COVID-19 and digital competencies among young physicians: are we (really) ready for the new era? A national survey of the Italian Young Doctors Association
Authors
Calogero Casà, Claudia Marotta, Marcello Di Pumpo, Armando Cozzolino, Andrea D'Aviero, Emanuela Maria Frisicale, Andrea Silenzi, Francesco Gabbrielli, Luigi Bertinato, Silvio Brusaferro
Abstract
Background. Digital health (DH) is nowadays fundamental for physicians. Despite the improvement of Information and communications technology (ICT) Italian medical doctors’ (MDs) education system seems not adequate in this area. Moreover, given the Covid-19 outbreak, societies are waking up to their limitations in this regard. Aim of this paper is to analyze the Italian status quo in DH.
Methods.The Italian Young Medical Doctors Association (SIGM) proposed a web based survey to assess the status quo of awareness and training in terms DH among young doctors. The investigated areas were: Big Data, -omics technology and predictive models, Artificial Intelligence (AI), Internet of Things, Telemedicine, social media, blockchain and clinical-data storage.
Results.
A total of 362 participants answered to the survey. Only 13% had any experience in big data during clinical or research activities, 13% for -omics technology and predictive models, 13% for AI, 6% had experience in Internet of Things, 22% experienced at least one telemedicine tool and 23% of the participants declared that during their clinical activities data collection is paper-driven.
Conlclusions.For any investigated area, three categories of MDs were described: the high-tech, the low-tech and the no-tech one. An urgent integration of pre- and post- graduation training in DH is required to provide a homogeneous and adequate medical education.
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