Organizational Leaders' Views on Digital Health Competencies in Medical Education: Qualitative Semistructured Interview Study.

Abstract

Background: Digital technologies (DTs) have profoundly impacted health care delivery globally and are increasingly used in clinical practice. Despite this, there is a scarcity of guidelines for implementing training in digital health competencies (DHC) in medical schools, especially for clinical practice. A lack of sustained integration of DHC risks creating knowledge gaps due to a limited understanding of how DT should be used in health care. Furthermore, few studies have explored reasons for this lag, both within and beyond the medical school curriculum. Current frameworks to address these barriers are often specific to individual countries or schools and focus primarily on curriculum design and delivery. A comprehensive framework is therefore required to ensure consistent implementation of DHC across various contexts and times.

Objective: This study aims to use Singapore as a case study and examine the perspectives of doctors in organizational leadership positions to identify and analyze the barriers to DHC implementation in the undergraduate curriculum of Singapore's medical schools. It also seeks to apply the Normalization Process Theory (NPT) to address these barriers and bridge the gap between health care systems and digital health education (DHE) training.

Methods: Individual semistructured interviews were conducted with doctors in executive and organizational leadership roles. Participants were recruited through purposive sampling, and the data were interpreted using qualitative thematic analysis.

Results: A total of 33 doctors participated, 26 of whom are currently in organizational leadership roles and 7 of whom have previously held such positions. A total of 6 barriers were identified: bureaucratic inertia, lack of opportunities to pursue nontraditional career pathways, limited protective mechanisms for experiential learning and experimentation, lack of clear policy guidelines for clinical practice, insufficient integration between medical school education and clinical experience, and poor IT integration within the health care industry.

Conclusions: These barriers are also present in other high-income countries experiencing health care digitalization, highlighting the need for a theoretical framework that broadens the generalizability of existing recommendations. Applying the NPT underscores the importance of addressing these barriers to effectively integrate DHC into the curriculum. The active involvement of multiple stakeholders and the incorporation of continuous feedback mechanisms are essential. Our proposed framework provides concrete, evidence-based, and step-by-step recommendations for implementation practice, supporting the introduction of DHC in undergraduate medical education.