Digital Literacy of Medical Workers: Analysis of the Influence of External and Internal Factors

Introduction. Insufficient experience and knowledge of doctors in the field of digital medicine is called the most important barrier to the introduction of e-health, along with insufficient technical base and limited funding Materials and methods. The cross-sectional study was conducted in April-May 2024 by interviewing practicing physicians. The level of basic and specialized digital competencies was assessed, as well as the level of anxiety according to the method of C.D. Spielberger. Statistical processing was performed in jamovi ver. 2.3.28 and MS Excel. Results. The total number of respondents was 420, 96.6% were women. The average age of the participants was 38.8±8.7 years. 46% and 42.2% of the respondents have a high level of situational and personal anxiety. Doctors have the greatest difficulty using remote monitoring technology and mobile healthcare capabilities (11% and 13.8% have no difficulties). About a third of doctors (from 31.9% to 38.8%) are unfamiliar with the use of modern digital technologies in medicine. It turned out that the higher the anxiety, the lower the basic (-0.24, p<0.001) and specialized skills (-0.14, p=0.004). When comparing the groups, it turned out that in the groups with high anxiety, the degree of mastery of specific digital skills was lower than in the group with low anxiety (17 (12-21) points and 21 (14-26) points, p=0.003 in a pairwise comparison). Conclusion. The rapid development of the digitalization of the healthcare system requires doctors to master a high level of skills in working with IT tools. Proper use of electronic systems and proper management of medical records are the most important factors ensuring safe and high-quality medical care.