How Does Shortage of Health IT Professionals Impact on the Digital Health Transformation?

Denecke, Kerstin; Tiebel, Jakob; Meier, Jonathan (2023). How Does Shortage of Health IT Professionals Impact on the Digital Health Transformation? In: Pfeiffer, Bernhard; Schreier, Günter; Baumgartner, Martin; Hayn, Dieter (eds.) dHealth 2023. Studies in Health Technology and Informatics: Vol. 301 (pp. 6-11). Amsterdam: IOS Press 10.3233/SHTI230003

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Background: The need for software suppliers to react swiftly to the plethora of application requests and constantly shifting market requirements is one of the major problems facing the health IT business in the context of digital health transformation. This can only be achieved when the necessary staff and resources are available. Objectives: The objective of this work is to identify challenges health IT companies are confronted with related to personnel capacities and skilled workers. Methods: Using a questionnaire distributed through newsletters and social media among representatives of software companies and hospitals we collected information on current hurdles of health software providers and their strategies to overcome these in order to address the demands of the digital health transformation. Results: The main findings of the survey are that scarce resources in software development are among the reasons for not achieving strategic goals on time in the health IT sector and for not being able to react flexibly to market changes. A strategy to overcome missing expert knowledge and own resources without free capacity is to hire external resources. Conclusions: With the ever-changing landscape of digital health, it is essential to have skilled workers with knowledge on the peculiarities of clinical workflows. The existing shortage of skilled workers leads to a reduction of innovative power in the health IT sector, potentially slowing down the digital health transformation.

Item Type:	Book Section (Book Chapter)
Division/Institute:	School of Engineering and Computer Science > Institute for Patient-centered Digital Health School of Engineering and Computer Science
Name:	Denecke, Kerstin0000-0001-6691-396X; Tiebel, Jakob; Meier, Jonathan; Pfeiffer, Bernhard; Schreier, Günter; Baumgartner, Martin and Hayn, Dieter
Subjects:	Q Science > Q Science (General)
ISBN:	9781643683867
Series:	Studies in Health Technology and Informatics
Publisher:	IOS Press
Language:	English
Submitter:	Kerstin Denecke
Date Deposited:	16 May 2023 15:47
Last Modified:	25 Oct 2023 13:44
Publisher DOI:	10.3233/SHTI230003
ARBOR DOI:	10.24451/arbor.19225
URI:	https://arbor.bfh.ch/id/eprint/19225