Currently, to meet the growing demand for quality healthcare resources, different e-health solutions have been developed. Although health personnel already uses some of them, as tools that guarantee more transparent communication channels and improve health management, in many cases the potential of these applications is not being used. This is mainly due to the lack of digital skills necessary for them to work in all sectors and in a multidisciplinary environment.

“The digitisation of the health sector is an indisputable challenge facing today’s society and it is a priority to work to overcome it, and thus be able to respond to the rapid changes being experienced by the health care model, especially those related to new ICTs”, emphasises Jordi Garcés, director of the Polibienestar Institute of the University of Valencia.

The Polibienestar Institute of the UV, the SABIEN-ITACA group of the UPV and the Sanitary Research Institute La Fe will work actively in the recruitment of the test sites, in the creation of innovation learning units, and will also have an important role in the training actions of health personnel.

The training will be carried out as a capacity-building methodology in the workplace, in which the simulation will be used in a safe environment. In each country, at least one hundred professionals from the health sector will participate in the Innovation Learning Unit and will receive training in the testing phase to examine usability. Each participant will receive a certificate with an evaluation and recognition of the skills and competences that they have obtained.

As Vicente Traver, of the Polytechnic University of Valencia, says, this will allow not only to improve the digital skills of professionals but to promote innovation within health structures and to generate new synergies within the Valencian health ecosystem to give better and more effective response to new health challenges.

DISH will respond to this challenge through the creation of Triple Helix partnerships formed by professionals from the health sector, educational institutions and representatives of the business world in each of the 6 countries involved in the project. To these national ecosystems, two European organisations (European Connected Health Alliance, ECHAlliance, and European Health Management Association, EHMA) are added to favour a wide diffusion and participation of the different sectors at European level.

DISH is funded by the Erasmus+ program of the European Commission, has a duration of three years and is endowed with €996,790.00. The overall objective of the project is to help implement the Europe 2020 Strategy, as well as the main objectives of the European Partnership for Innovation on Active and Healthy Aging (EIP on AHA).

In total, DISH involves 19 health service providers, academic institutions, as well as public and non-profit entities from eight European countries.