On 1 September 2025, the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region published an evidence-based 13-page policy brief on speeding up the take-up of digital solutions among members of the health and care workforce in Europe. This short brief outlines key findings and analysis, six possible policy options, considerations for implementation, and a set of conclusions.

Exploring the post-COVID situation, this 2025 policy brief draws largely on two sources: academic literature dating chiefly to the 2022-2023 time-period; and a 2022 survey on digital health in the WHO European region, published in 2023.

Barriers and main findings

Today, a number of barriers to scale-up of digital health technology use by health and care workforce personnel still need to be overcome in European countries. They include: infrastructure; training; time availability; workload; difficulties with ethics; and legal and technical factors.

Main findings:

• Successful digital transformation involves complex organisational change.
• A strong and visible innovation-fostering digital leadership is instrumental.
• Digital solutions uptake is closely linked to the improvement of digital literacy.
• Benefit evaluation is needed as is inclusion of workforce and patient groups in design, testing, and implementation.
• Digital health strategies are proven drivers of coherent policies.
• Evidence on barriers/facilitators of workforce education is limited (especially in relation to AI, machine learning, and augmented reality).

Overall, limited numbers of medically-related workforce personnel receive in-service digital health use training.

Source: WHO (2023) – Digital Health in the European Region

Key policy recommendations

Many factors are overlooked when countries develop their national approaches to increase health and care workforce digital health technology use. While many policies address technical factors, far fewer consider operational management, organisational, or human aspects. Countries are therefore recommended to consider six potential policy solutions.

Key policy recommendations:

• Assess current digital skills of healthcare workforce.
• Develop effective, comprehensive policies addressing all barriers.
• Improve workforce digital literacy and institutionalise digital literacy training in curricula (e.g., in undergraduate courses and in continuing professional development).
• Provide incentives for workforce digital health technologies use.
• Deliver tailored workforce training programmes.
• Monitor and evaluate digital health technology impact, regularly and with user input.

Implementation considerations

These practical tips are useful for countries to bear in mind too.

Implementation considerations:

• Alignment with health system objectives.
• Sustainable funding for digital literacy programmes.
• Recognition of complex organisational changes required.
• Trust-building actions.
• Prevention of any widening of digital divides (e.g., through recognition of which population groups are likely to experience inadequate digital training).

To conclude

The brief especially highlights that more than technology-related factors need to be addressed. It especially highlights the need for undergraduate training and for continuing professional development for health and care workforces. Incentives are needed that match local digital health training and address the concerns and uncertainties of health professionals.

There is overall a good fit between this policy brief and the Declaration of the WHO European Region made two years ago in Kazakhstan in October 2023. Therefore, let’s look out for the mid-term assessment to be undertaken in 2027 on advances made with the workforce!