Physician Assistant on Video Call with Patient
Beginning January 2024, students in the Pitt Doctor of PA Studies (DPAS) program will be able to register for the nation’s first digital health course offered to physician assistant (PA) students. Vice Chair for Innovation and Professor Dipu Patel who is leading the course says, “The curriculum was designed to harness the most current topics and trends in digital health and use them to inform and prepare students to improve their practice and care. This space continues to rapidly evolve and therefore, this course will continue to evolve as new tools, technologies, and research come to light.”
Learn more from Patel about this exciting new PA elective and how the innovation of Pitt faculty continues to raise the level of expertise for current and future health care providers.
1. What drove the Pitt DPAS program to add this new elective? Does it follow trends and new demands of the physician assistant profession?
As the health care landscape continues to evolve, we have to continually adapt and improve our practice to offer the highest quality of patient care. The digital health elective does exactly that: it takes quality improvement science and infuses digital health technology into the processes and workflows that we use every day. Today, every health care professional uses digital health in some way, shape or form--whether it is using electronic medical records (EMRs), telehealth or artificial intelligence and machine learning algorithms--we are actively engaging with the tools. The goal of this elective is to make students aware of the technology and how best to use it to improve not only patient care but also the daily work of caregiving.
The PA profession is poised to lead digital health initiatives in their place of practice and this course is designed to teach them that technology can be harnessed to improve outcomes at every level.
2. What can the student expect to learn from the course?
The student will be introduced to digital health including definitions, benefits and challenges of the various digital health technologies as well as their impact on patient care and clinical practice. We will discuss key factors that influence adoption and implementation of digital health into clinical practice. Health care providers must anticipate and adapt to the constantly changing digital world so we will also analyze future trends in digital health and their potential impact on future clinical practice.
My hope is that we will continue to build on this course to offer others that truly speak to the robustness of physician assistant practice.
3. The other two DPAS electives (administration and academic) provide graduates with specific outcomes. What outcomes will the digital health elective provide graduates?
We have designed this specialty elective so that after graduating from the program, the DPAS student will be uniquely qualified to bring these skills into their clinical practice:
- Define digital health and explain its potential benefits and challenges
- Describe the types of digital health technologies and their application in health care
- Discuss the factors that influence digital health adoption and implementation including--but not limited to--patient engagement, digital literacy, digital health regulations, law and policy, and privacy and security
- Analyze future trends in digital health and the potential impact on the health care landscape
4. What are you most excited for our graduates who take this elective?
We are living in an exciting time in health care. Health care professionals are catching up to technology and its value and patients are demanding it. What is most exciting is the potential of digital health to improve access to care and improve quality of care while empowering patients. For our graduates, this means that they will be better prepared to care for their patients no matter where they are or what technology they use. DPAS graduates are ready to lead the teams that will revolutionize how and where care is delivered using digital health tools to improve patient care.
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Interested in the Doctor of PA Studies program or the new Digital Health elective? Read more on the DPAS website or contact Dipu Patel, vice chair for Innovation and professor in the DPAS program, and Mary Allias, associate professor and director of the DPAS program.
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Written by:
Dipu Patel, DMSc, MPAS, PA-C
Professor and Vice Chair for Innovation, Doctor of PA Studies Program
Department of PA Studies (PAS)
(412) 624-6743 | dip59@pitt.edu | LinkedIn
Mary C Allias, EdD, MPAS, PA-C, DFAAPA
Associate Professor and Director, Doctor of PA Studies Program
Department of PA Studies (PAS) | LinkedIn
(412) 624-6742 | MAllias1@pitt.edu
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Published August 29, 2023