Digital health competencies among pharmacy students and practitioners: A post-intervention evaluation for participant perceived knowledge, attitudes, and confidence.
Abstract
INTRODUCTION As digital health tool use accelerates, clinicians are expected to make data-informed decisions despite limited formal training. This study aimed to address the training gap by assessing a digital health fair's potential to facilitate digital health tool integration into clinical practice and by evaluating digital health competencies of student pharmacists and pharmacists following participation in an innovative digital health fair.
Methods
Participants attended a brief introductory lecture then rotated through five interactive stations featuring 10 digital health products and visual displays of their data outputs. Each station demonstrated the device, presented an example patient case, and provided practical tips to improve patient outcomes. Immediately following the fair, participants completed a survey evaluating their pre- and post-intervention knowledge, attitude, skills, and confidence surrounding digital health. Survey responses were evaluated using descriptive statistics.
Results
Thirty-four student pharmacists and sixteen pharmacists completed the survey. Across all measures, there was a significant increase in both knowledge and confidence mean scores (p < .001) from pre- to post-intervention. Participants indicated greater confidence in discussing digital health tools with patients, recommending appropriate solutions, addressing data privacy concerns, and higher confidence integrating biometric outputs from digital health tools. Student pharmacists and practicing clinicians expressed similar knowledge gains, while practicing pharmacists responded with greater confidence gains for integrating and applying digital health technology into their practice settings (all items p < .05).
Conclusions
An innovative digital health fair improved both student pharmacists' and pharmacists' reported knowledge, attitudes, and confidence, integrating digital health tools and services into patient care environments.