The H-PASS project aims to support healthcare professionals in adapting to the digital transformation of the sector by strengthening their digital and transversal skills. As a result of close collaboration between international partners, the H-PASS consortium has developed a comprehensive training programme designed to equip health workers with the competencies needed to navigate an increasingly digital healthcare environment.
1. Co-Creation Across Borders
The H-PASS training was co-created by a diverse consortium including partners from Italy, Cyprus, Greece, Lithuania, Romania, and Hungary. Each organisation contributed its expertise in healthcare management, education, and digital innovation, making the training both academically sound and practically relevant.
2. Building the Foundation: Research and Needs Analysis
The development process began with two key activities that formed the backbone of this phase:
a central desk research, analysing over 80 academic and policy documents on the digital and transversal skill needs of the health workforce and a country-level mapping across six partner countries, which reviewed 38 existing training programmes and identified national priorities, best practices, and gaps.
The research highlighted that digital skills must be developed in tandem with transversal competencies such as communication, teamwork, leadership, and problem-solving. This insight became a cornerstone of the H-PASS training design.
3. From Evidence to Concept: Designing a Modular Framework
Partners transformed research insights into a modular training structure that can be adapted across different national contexts while maintaining a shared European foundation.
The training consists of four core modules:
Leading Digital Transformation
Communication, Teams and Culture in Digital Times
Improving Processes in the Healthcare System
Data in Healthcare
Each module integrates three learning dimensions – digital, transversal, and action – ensuring that knowledge, skills, and attitudes are developed simultaneously through practice-oriented activities.
4. Turning the Concept into Practice: The Training Plan
The H-PASS team created a comprehensive 40-hour training plan, translating the conceptual framework into a detailed and engaging learning pathway. The programme applies a blended learning approach, combining: interactive e-learning content, individual and group tasks, synchronous (online or onsite) training sessions, and an innovative Virtual Reality (VR) component that allows participants to apply their skills in a realistic, scenario-based situation.
The use of VR technology is one of the programme’s most distinctive features, enabling experiential learning and formative assessment in an immersive environment.
All exercises were designed to follow a shared set of Learning Outcomes (LeOs), assessment principles, and implementation rules ensures a balance between international standardisation and local adaptability.
5. What’s next?
Following the successful pilot implementation, the H-PASS training has already demonstrated its value in strengthening the digital readiness and collaborative mindset of healthcare professionals.
Building on these positive results, the consortium will share the experiences and continue refining and expanding the programme to support a future-proof European health workforce.