Special Discussion - Thinking Session: eHealth Workforce Standards - Competencies

Friday, April 27, 2012 1:45 PM – 2:45 PM

Panel Presentations followed by Discussion

Moderator:
Dominic Covvey, President, National Institutes of Health Informatics

Panelists:
Sandra Irobi, ICT Industry Analyst, Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC)
Yuri Kagolovsky, Professor, Conestoga College
Brendan Seaton, President, ITAC Health

The Panel on "eHealth Workforce Standards - Competencies" will address the definition of competencies for various eHealth professionals. Work by the Information and Communications Technology Council (ICTC) and others has identified a significant demand for eHealth professionals and has begun a process for elucidating the competencies for these professionals. Previous work globally and in Canada has documented informatics-related competencies for nurses, physicians and other professions, but many perceive a need to refine our understanding of the eHealth professions and to bring greater clarity to specific roles and required competencies of eHealth practioners. This panel will reference its efforts to the needs of employers, employees, and educators. It will briefly review what has been accomplished elsewhere and in Canada on the definition of competencies (both ‘hard’ and ‘soft’), indicate where additional and deeper work needs to be done related to current and future eHealth workforces, define the objectives and scope of needed competency definition efforts, and discuss appropriate frameworks for proceeding. A brief will be prepared and published based on our findings, and proposed follow-up work will be discussed.