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Ensuring sustainable e-health transformation in primary health care through competent full-time workers (EHCOM)

Ensuring sustainable e-health transformation in primary health care through competent full-time workers (EHCOM)

Project period: 01.12.2021- 30.11.2025

Funding: The Research Council of Norway- KSPSAMARBEID21

Project number: 326988

Project owner: SINTEF–Digital

Project Manager (PI): Kirsti Sarheim Anthun

EHCOM responds to the call for proposal related to e-health by addressing the primary health care sector's readiness for digital transformation in terms of competence and organization of the workforce. Digitization corresponds to the process of changing from analogue to digital form and digitization is the generic term for the digital transformation of society. Health care staff's competency in handling digital systems and adopting digitization in practice play a key role in achieving efficient and high-quality services. Studies do however indicate that the health care sector has been less successful in exploiting the potential of digital technology, and that especially part-time workers in municipal health care miss out on learning opportunities and competency development due to high work pressure and lack of time. Thinking through the implications of technology for skills demand, work process alterations and how to enable up-skilling is required. A health care sector taking full advantage of the competency of all its workers during radical digital transformations will advance the quality and the operational efficiency of its services. EHCOM consists of a multidisciplinary team with researchers from SINTEF, NTNU, and municipal leaders 

The project combines perspectives and approaches from the disciplines of social science, health services research and human-technology interaction. The proposed study is based on a longstanding collaborative relationship between the research team and the municipalities, and the project will involve close collaboration, common activities, and mutual learning between project partners and relevant stakeholders. 


The overall aim of EHCOM is to investigate four Norwegian municipalities' strategies to recruit full-time employees and improve staff's digital competency, to extract lessons that ensure sustainable e-health transformation and high-quality patient care. 

Secondary objectives 

  • to contribute with knowledge on how the primary health care sector is coping with and adapting to the digital transformation and the new work routines accompanying this transformation
  • given their work-situation and abilities and possibilities to engage in workplace training
  • to assess municipalities' strategies and policies to increase the portion of full-time workers 
  • to investigate potential outcomes of the full-time measures in municipal data and patient's satisfaction with quality of services
  • to assess workplace training schemes in municipal health care and investigate how these are experienced by health care staff and managers, and to offer lessons learned based on this

 

Core research group 

 

Collaborating Partners

  • Malvik Municipality
  • Hitra Municipality
  • Levanger Municipality
  • Verdal Municipality 

 

Publications

Pilot project: 

Main project:

  • Anthun, Kirsti Sarheim, Anthun, Kjartan Sarheim, Håland, Erna, and Lillefjell, Monica. The use of HR analytics in Human Resource Management in Norwegian municipal health care services.  BMC health services research (submitted)