In its 2018 report, The Digital Enterprise: Moving from experimentation to transformation, the World Economic Forum (WEF) projected that companies will spend $1.2 trillion this year on digital transformation in their organizations, and yet 99% of these dollars will fail to deliver the desired impact.[i] WEF also predicted that 65% of today’s children will work in new job types that don’t yet exist.[ii] Industries and workforces are changing so rapidly, it will become increasingly difficult for academic institutions to provide hands-on learning that is relevant, applicable, and prepares students and professionals for the many careers they will have during their lifetime.
“The time is now to educate and drive awareness of the impending realities of the future. For the well-being of our state, we need to teach our students and our professionals about the principles of digital transformation,” says Michael Levy, President of DHIT and the instructor of a course at UNC-Chapel Hill that began in Fall 2019—Introduction to Digital Transformation. “Digital has made information readily accessible and automation inevitable. Education in the 21st century will not depend on handing down of knowledge, but rather, training students to ask the right questions and deploy a next-generation operating model to accomplish change in their organizations and personal lives.”
The Digital Revolution is transforming the way we live and work–from waterfall to agile; from technology-driven to human-centered; from point solutions to end-to-end; from fragmented to integrated; and from employed to freelance. The course is designed to provide an overview and introduction to transformational principles for individuals, organizations, and industry ecosystems. In preparation for trends brought on by The Digital Revolution, students will explore new models of engagement, persona discovery, value mapping, and systems thinking to anchor them to the critical attributes of the Digital Revolution.
DHIT’s course also focuses on the direct application of an operating model that takes students and professionals through the process of problem discovery, defining the root of problems, applying human-centered design principles to solve against those problems, and developing solutions using agile and lean principles. These skillsets are becoming increasingly valuable in the 21st century as every industry transitions into the digital age, including the healthcare industry.
The $3.2 trillion healthcare system in the US is ripe for transformation, as the presence of chronic disease leads to soaring costs and health systems look to technologies to better manage the health of the patients they serve. The World Health Organization found that depression is the largest single cause of disability worldwide, affecting a projected 264 million people.[iii] The International Diabetes Federation projects that within the next two decades, 642 million people will be diagnosed with diabetes.[iv] “This is no time to be timid. Today’s healthcare system is simply not delivering outcomes commensurate with its cost,” said Alex M. Azar II, Secretary of the US Department of Health and Human Services.[v]
“DHIT’s vision is to prepare all students and professionals for digital transformation. Considering the critical role technology plays in healthcare, DHIT sees the need to create a new type of role—the Health Architect—who can work with individuals to design their lives with a focus on WHO they are instead of WHAT condition they have,” says Levy. “We are in talks with several academic institutions to create new academic programs that will build a Health Architect workforce to deploy across the globe.”
Interested in learning more about bringing the course to your academic institution or workforce?
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ABOUT DHIT
The Digital Health Institute for Transformation (DHIT) is a 501(c)(3) non-profit education and research institute supporting communities through the process of digital health transformation. We collaborate with leading academic institutions, associations, and industry to cultivate talent and ecosystems with our immersive learning platform, harnessing real-world experiences that drive the adoption of next generation skills, emerging technologies, and mindsets needed to foster the digital health leaders and innovators of the future, today. For more information, visit dhitglobal.org.
If you would like more information on this topic, please contact Brian Cooper at brian@dhitglobal.org.
[i] https://www.weforum.org/reports/the-digital-enterpise-moving-from-experimentation-to-transformation
[ii] http://reports.weforum.org/future-of-jobs-2016/chapter-1-the-future-of-jobs-and-skills/#view/fn-1
[iii] https://www.who.int/health-topics/depression#tab=tab_1
[iv] https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/diacare/39/7/1186.full.pdf
[v] https://www.managedhealthcareexecutive.com/hospitals-providers/hhs-secretary-azar-says-its-not-time-be-timid-pursuing-value