An innovative, two-year pilot project to enhance the digital skills of cancer care professionals in Europe has just begun.
This initial effort focuses on a total of 9,000 caregivers at 13 institutions (see below) – from general practitioners to specialists, including medical oncologists, radiation oncologists, surgical oncologists, and many more. Senior support staff such as health managers will also be included in the training.
The project will begin by surveying what professionals currently know about digital health and what they need to know to improve practice and deliver better patient care. It will then develop a series of targeted teaching modules for both online and classroom learning.
Areas of focus could include current and future uses of telemedicine, mobile health apps, and auto-messaging to patients. The project will also help identify potential new, unexplored digital resources that could be introduced to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of practice.
Final phase of this 2.3-million-euro EU TRANSiTION Project will be to evaluate the project’s impact and how it might be expanded in Europe with the support of private partners.
“The digital transformation of healthcare can significantly improve the care we give our patients, but as professionals we must keep abreast of this rapidly evolving field,” said the project coordinator Andreas Charalambous, president of the European Cancer Organisation and Associate Professor Oncology and Palliative Care at Cyprus University of Technology.
Each year in Europe, there are nearly 4.7 million new cancer cases and 2.1 million deaths. Fighting this disease has become a priority for the European Union through its Beating Cancer Plan, and Digital Health Transformation is a critical aspect of this commitment.
For more information or to arrange interviews, please contact:
Marjola Memaj
Communication Officer – European Cancer Organisation
Transition Partners
- EUROPEAN CANCER PATIENT COALITION (ECPC), Belgium;
- EUROPEAN ONCOLOGY NURSING SOCIETY (EONS), Belgium;
- SERVIZO GALEGO DE SAUDE (SERGAS), Spain;
- EUROPEAN CANCER ORGANISATION (E.C.O.), Belgium;
- SVEUCILISTE JOSIPA JURJA STROSSMAYERA U OSIJEKU MEDICINSKI FAKULTET OS IJEK (MEFOS), Croatia;
- KLINICKI BOLNICKI CENTAR SPLIT (KBC SPLIT), Croatia;
- PADAGOGISCHE HOCHSCHULE HEIDELBERG (PHHD), Germany;
- ASSOCIACAO DE INVESTIGACAO DE CUIDADOS DE SUPORTE EM ONCOLOGIA (AICSO), Portugal;
- MITROPOLITIKO COLLEGE ANONYMI EKPAIDEYTIKI ETAIRIA (MITROPOLITIKO, Greece;
- LINAC-PET SCAN OPCO LIMITED (GOC), Cyprus;
- NACIONALINIS VEZIO INSTITUTAS (NCI), Lithuania;
- PCG POLSKA SP (ZOO) (PCG Polska), Poland;
- UNIVERSITAETSKLINIKUM FREIBURG (UKLFR), Germany;
- VSI SMART HEALTH DIH (Health DIH), Lithuania;
- INSTITUTUL ONCOLOGIC PROF DR ION CHIRICUTA CLUJ-NAPOCA (IOCN), Romania;
- ISTITUTO EUROPEO DI ONCOLOGIA SRL (IEO), Italy;
- EUROPEAN HEALTH MANAGEMENT ASSOCIATION (EHMA), Belgium;
- UNIVERSITE DE BRETAGNE OCCIDENTALE (UBO), France;
- UNIVERSITATEA DE MEDICINA SI FARMACIE CAROL DAVILA DIN BUCURESTI (UMFCD Bucharest), Romania;
- WELLICS EFARMOGES EREVNAS KAI PLIROFORIKIS MONOPROSOPI I.K.E. (WELLICS), Greece,
- FUNDACIO PER A LA UNIVERSITAT OBERTA DE CATALUNYA (FUOC), Spain
- BULGARIAN GENERAL PRACTICE SOCIETY FOR RESEARCH AND EDUCATION (BGPSRE), Bulgaria
- UNIVERZA V MARIBORU (UM), Slovenia
- INSTITUT CATALA D’ONCOLOGIA (ICO), Spain
