HEAL-Digital

The HEAL guide aims to empower all those who can benefit most from using e-health services.

''The HEAL guide published here is using the initial resources provided from the HEAL project as to create a sustainable guide that goes beyond them. The main goal behind this guide is to create a common space for e-health (HEAL) trainers and trainees allowing them to edit, improve and document this elearning content.''

Disclaimer :

Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. The project is implemented in Germany (Stiftung Digitale Chancen), Lithuania (Asociacija Viešieji interneto prieigos taškai), Greece (IASIS), Slovenia (Simbioza Genesis, socialno podjetje) and Switzerland (Ynternet.org foundation).

What is this guide about?

The guide brings together useful information on how to activate and support lecturers, trainers and other professionals who are interested in promoting digital health to people in their local communities.The guide brings together useful information on how to activate and support lecturers, trainers and other professionals who are interested in promoting digital health to people in their local communities.

The guide also aims to: Who is this guide for?
 * share experiences, lessons learned and stories from the HEAL project's pilot of the Digital Health Training Kit (further - the Training Kit);
 * provide recommendations on how the Training Kit can be adapted in different learning scenarios and settings.

This guide supports multipliers (the project understands multipliers as (1) people working / volunteering in the field of non-formal adult education and (2) health professionals in contact with patients) to find effective ways to use the Training Kit and contribute to improving the digital health literacy of their community members.

Introduction to the Heal project

European citizens need help finding, understanding and acting accordingly to verified information on all levels, including in the field of health and wellbeing. According to the European Commission eHealth Action Plan 2012-2020, one of the main barriers to the development of e-health is precisely the lack of awareness, confidence, and skills to find, understand and appraise online health information - and apply this knowledge to make their health decisions, as well to trust e-health solutions.

Our project will seek to bridge this gap and contribute towards the development of digital health literacy among disadvantaged adult populations in partner countries and beyond. The project will target multipliers (professionals working with the beneficiaries, e.g. people who work with adults, seniors, people with disabilities, etc) that can reach out to the second target group, beneficiaries (adults who most benefit from e-health applications and who need to be trained on the applications). This two-level approach serves as a way of ensuring that the project reaches the largest number of beneficiaries (adults from disadvantaged groups) with the help of the multipliers, which our project will train.

This project is being implemented in Germany, Lithuania, Switzerland, Slovenia and Greece.

The beneficiaries of the project are the adults who will benefit most from e-Health services and applications and who need to be trained to use them. This project has developed a training methodology that takes into account the learning needs of the beneficiaries. The five partner organizations have long experience of working with the target groups they have identified for this training and will use this knowledge to develop learner-centered training. To ensure a participatory approach to the project, the consortium will include an advisory board of digital health experts to advise on the development of the training methodology. Finally, to take into account national differences and to develop an European training, the training will be pre-evaluated and tested in international training.

Training kit

Description of the training kit:

The Training Kit is one of the key activities of the HEAL project. Its primary goal is to improve digital health literacy, providing learners with more confidence in managing their own health and making the most of online health services.

The Training CurriculumWithin the HEAL Project, the Curriculum sets the framework for planning the learning outcomes, as an important part of the curriculum. The initial aim of the Curriculum is to guide trainers, and professionals on the teaching process and inform the learners about what they are expected to know, understand and be able to do after a given learning activity. The design of the Training Curriculum is based on the EQF framework addressed to coaches/counselors and VET for coaching and support. The present document aims to inform the reader about the ECVET Framework and its application of the current project.

Modules box

Training Schedule

This schedule accompanies the five modules of the HEAL training kit. It presents a possible approach on how to schedule the modules as a course.

The modules can be found in English, German, Lithuanian, French, Slovenian and Greek here: https://heal-digital.org/resources/

The goal of the training is to educate and empower multipliers in digital health competences as well as pedagogical competences. After taking the modules, the multipliers will be able to advice, train, and support people in questions of e-health.

OTHER USEFUL DOCUMENTS AND REPORTS OF THE PROJECT

Report on the results of the desktop research and the results of the focus groups :

This report summarizes the key findings of the completed two fold analysis that include desk research and field research, both based on consortium contributions from national research and developed within the project E Health Literacy (HEAL).

