Shaping the Future of Digital Health Education in Canada: Prioritizing Competencies for Health Care Professionals Using the Quintuple Aim

Abstract

The integration of digital health and informatics competencies into health care education in Canada is essential for preparing a workforce capable of leveraging health care technologies to enhance care delivery and patient outcomes. Despite significant advancements, the current educational landscape in digital health remains inconsistent, characterized by fragmented curricula and uneven competency attainment. Addressing these gaps requires an innovative reframing of digital health competencies guided by a robust, outcomes-oriented framework. These authors propose the Quintuple Aim as an effective framework for outlining and organizing digital health and informatics competencies, focusing simultaneously on improving patient experience, enhancing population health, reducing health care costs, improving health care provider experience, and advancing health equity. Each dimension of the Quintuple Aim provides a critical lens for identifying, prioritizing, and contextualizing core competencies. Within the "patient experience" aim, competencies prioritize patient-centered technology use, including digital literacy, privacy awareness, and the ability to empower patients through technology. "Healthcare provider experience" competencies prioritize usability, workflow integration, and strategies to mitigate technology-related burnout. Under "population health," competencies emphasize data-driven decision-making, analytics, and health informatics to support effective public health interventions. Competencies associated with "cost reduction" focus on operational efficiency, resource optimization, and economic evaluation of digital health solutions. Finally, "health equity" competencies emphasize inclusivity, cultural safety, and the elimination of digital divides, ensuring equitable access to digital health technologies. Potential assessment strategies aligned with each competency area are highlighted, emphasizing formative and summative evaluations that include simulation-based assessments, real-world technology integration projects, and reflective practice portfolios. By applying the Quintuple Aim as a guiding structure, digital health education can achieve greater standardization, clarity, and alignment with health care system needs, while simultaneously allowing for tailored adaptations responsive to specific regional and institutional priorities. This paper introduces the Quintuple Aim as a guiding framework to comprehensively identify and organize core digital health and informatics competencies for health professional education.

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