TY - JOUR
T1 - Digital Fellowships
T2 - Inspiring use of contemporary technologies in applied healthcare
AU - Salisbury, Thomas
AU - Deng, Alexander
AU - Burch, Emily
AU - Godfrey, Alan
N1 - Funding information: We extend our gratitude to Hatim Abdulhussein (NHS England), for his expert guidance and to Louise Booth (Kent, Surrey and Sussex Deanery, NHS England) for her insightful feedback. Their expertise enriched this work. We also thank Professor Eric Topol for his review and support of the content and message of this paper. His influential work in digital medicine and artificial intelligence continues to shape the landscape in this field. TS would like to acknowledge the support of a Topol Digital Fellowship 2023-2024 (Cohort 4: https://topol.hee.nhs.uk/digital-fellowships/fellows/thomas-salisbury/).
PY - 2023/9/26
Y1 - 2023/9/26
N2 - The adoption of digital technologies in healthcare, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a well-prepared workforce capable of implementing those technologies. Here, we examine the role and impact of digital fellowships in facilitating digital transformation in healthcare systems. Digital fellowships are structured educational programmes designed to equip healthcare professionals with advanced digital skills. Focusing on UK-based initiatives like the Topol Digital Fellowship and the Fellowship in Clinical AI, we explore their efforts to prepare healthcare leaders for digital and AI adoption. Each fellowship programme provides participants with hands-on experience in digital healthcare projects and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and post-fellowship support. We discuss how these fellowships contribute to staff retention by diversifying professional experiences and opportunities. We call for increased collaborations between universities, industry, and professional bodies to integrate lessons from digital fellowships into relevant curricula, acknowledging that digital fellowships are just one piece of the puzzle in bridging the digital skills gap in the healthcare workforce.
AB - The adoption of digital technologies in healthcare, accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, requires a well-prepared workforce capable of implementing those technologies. Here, we examine the role and impact of digital fellowships in facilitating digital transformation in healthcare systems. Digital fellowships are structured educational programmes designed to equip healthcare professionals with advanced digital skills. Focusing on UK-based initiatives like the Topol Digital Fellowship and the Fellowship in Clinical AI, we explore their efforts to prepare healthcare leaders for digital and AI adoption. Each fellowship programme provides participants with hands-on experience in digital healthcare projects and fosters interdisciplinary collaboration and post-fellowship support. We discuss how these fellowships contribute to staff retention by diversifying professional experiences and opportunities. We call for increased collaborations between universities, industry, and professional bodies to integrate lessons from digital fellowships into relevant curricula, acknowledging that digital fellowships are just one piece of the puzzle in bridging the digital skills gap in the healthcare workforce.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85172212798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41746-023-00922-8
DO - 10.1038/s41746-023-00922-8
M3 - Editorial
AN - SCOPUS:85172212798
SN - 2398-6352
VL - 6
JO - npj Digital Medicine
JF - npj Digital Medicine
IS - 1
M1 - 178
ER -