The report refers to the objectives, tasks and pillars of the project and stand for a part of PR 1 The Repository which was broken down into the following activities :


 * Production of research framework and tools
 * Desk and field research in each partner country

Focus Group Report:

This report summarizes the findings of the analysis of the focus group discussions.

The focus groups were conducted in the partner countries of the project Greece, Germany, Lithuania, Slovenia, Switzerland in June and July 2022 Experts in the digital health sector and representatives of good practices were invited to join the focus group and discuss about :

The results of the focus groups will be used as basis for the development of a online repository, a toolkit and a netiquette Therefore, the partners have chosen a variety of experts from different fields health policy experts, representatives of the competent ministry, application developers, non governmental organizations active in the field of e health, health workers, health insurance representatives, developers and providers of e health services as well as users of these services The focus groups in Switzerland and Greece emphasized on potential users ( doctors, health workers) of e Health services In Germany, Lithuania and Slovenia the experts consisted more of providers, educators and researchers.
 * Latest developments in the e Health sector
 * Practical use of e Health and its adaptation to the general public
 * Education needs, fears and obstacles of users
 * New technology and the future

The results of the focus groups will be used as basis for the development of a online repository, a toolkit and a netiquette Therefore, the partners have chosen a variety of experts from different fields health policy experts, representatives of the competent ministry, application developers, non governmental organizations active in the field of e health, health workers, health insurance representatives, developers and providers of e health services as well as users of these services The focus groups in Switzerland and Greece emphasized on potential users ( doctors, health workers) of e Health services In Germany, Lithuania and Slovenia the experts consisted more of providers, educators and researchers.

The project aims to: 1) reduce gaps in digital health literacy that can lead to social exclusion; 2) raising digital skills in the field of health literacy also for more vulnerable groups of the population of the European Union; 3) raising awareness of the importance of e Health literacy, which can influence better social and health care; 4) raise awareness of the importance of security and information literacy (devices, e Health services).

Recommendations:The digital transformation of health might be another societal exclusion factor for people with no or low digital skills. To prevent people being unable to access health services, the dissemination of e-health literacy is imperative. Thus, the project developed a training scheme to qualify multipliers to become e-health guides as well as a repository containing existing resources concerning e-health. The project understands multipliers as (1) people working / volunteering in the field of non-formal adult education and (2) health professionals in contact with patients. E-health guides educate and inform people about e-health services and thus about their use of data. This knowledge gives patients the sovereignty over their data, which is important for informed and responsible citizens.

Despite the systemic variations among the piloting countries, a common need for establishing e-health guides is evident. People with no or low digital skills need support when it comes to using (or well-founded rejecting) e-health applications, e.g., electronic patient file, e-prescription, and health and lifestyle apps. The notion that this supporting task will be taken over by other family members is unrealistic because European society views education as a matter of state or the individual. In fact, the state has a duty to ensure that all citizens have access to health services. Multipliers can either support patients ad hoc – as a doctor or medical assistant when using the e-patient file - or as contact persons for people who want to educate themselves.

The modules of the training kit have proven to be repeatable and consistent, working with target groups with different vocational backgrounds. They combine pedagogical competences for health professionals with e-health topics for educators. Flexibility in choosing the content and methods eases the workload for volunteers as well as the adaptation for various contexts and target groups. Institutional support facilitates the successful adaptation of the methods, but it is key that the multipliers have the capacity in terms of time and own initiative in order to implement the successful promotion of e-health competences on the local level.

The E-HEALth Literacy project has succeeded in demonstrating the applicability, transferability and continuation of its approach. The piloting program in five countries with varying health systems and types of multipliers has yielded insights into the implementation of the project’s concept in different settings. A clear strength of the approach thereby lies in it being adaptable, low-threshold and takes different learners into account. The result of the approach is an adaptable and modular toolkit for multipliers to facilitate a highly changing topic.

Letter of Support This letter of support champions our eHealth project, lauding its potential to revolutionize healthcare through innovative technology. Emphasizing the project's commitment to improving patient care and streamlining processes, the letter urges readers to rally behind this visionary initiative. With confidence in its ability to address current healthcare challenges, the letter positions the project as a crucial step towards a more accessible, efficient, and patient-focused healthcare system.