“Erasmus+ “Digi-CHange””

1. Tbilisi Medical Academy named after P. Shotadze (Tbilisi, Georgia), chief representative and project coordinator – Ekaterina Kldiashvili.
2. State University “ILIA” (Tbilisi, Georgia), main representative – Salome Shedania.
3. National Center for Experimental and Clinical Surgery named after К. Eristavi National Center for Experimental and Clinical Surgery (Tbilisi, Georgia), the main representative – Medical Director of the Center Dr. Nikoloz Chaduneli.
4. I. Horbachevsky Ternopil National Medical University of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine (Ternopil, Ukraine).
5. M. Pyrohov Vinnytsia National Medical University (Vinnytsia, Ukraine), main representative – Olexander Nikolsky.
6. Riga Technical University (Riga, Latvia), the main representative – Andrejs Romanovs.
7. Dublin City University (Dublin, Ireland), the main representative – Dr. Daniela Lehwaldt.
8. Academy “INFOR ELEA” (Turin, Italy), the main representative – Carlo Colomba.

• Healthcare service suffers from a substantial burden of infections, non-communicable diseases, a shortage of human resources, inequitable healthcare distribution, and limited readiness for emergencies globally. Recognizing digital health as pivotal in addressing these challenges and achieving sustainable health systems with universal coverage, the World Health Organization (WHO) has outlined key priorities in the Global Strategy Report for Digital Health (2020–2025). It is obvious that digital health offers a range of benefits, including integrating data across services, providing electronic decision support, improving patient-physician communication, and developing devices for monitoring and behaviour change. This field has the potential to transform healthcare service, facilitate health monitoring, enhance quality of life beyond traditional healthcare settings, and align with the public’s aspirations for improved patient care. Amid the COVID-19 crisis, digital health emerged as an innovative solution, ensuring continued access to clinical care and supporting public health actions to stop the virus’s rapid spread. The global fight against infectious diseases, especially in the post-epidemic era, challenges specific to healthcare delivery in rural areas as well as in case of military operations necessitates new tasks and directions in healthcare those can be efficiently realized by application of digital technologies and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions. However, despite the enormous potential of digital health, progress towards widespread adoption remains slow, primarily due to barriers such as lack of awareness and knowledge among healthcare professionals as well as conservativeness of healthcare (medical and nursing) education. The Global Digital Health Strategy 2020–2025 by WHO underscores the importance of integrating digital health knowledge and skills into the education and training curricula of healthcare professionals. Furthermore, in the context of digital health the process refers to a collaborative activity of professionals from various disciplines working together to leverage digital technologies effectively for patient care, treatment and health management. The key persons in such team are medical doctors and nurses. Thus, healthcare team in digital health setting emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration of high skilled professionals, shared decision-making, and patient-centered care facilitated by digital platforms and communication technologies. To follow the Global Digital Health Strategy 2020-2025 by WHO and address the above-mentioned issues the project Digi-CHange aims to digitalize healthcare (medical and nursing) curricula and develop the modern concept of healthcare education through realization of the following objectives:

           Objective 1 – Curricular reform aiming development of healthcare (medical and nursing) digitalization concept and healthcare team approach

           Objective 2 – Development of Digi-CHange Labs in Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) with a focus on beneficiary institutions of Georgia and Ukraine

           Objective 3 – Development of Digi-CHange network for collaboration of Digi-CHange Labs

           Objective 4 – Identification and integration in healthcare curricula of specific artificial intelligence-based simulations

           Objective 5 – Development of digital health competencies assessment methodology and tools

           Objective 6 – Increase the awareness about digital health.

The Digi-CHange project emphasizes interdisciplinary collaboration of medical doctors and nurses to leverage digital technologies effectively for improved patient outcomes and healthcare delivery. To ensure these the lifelong learning activities for healthcare professionals are to be created. Considering shortage of nurses overall (Ukraine urgently ranks 73rd, and Georgia critically ranks 135th among 193 countries with pressing demand for nurses) and increased demand for professionally competent ones the lifelong learning activities of Digi-CHange project are targeted on nurses and aim enhancement of their digital health competencies and adaptation to the changing healthcare landscape. In Ireland, nurse staffing is relatively secure in that there are 12.7 practicing nurses per 1,000 in comparison to the OECD average of 9.2 practicing nurses per 1,000, which will be useful in terms of the digital competencies and skills available for networking and development of project results. Thus, the Digi-CHange project presents the innovative approach of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare education. This is an approach that ensures medical and nursing educators working together as well as with technology and industry field representatives to design and deliver the best possible educational model of medicine and nursing. The Digi-CHange project presents the collaborative approach that goes beyond traditional silos, promotes teamwork and communication among medical doctors, nurses, technology specialists and healthcare industry representatives. The objectives of Digi-CHange are multifaceted and reflect a comprehensive approach that is realized in collaboration with industry. The stakeholders participate in realization of all objectives of the project. Therefore, in alignment with the overarching priority of the European Commission – Digital Transformation, Digi-CHange strategically addresses the imperative of fortifying education through cutting-edge digital technologies. The project’s relevance to the scope of the target call can be presented as:

         1) Innovation in Higher Education: Digi-CHange stands as an innovative initiative designed to reshape healthcare (medical and nursing) education by embracing digital tools and methodologies as well as introducing multidisciplinary team approach. The project actively pursues introducing innovative elements in medical and nursing curricula. Furthermore, Digi-CHange project fosters digital skills development and lifelong learning within higher education.

         2) Labor Market Relevance: Digi-CHange ensures collaboration of academia and industry to enhance the relevance of higher education for the labor market needs. The project bridges the gap between academic environment and the practical requirements and demands of the healthcare sector. Digi-CHange project also ensures industry representatives inclusion in processes of higher education (the overarching priority – sustainable growth and jobs is addressed).

• Innovative Curriculum Development
• Digi-CHange Lab Development
• AI-Based Simulation Development

• • “WP 001 Digital health integration in healthcare curriculum”
    (10,314.00 €);
  • “WP 002 Establishment and networking of Digi-CHange Labs”
    (64,762.00 €);
  • “WP 003 Artificial intelligence-based simulations for healthcare curriculum” (4,813.00 €);
  • “WP 004 Digital health competencies assessment methodology and tools” (12,420.00 €);
  • “WP 005 Dissemination and communication with digital health awareness campaign” (6,884.00 €);
  • “WP 006 Project management and coordination” (6,947.00 €).

  Total amount of grant –  796 467,96.00 €

  Total amount of grant for TNMU – 106,139.46 €