JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

While the expansion of technology into healthcare has created opportunities for significant innovation in care, these advances cannot be equitably leveraged unless patients have adequate access to both technology and foundational technical skills. This has necessitated the creation of human support roles (Digital Health Navigators) to facilitate patient uptake of digital health tools through digital literacy training and technological resource connection. To support the proliferation of this role in healthcare, our team and the Society of Digital Psychiatry has developed an updated Digital Health Navigator training intended to equip a member of a healthcare team with the pedagogical, technical, and interpersonal competencies necessary to support patients' technology use. Across four modules, this training protocol introduces the core functions of Digital Health Navigators through activity-based learning, allowing trainees to develop and integrate those competencies experientially. To certify the competency of trainees, the training protocol includes rubric-based, trainer-led evaluations. Although certain challenges to the expansion of Digital Health Navigator roles still exist, this training protocol serves as a baseline set of materials that organizations seeking to adapt the role can customize to their specific ends.