Digital Literacy Training for Digitalization Officers (“Digi-Managers”) in Outpatient Medical and Psychotherapeutic Care: Conceptualization and Longitudinal Evaluation of a Certificate Course

Background Digital tools, services, and information in patient care demand new competencies in outpatient care, and the workforce is faced with the need to deal with digitalization. Objective In a targeted certificate course (Certification of Digitalization Officers in Medical Practices and Psychotherapeutic Practices, Digi-Manager), medical assistants are trained to serve as digitalization officers, enabling them to implement the requirements of digitalized health care within their practices. Methods As part of an accompanying study, the course is evaluated by the participants, and the change in their digital literacy is recorded. We measured different knowledge, skills, and attitude dimensions at 3 different times—before, during, and after the course—and used ANOVA to examine significant changes. Results Digi-Managers started the course with an already high self-assessment of their digital literacy. Skills and knowledge increased significantly in all categories (cognitive, technical, ethical, and health information) from the initial to the final measurement, as did self-confidence in the use of general software and hardware. Positive attitude remained stable over the training period, and the course was rated very positively by participants across all areas. Conclusions Training programs on digital topics for health care professionals are necessary, and this certification course is a role model for successful further education through a mixture of theoretical knowledge transfer and practical application. Especially, the use of a digital maturity model and a digital laboratory was a unique and useful feature. Further research needs to go into alternative assessment methods of digital literacy, as the results suggest that self-assessment measures self-efficacy and confidence, rather than pure competence. Nevertheless, the increase in self-assessed competence suggests that the training was successful.