Title: ZIMAM-Establishing a GCC-wide Digital Health Economy Through Promoting Digital Health Skills Pathways

Biography:

Dr. Elhassan obtained a Ph.D. in Software Engineering from the University of Leicester and an MSc in Advanced Computing from Imperial College in the UK. Throughout his 15-year journey in the digital health domain, Dr. Elhassan gained profound experience in the fields of Health Informatics, eHealth workforce development, Health Information Governance, and Tele-Health. Apart from his governmental role at Dubai Health Authority as a Health Informatics specialist, he serves as an adjunct assistant professor at the Higher Colleges of Technology. Additionally, he is an active board member of several NGOs such as ZIMAM and the International Society of Telemedicine & eHealth (IsfTeH).

Abstract

The digital transformation and expanding healthcare ecosystem presents a unique opportunity for the GCC region to ride the waves of change and leapfrog the USA, Europe, and other nations, not only in terms of access to healthcare, quality of services, and patient safety but also by offering their next-generation sustainable career opportunities. Digital health jobs cover a wide spectrum of professional roles starting from front-facing care providers such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and other caregivers, who need “eSkills” to achieve and sustain success in their work; and newly created supporting professional roles such as clinical informaticists, health information staff, biomedical engineers and researchers. Given the shift to a skilled economy and the need to map and create sustainable careers in digital health, the GCC Taskforce on Workforce Development in Digital Health (a.ka.a ZIMAM), has been established in 2016 as a scientific initiative, to promote and sustain digital health professions across the region. The task force exploited its periodic events, awareness campaigns, research work, and surveys to promote the adoption of a “Career Pathway Skills Model”, a model emphasizing precision skills strengthening, competency-based assessment, experiential learning, life-long learning, and career progression based on continuous evaluation. This presentation provides a helicopter overview of ZIMAM's achievements and future directions.