EDUCATION AND TRAINING IN DIGITAL HEALTH

To acknowledge that digital health is a growing modality that supports the pharmacy workforce in providing patient care; further,

To support training and education for the pharmacy workforce in innovative models that support digital health services; further,

To advocate for involvement of the pharmacy workforce in research on digital health services and outcomes.

Rationale

Continuous development of digital health technology is rapidly redefining the provision of healthcare. Digital health is a broad, multi-faceted term used to describe a wide category of practices, products, and processes. The U.S Food and Drug Administration has stated that “the broad scope of digital health includes categories such as mobile health (mHealth), health information technology (IT), wearable devices, telehealth and telemedicine, and personalized medicine.”

To ensure that pharmacists are involved in the care of patients using digital health technologies, training and education must be developed that supports the pharmacy workforce. The interoperability and integration of digital health technologies into electronic health records is crucial. Research supporting digital health technologies for improved patient outcomes, while maintaining security and improving interoperability with electronic health records, is needed to foster continued development of these technologies and applications.