Digital Medicine

A Framework For A Digitally Capable and Enabled
Medical Profession

In late 2019 the Australian Medical Council (AMC) and the Australian Digital Health Agency (the Agency) formed a partnership to engage in a project aimed at understanding how technologyimpacts the standards of medical education, training and practice in Australia. This project aligned with the AMC’s roles as a national standards body for medical education and training, and as the accreditation authority for the medical profession under the Health Practitioner Regulation National Law. The Agency is the corporate Commonwealth entity tasked with improving health outcomes for Australians through the delivery of digital healthcare systems and the national digital health strategy for Australia.

The Medical Workforce Digital Capabilities Advisory Group was established as part of this strategic project to provide opportunity for expert advice and feedback to the project and its components from peak bodies in medicine and stakeholders of digital health and to deliver:

  • A horizon series strategic paper.
  • An online forum.
  • A digital capability framework for medicine.

Digital Health in Medicine Case Studies

To help medical education providers and doctors to implement quality digital health medical education programs across the continuum, the following case studies of existing good practice have been complied.

  • Case Study: Associate Professor Clair Sullivan from the University of Queensland and Queensland Health.
  • Case Study:Associate Professor Melissa Baysari from the University of Sydney
  • Case Study:University of New South Wales regarding online OSCE stations developed by Clinical Learning and Assessment Committee members, led by Associate Professor Silas Taylor.
  • Case Study:Dr Albert Ip of Deakin University.
  • Case Study:Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.
  • Case Study:Dr Sisira Edirippulige of the University of Queensland.
  • Case Study: Jane Connolly, Program Coordinator Digital Health at the Australian College of Rural and Remote Medicine.

    • Horizon Paper

    Health Workforce Reform Leveraged through Medical Education and Accreditation: A review of the current and future directions of the AMC and its partners using the example of the health reform priority – building a digitally capable medical workforce.

    This discussion paper explores areas of future collaboration and strategic focus of the Australian Medical Council (AMC) and its partners in shifting medical education and AMC accreditation to focus more firmly on achieving health workforce reform. As a starting point, this paper provides, as an illustrative example, one key area of workforce health reform -the need to build a digitally capable medical workforce. It is demonstrated that such change is best achieved through collaboration, alignment of goals and approaches adopted (from nationally and internationally evidence-based health reform policy) to help shape the Australian medical education system.

    Download the Horizon Paper – Published July 2021

    Online Forum

    Building a digitally capable medical workforce

    The online forum provided opportunities for participants to learn how to ensure that their medical education programs integrate digital capabilities into competency frameworks, teaching and learning support, assessment programs and evaluation. The forum occurred from March to May 2021 in a series of four workshops. Recordings of each opening session are available.

  • Workshop 1: Current State in Digital Health in Medical Education across the Continuum.
  • Workshop 2: An Eye to the Future – Why Digital Health Matters.
  • Workshop 3: A Framework to Take us Forward.
  • Workshop 4: Next Steps – Where to from here?

    • A Digital Capability Framework for Medicine

    Capability Framework in Digital Health in Medicine

    A capability framework has been developed to guide how medical education providers throughout the continuum of medical education can play a further role in the development of a digitally capable medical workforce in Australia and New Zealand. This document is designed for medical schools, prevocational training providers across all Australian jurisdictions as well as College vocational training programs and Continuing Professional Development Programs – CPD, International Medical Graduate (IMG) Assessment and Support and other providers of digital health education i.e. professional bodies and institutes. It calls for intergenerational and cross sectorial and cross curriculum learning and assessment of digital health in medicine.

    Download the Digital Health in Medicine Capability Framework – Published August 2021

    Consultation Report for the Capability Framework on Digital Health in Medicine

    This document contains information about consultation undertaken in relation to the creation of the Capability Framework in Digital Health in Medicine.

    Download the Consultation Report- Digital Health

    Australian Digital Health Agency Resources and Tools

    The Agency has developed a range of online education resources, which align with the framework and provide useful materials to support medical education providers further consolidate the digital health capabilities of their organisations.