Digital health and wellbeing: The case for broadening the EU DigComp framework.

Abstract

Digital health and wellbeing are highly contested terms and range from carefully costed and evaluated software systems designed for patients to access their doctor; evidence-based mobile applications for supporting those living with long term health conditions such as diabetes; to the Coronavirus travel applications (app) developed to enable societies to come together post-pandemic. By way of contrast, numerous mental health ‘apps’ with tracking algorithms enabling individual personal data to be commercialized and sold on to third parties lack a robust evidence base and are problematic. Against a fast-changing backdrop, the European Union (EU) launched the revision of their Digital Framework Digital Competence (DigComp 2.2) in February of 2022. This paper reports on the findings of the ‘Safety and Security’ working group and their recommendations for the digital knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSA) required for EU citizens negotiating a complex and constantly changing health sector.