3.Y.2. PechaKucha: Defining digital competencies for public health education and training

Abstract Digital Public Health stands for the integration and use of digital tools, automation, use of modelling and prediction, and personalisation and precision into public health services that build on improved access to health data and analytics. To capitalise on the opportunities that digital transformations offer to the mission of public health, the public health workforce needs education and training to develop the relevant digital competencies. With few exceptions, however, digital skills still need to become a routine part of public health training. Barriers to incorporating digital public health in public health training include uncertainty about what to teach, how to teach it, and who to teach it to. Firstly, digital competencies in public health are an evolving concept, making it challenging for education designers to make the necessary changes to public health curricula. Secondly, public health programmes already incorporate considerable subject matter, making the simple addition of content challenging. Finally, the rapid development of digital technologies requires us to find ways to develop closer collaboration with experts in information and communication technologies. Across Europe, experience in overcoming these barriers is emerging. This session will examine current developments in digital public health education and training and craft a roadmap for effectively including digital public health in public health training across Europe. The workshop will feature presentations of recent or ongoing research projects in which the speakers examine efforts to define a generic set of digital competencies for public health training in Europe. The presentations will include insights from a scoping review of international guidance on digital competencies for public health practice, two Delphi studies defining digital competencies for general public health education in Germany and in Europe, expert guidance for public health schools on integrating digital competencies into curricula, and a mapping of training experiences in a course on digital health literacy for public health professionals. An interactive discussion will follow, during which the presenters and participants will critically examine the emerging set of digital competencies for public health education and discuss potential next steps for implementation. Workshop participants will leave the workshop with an in-depth understanding of the current progress and outstanding challenges in incorporating digital competencies in public health education and training across Europe. Key messages • Digital competencies are a critical component of 21st-century public health, but uncertainty about what to teach, how to teach it, and to whom to teach it needs to be addressed. • This workshop will examine progress in defining digital competencies for public health and craft a roadmap for effectively including digital skills in public health training and education in Europe.