[Challenges of digital competence in the public health department: findings from a real-world laboratory].

Publication date: Dec 16, 2025

Not least since the COVID-19-pandemic, digitalization has become increasingly important for the work of the public health service (PHS) in order to ensure the functionality at all levels of the PHS such as the exchange of information between health authorities themselves and other stakeholders. The digital skills of employees in the local health authority (LHA) are an important factor for the digitalization und functionality of the PHS. This paper uses the example of a health authority to examine the question of what digital competence or digital skills public health service employees have and need. The digital skills were assessed using questionnaires for employees and IT contact persons as well as by analysing employee requests to the IT (IT ticket system). In a participatory approach of the real-world lab, employees of a LHA were involved in defining the basic level of digital skills and developing the survey methods. Almost all of the 37 participating employees rated their general digital skills at the basic level. Depending on the specific skill, between a quarter and all employees stated that they had mastered the specific skills at the basic level. Requests to both the IT contact persons and the IT ticket system were almost exclusively below the basic level. Face-to-face training is preferred for knowledge transfer. Lack of time has an inhibiting effect on the acquisition of digital skills. It turned out that employees overestimated their general digital skills. Digital skills should be assessed using various surveys and methods. A training concept should consider the basic digital skills, the sensitivity of this topic, the time required and personal assistance.

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