eHealth education of professionals in the Baltic Sea Area

In this paper we present a study on the extent, level and content of e-Health in existing formal educational systems in Lithuania, Germany, Finland, Norway and Denmark with the objectives of identifying future educational needs within this area. The study was carried out as a desk-top study and took place within the context of the ICT for Health project. The results of the study on the one hand revealed a wide range of programs and courses that included e-Health, but on the other hand also showed that in the educations of health care professionals (physicians, nurses etc.) the integration of e-Health elements are often marginal or non-existing. Thus the study indicates that there is a need for a higher integration of e-Health in the education of health care professionals. We discuss what kind of knowledge of e-Health is needed and how it could or should be integrated in these educations. We argue that providing possibilities for applying and experimenting with e-Health system in a concrete and tangible manner is central in order to raise the acceptance and capabilities of health care professionals to use e-Health systems.