO of the?Society of Physician Entrepreneurs ?on Twitter@SoPEOfficial and Co-editor of?Digital Health Entrepreneurship
Updated 12/2022
Homeopathic Doctor | Full-stack Web Developer
1 年This is extremely informative!..Thankyou?
Founder & CEO at ORET Healthcare Enterprise
2 年Thank you very much, Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA, for this wonderful resource about #digitalhealth.
Fractional Co-Founder | Healthcare Entrepreneur | Startup Catalyst | Impact Investor | Advisor | Mentor | Growth Strategist focused on improving health & wellbeing.
2 年Amazing & thank you Arlen Meyers, MD, MBA
Director - Hospital Physician Programs - Colorado/Kansas/Utah
2 年This is a treasure trove of resources that need not be limited to a classroom environment. As a scholar-practitioner, these resources cam be used in a learning organization with the right leader (clinical or non-clinical) to support the activity.