Digital health capacity building across health workforce and education sector in the WHO European region

Abstract

Disparities in digital capacity building across countries highlight the need for global upskilling. This study examined digital health capacity building across policy, workforce, and pre-service education domains across 53 countries of the WHO Europe Region. This was a cross-sectional ecological study using publicly available datasets. Descriptive and logistic regression analyses were performed. By 2022, 52.9% of countries had a digital health education strategy, 69.1% offered in-service training, and 59.6% provided certified student training. Countries demonstrating all three indicators tended to have higher literacy rates and strong R&D spending. A national digital health education strategy was associated with higher private or commercial funding for digital health, while more hospital beds per 1000 population were associated with lower odds of in-service digital health training. However, no factors were associated with health science students’ certified training, while public–private partnerships showed a non-significant positive association. Digital health capacity building across these indicators was uneven. Private-sector engagement and public–private funding and collaboration emerge as plausible correlates of policy on digital health capacity building. These findings suggest that policymakers should prioritize sustainable investment and cross-sector collaboration to strengthen digital health capacity building while further longitudinal and within-country studies are needed to confirm these associations.